i2e is this more compatible with smugmug?

ann404

Hi,
Well I'm loving the smugmug site but I just got back my first set of pictures and I'm not too happy, but I'm pretty sure it's on my end. I was trying to use photoshop CS to process some negative film that I scanned. On the monitor it looked ok, but the prints I got back left my fair skinned baby looking olive, her reddish hue gone. So I downloaded that i2e program that I see mentioned a lot. My thinking is I am horrible in photoshop to begain with so could this program do it all for me and get acceptable results when printed in true mode??
Now I'm also very concerned if this program works the same way as photoshop, or is it lowering my j-peg quality? I save all jpegs at the highest quality with a progressive scan. I never compress, or lower the resolution, or image size. So is this program perserving my files perfectly, or is this a program simply for printing?? Hope someone can help, ann

ziggy53

ann404 wrote:

Hi,
Well I'm loving the smugmug site but I just got back my first set of pictures and I'm not too happy, but I'm pretty sure it's on my end. I was trying to use photoshop CS to process some negative film that I scanned. On the monitor it looked ok, but the prints I got back left my fair skinned baby looking olive, her reddish hue gone. So I downloaded that i2e program that I see mentioned a lot. My thinking is I am horrible in photoshop to begain with so could this program do it all for me and get acceptable results when printed in true mode??
Now I'm also very concerned if this program works the same way as photoshop, or is it lowering my j-peg quality? I save all jpegs at the highest quality with a progressive scan. I never compress, or lower the resolution, or image size. So is this program perserving my files perfectly, or is this a program simply for printing?? Hope someone can help, ann

Ann, welcome to the Digital Grin.

The first thing is to get control of your images. I highly recommend you start to process images with flesh tones "by-the-numbers".

Take a look at this brief tutorial and see if you can balance the flesh tone colors in PS CS first, then adjust your monitor to match.

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

It might also help to load and reference image targets that have accurate colors:

Print reference image from Colour-Science (large file):
http://www.colour-science.com/quality%20test%20tools/test%20files/Reference%20Print%20printer%202362x3543pixel.jpg

Screen reference image:
http://www.colour-science.com/quality%20test%20tools/test%20files/Reference%20Print%20monitor%20900x600pixel.jpg

Other reference images:
http://www.pclwest.com/pclwest_monitor.jpg
http://www.hornphoto.com/images/monitor-target-image.jpg
http://www.photoproduction.com/download/FugiTarget.jpg
http://www.bullockpro.com/images/KodakPSTAR_V1_0_SRGB.jpg

arodney

ann404 wrote:

Hi,
On the monitor it looked ok, but the prints I got back left my fair skinned baby looking olive, her reddish hue gone.

First things first, do you have an instrument (colorimeter) to calibrate and profile the display? That's a must when working in Photoshop and other color management aware applications.