hello I'm Robin Whalley welcome to Lenscraft today we're looking at soft
proofing using on one photo rail 2020 whilst I'm using 2020 on one photo la
2018 was the first version with the soft proofing and works in the same way soft
proofing is a process used to prepare an image for printing we need to do this
because the colors and the brightness of our image won't match our screens when
printed let's take one of my images as an example the first step was to
calibrate my screen so that I know what I see is an accurate representation of
the image I then applied my adjustments and corrections to the image and it now
looks the way I want it to you can see the original image if I toggle the
preview off if I hadn't calibrated my screen I could be looking at an orange
in the clouds when in fact the clouds are red in the image when I printed the
image if the cloud came out red I might blame the printer rather than the screen
that's why using a calibrated monitor is important now assuming my screen is
accurately displaying the image if I just print it the prints still wouldn't
match what I'm seeing on screen that's because the printer and paper I use
can't reproduce the same colors and tones as my screen how different the
results appear depend on the printer and paper and type of ink that I'm using the
way to check what the print will look like before we print the image is wear
soft proofing comes in when I soft proof the image on one simulates the printed
image on the screen the soft proof allows me to check and make further
adjustments so that the print looks how I want it to if you're thinking this
doesn't apply to you because you send your photos to a lab to print I've got
bad news the same problem exists with every
printer even those used by labs it's because the computer screens can
typically represent more colors and tones than paper and printers no you
understand why soft proofing is important let's look at the soft
proofing feature Zenon one because soft proofing involves adjust
ding an image you'll find it in the edit module you can toggle it on and off
using the enable soft proofing option in the View menu when I turn it on you'll
see the background around the preview changes to white this helps you imagine
how the image looks when is printed to white paper the colors of the background
affect how we perceive the image it therefore makes sense that we should
match it to the color of the paper next I need to select the printer profile to
use for soft proofing in the View menu the printer profile is an information
file that instructs the software how to simulate the printer and paper
combination you are using each printer profile is unique to the combination of
printer module ink and paper you're using you must select the one that
matches what you're printing with currently I have three prints or
profiles loaded if I wanted to use a different profile I'd need to load it
using the menu option the three profiles I have a third different photo speed
papers but all of them use an epson stylus pro 3 a tato printer when i
change between the profiles you can see the soft proof change to show how the
print looks on that paper notice how both the brightness and the colors
change just by changing the paper that's why it's critical to use the correct
profile for your printer and paper combination you can't substitute a
different profile because it produces the wrong result
the reason the color and the brightness both changed when I change the profile
is because the different papers represent colors and tones differently
some papers will shift the color to look warmer or cooler than it is equally some
papers can't reproduce a deep light the way that a screen can the result is a
print that looks different to your screen to help see this difference use
the simulate paper and ink option in the View menu when we use this the soft
proof preview tries to simulate the paper and ink used for a print what
you're now seeing is how your print will look when it comes out
the printer notice how the colors aren't are saturated and the blacks a much
lighter that's because we're simulating the photo speed Matt ultra paper and
matte papers struggled to reproduce deep blacks if I switch the profile now for
photo speed natural soft texture you'll see the colors become warmer but blacks
are still light because it's another matte paper but if I switch to a profile
for a brighter paper which isn't matte you'll see a deeper black I can also
toggle the soft proofing off and on using the icon at the bottom of the
screen you'll notice there isn't much difference between the original image
and the brighter soft proof this is one reason why some people say they never
need too soft proof and their prints always match the screens we can also
check to see which colors and tongues our paper is struggling to reproduce by
turning on the gamut warning in the View menu on one then highlights the problem
areas in red these are the colors and tongues that's a falling out of gamut
when a color or tones out of gamut it's either a color that can't be reproduced
using your printer and paper or it's a tone that's too dark or too light for
the chosen printer and paper if I switch to the natural soft texture printer
profile you'll see less problems in the bright colors but there's more problems
in the shadows that's because natural soft texture paper handles color and
tone differently to the brighter paper when a printer tries to print something
that's out of gamut in other words each counter accurately reproduce that color
or tone it still needs to print something if it didn't you'd have prints
full of gaps to do this it replaces the problem pixels with something it can
print it determines this using something called a rendering intent once there are
at least four rendering intents I can think of there are only two you probably
need to know and on one supports these the first is relative rendering this
replaces the out of gamut areas with the nearest color and tone the printer
paper can handle but whilst it changes these areas
it doesn't change any other area in the image the other rendering intent is
perceptual this fixes the out of gamut areas by redistributing all the image
colors and tones across the entire range the printer and paper can handle in this
image most of the problem areas are too dark for the paper the perceptual
rendering intent therefore makes the image appear brighter than the relative
intent because it lightens all the tones this preserves the relationship between
all the shadow tones which in this image is probably best alternatively you can
decide which of the two you like best and when you come to print select that
option if you're sending your prints to a lab it's best to check which rendering
intent they use if they don't know is probably best to assume it will be
perceptual rendering when I demonstrated the to rendering intents
you may have noticed I turned off the simulate paper and ink option that's
because the rendering intent doesn't work with that option turned on you
should now understand how your images will look when printed as well as how
the colors and tones will change if you don't like the way the soft proof looks
you have two choices first you could switch to a paper that comes better with
the image you're printing alternatively you could adjust the image to compensate
for the printing process in the next video I'll explain how to make these
changes I hope you found this video useful if you have please share it with
other online users and don't forget to subscribe
I'm Robin Walley you've been watching lenscraft I'll see you soon for another
video