Having issues with PS Elements 3.0

Kavika

I need some help! EZ Prints recently notified me via Smugmug that a print was too yellow, and I could not see that from my file on my laptop, which set off a round of questions to Andy, who pointed me here for help. I downloaded and tried to install the ICC profile from EZ Prints, but that is not an option in Elements. I also can not see my cmyk settings as Elements only shows RGB and HSB (whatever that is.) So the question is, how can I make settings adjustments in Elements to optimize my printing results? I shoot child portraits outdoors with my Nikon D50 and do minimal tweaking with Elements. To see examples of my work, just type my name into smugmug's search field. Thanks in advance to anyone who can offer suggestions! David Gellatly

richtersl

Kavika wrote:

I need some help! EZ Prints recently notified me via Smugmug that a print was too yellow, and I could not see that from my file on my laptop, which set off a round of questions to Andy, who pointed me here for help. I downloaded and tried to install the ICC profile from EZ Prints, but that is not an option in Elements. I also can not see my cmyk settings as Elements only shows RGB and HSB (whatever that is.) So the question is, how can I make settings adjustments in Elements to optimize my printing results? I shoot child portraits outdoors with my Nikon D50 and do minimal tweaking with Elements. To see examples of my work, just type my name into smugmug's search field. Thanks in advance to anyone who can offer suggestions! David Gellatly

I'm new to these types of problems too but I learned something from a photo dealer this week which may apply to you. This guy does his own printing and was asking me if photos I wanted him to enlarge had sRGB or Adobe RGB color management set up. According to him, most commercial places that do printing use sRGB color management and if you give him a photo that you've set up with Adobe RGB, it can cause color variations in your prints. Adobe RGB uses a larger color space than sRGB and when you "downsize" the color space, it can create problems. Logically, the reverse would hold also true as well, then. This would be one reason why the photo looks fine on your computer and looks off when it gets printed.

I don't know if this is the case for you or not, or if I've even explained it correctly. But it's worth checking out.

Open a photo in Elements 3.0 and click on Edit > Color Settings. You should either have Limited Color Management or No Color Management checked. Also check your photo's Exif info. They all need to be in agreement with one another.

Kavika

Thanks Linda. I'm going to post the question of RGB vs sRGB to the group and see what the Smugmug printer EZ Prints wants from us for best prints.

richtersl wrote:

I'm new to these types of problems too but I learned something from a photo dealer this week which may apply to you. This guy does his own printing and was asking me if photos I wanted him to enlarge had sRGB or Adobe RGB color management set up. According to him, most commercial places that do printing use sRGB color management and if you give him a photo that you've set up with Adobe RGB, it can cause color variations in your prints. Adobe RGB uses a larger color space than sRGB and when you "downsize" the color space, it can create problems. Logically, the reverse would hold also true as well, then. This would be one reason why the photo looks fine on your computer and looks off when it gets printed.

I don't know if this is the case for you or not, or if I've even explained it correctly. But it's worth checking out.

Open a photo in Elements 3.0 and click on Edit > Color Settings. You should either have Limited Color Management or No Color Management checked. Also check your photo's Exif info. They all need to be in agreement with one another.

jfriend

Stick with sRGB

Kavika wrote:

Thanks Linda. I'm going to post the question of RGB vs sRGB to the group and see what the Smugmug printer EZ Prints wants from us for best prints.

EZ Prints wants sRGB, not AdobeRGB. If you upload an AdobeRGB image to Smugmug (starting fairly recently) Smugmug will convert it to sRGB for you so that it will look right on the web and so it will print optimally via EZ Prints. If you have not studied colorspaces in detail and understand all the issues with printing and sharing on the web, you should absolutely stick with sRGB because it's hard to make a mistake with sRGB and easy to make a mistake with AdobeRGB.

dancorder

If it looks OK on your screen after uploading to SmugMug then that suggests the problem is that your screen is not calibrated. It's not something I've done so I can't be a lot of help but you can buy various bits of hardware that sit on your monitor and calibrate it for you.

You could also look at this which should allow you to see if your skin tones are about right without having to change your monitor.

http://www.smugmug.com/help/skin-tone

Hope that helps.