Profile-ing one's equipment

[seawolf66]

I have a monitor color adjustment program , my printer I use the mfg software, now do I really need to get a scanner profile program, since I have a target 8x10 sheet , would that be good enough to get the colors working correctly by use-ing the adjustment in the scanner program!

My scanner is a Microtek 8700 film and flat sheet scanner, yes I am trying to avoid extra expense here! thanks

 

[mkochsch]

Setting up your monitor is the critical thing. For profiling your monitor the best bet is using a calibration device. I bought a second generation Graytag-MacBeth i-One off ebay for about a $100. It saved me that much in wasted ink and paper in about a month. You don't need to spend much more than that. To me calibrating the scanner has always been rather pointless since film is always subject to ambient light conditions you shoot under and you always needs to make colour balance and whitepoint adjustments manually anyway. Profiling colour negative material is also, pretty much, impossible. I think Wolf Faust only sells calibration targets for slide film and not colour negative material. If you're scanning a lot of reflective photos a calibration target may help a little, but I once went through the whole procedure and the factory icc profile from Epson was as good or better than the profile I came up with. Usually the weak point in the calibration chain is the printer output which is constantly at the whim of ink, paper and machinery. Calibrating your printer is a more expensive option. If you're printing work professionally it's definitely worth it though. I've found that for small print runs I send my work to a local lab via the web and their output is usually more consistent than my own.

 

[jd callow]

Excellent advice. Monitors need to be calibrated otherwise the rest is pointless. Scanners need to be kept within manufacturers spec's (this is done with a supplied card, trany or target of some sort) but don't need to (or can't) be calibrated too much beyond this. Printers need to have profiles built for every output material and even inkset and the they should be re tested often. In my experience even with good profiles you still need to dial in specific changes for most images. Building profiles is tough without the equipment on hand.

 

[donbga]

I think Wolf Faust only sells calibration targets for slide film and not color negative material.

There are no targets made for color negative materials and I've found profiling my scanner is worth the effort for transparencies.

The ICC paper profiles provided by Epson for their paper and inks works pretty good but a good custom paper profile can make a big difference if you are printing on a non OEM paper. So taking the time to make profiles does make a difference,

Don Bryant

 

[toyotadesigner]

Profiling colour negative material is also, pretty much, impossible.

Not necessarily. If you use one of the reflective targets (A4 size) and shoot every first frame of with film with it, you can calibrate your scanner with this first image for the rest of the film.

In most cases it's sufficient to calibrate once and scan many films of the same lot, unless you experience totally different light conditions (night shots with negative film and those yellow-green natrium steam lamps you often find in southern Europe's cities).

I have done this with each negative film before I completely switched to slide film.

To calibrate your monitor without investing into an expensive hard- & software solution you might try the Monitor Calibration Wizard:

http://www.hex2bit.com/products/product_mcw.asp

It's amazing how close you can calibrate your monitor(s) to the commercial solutions. Under normal (and changing) light conditions at your workspace it should be sufficient.