by Martin Bailey | May 29, 2017 | Fundamentals, Podcast, Videos
This week I’ve created a video to explain soft-proofing for print in Capture One Pro and Photoshop, in response to a question from Chris Moore. I’d been meaning to do a video on soft-proofing in Capture One Pro for a while, so thanks for the question Chris!
Soft proofing in Capture One Pro isn’t as useful as it could be, due to the lack of gamut warnings. But, I find that with modern printers doing such a good job of reproducing colors that the human eye perceives to be very close to the original colors in the photograph, even without being able to actually print some of those colors, means that the gamut warning has become a little too harsh.
It’s often not necessary to bring all of the colors in your photographs within gamut, to still get a very pleasing print, but I explain how we can go about that in both Capture One Pro and Adobe Photoshop. I start the video by showing you the difference between a number of key color spaces too, to hopefully make it obvious that we really don’t want to cram our beautiful images, with many more colors, into these smaller color spaces.
Here’s the video, and I’ve outlined some of the key things to keep in mind below too, so I hope you find this useful.
When soft-proofing in Capture One Pro, here are the things you need to check. I don’t go through all of these in the video, so I thought I’d list them here for your reference.
- Make sure you have the Viewer Color set to White under the Preferences > Appearance tab, to simulate a white paper border.
- Show the Proof Margin, and make sure it’s relatively large so that you can see your image surrounded by white.
- Install the ICC profile for your media and printer combination, or the profile that a third party lab uses if you will be sending the photos out for printing.
- If you are going to outsource your printing, create a Process Recipe for the required file format, TIFF or JPEG for example, and select the ICC profile for your media – Note that this is only for reference most of the time. You use it for the Soft-Proofing, and will generally export your actual files for printing with a third party printer in either JPEG or TIFF. If they accept TIFF, it’s always going to be better than JPEG.
- If you are printing yourself at home, there is no need to export the image at all, unless you will print from a different application than Capture One Pro – Note that I now do all of my printing from Capture One Pro, and I used to print from Lightroom when I was a Lightroom user. This enables me to print directly from my raw files.
- To soft proof all the time in Capture One Pro, based on the ICC profile for the selected Process Recipe, select View > Proof Profile > Selected Recipe.
- To only show the proof simulation when you want to, select View > Proof Profile > No Profile, and then click on the Spectacles icon in the toolbar, or press P to Show Recipe Proofing. (If P selects the next Process Recipe, click the image thumbnail and try again)
- If the image looks very different when you turn on Soft Proofing, consider changing the image using the Saturation, Clarity or other sliders, or adjusting specific colors using the Color Editor.
- Be sure to make a Clone Variant of your image before making these changes. You don’t want to change your original for the purpose of printing. Also, don’t try to adjust the image to look exactly the same as when Proofing is not turned on. The simulation is always a harsher than the reality of what will come out of the printer.
- If you have various choices of media, consider changing media for one with a wider gamut if possible. I often prefer matte, but gloss media generally has a wider gamut if gloss is an acceptible choice
Capture One Pro soft proofing doesn’t show you a gamut warning when the printer can physically not reproduce certain colors, so it’s sometimes difficult to spot issues or modify the image for print.
To actually see gamut warnings, open the image in Photoshop and go to View > Proof Setup > Custom and select your ICC profile as the Device to Simulate. I generally turn off Black Point Compensation as I usually don’t print with that turned on. Using Simulate Black Ink and also Simulate Paper Color can show the results too harshly, but it’s good to check to see the effects and get used to the difference.
To toggle Soft Proofing on and off, hit CMD + Y, and to view the gamut warnings hit SHIFT + CMD + Y. If there are large areas out of gamut, consider using the Saturation and Brightness filter as an Adjustment layer, and perhaps also create a mask for the areas that are out of gamut, rather than applying the changes to the entire image.
Something else to keep in mind though is that even with colors that are difficult to print, I often do a test print to see how bad things really are before changing the image specifically for print. With the printers I’ve used for the last few years, I’ve found more and more that we can just print the image, and it will look great. If you don’t see anything absolutely horrible in the Proof view, print it and see.
Unless you have specific instructions from a third party printing company to output your image with a certain ICC profile embedded, you don’t need to export or save the image with the ICC profile embedded. Most print services will specify a file format, such as JPEG or TIFF, and a profile to use, such as Adobe RGB or sRGB. When there’s a choice, always use Adobe RGB over sRGB for files to send to a printer.
Anyway, take a look at the video, and if you have any question, leave a comment below.
Please note that due to changes in Phase One, the discount code that I mentioned in the Podcast is no longer valid. If you are not sure it’s for you, download Capture One Pro here and give it a try for a full 30 days to see if it’s for you before you take the plunge.
Also, the software that I used to visualize the ICC profiles as color spaces is ColorThink Pro from Chromix, which you can get here:
http://www.chromix.com/colorthink/pro/
Show Notes
ColorThink Pro: http://www.chromix.com/colorthink/pro/
You can download Capture One Pro here: https://mbp.ac/c1download
Video
There isn’t much point in making the tiny iPhone format video available for direct download. If you want an offline copy of the video, you can download it from Vimeo.
Subscribe in iTunes for Enhanced Podcasts delivered automatically to your computer.
by Martin Bailey | Sep 15, 2014 | Podcast, Tutorial, Videos
This week I share a video tutorial showing how to shoot for and create a focus stacked image in Photoshop using a focusing rail. Focus stacking can be a lot of fun, and is often the only way to get everything in focus in macro photography due to the extremely shallow depth-of-field at when focusing at such close distances.
Note that there is currently a bug in Photoshop 15.1 (CC 2014.1) that prevents this feature from working properly. If you want to give this a try, you might have to downgrade Photoshop (with great difficulty) or wait for Photoshop 15.2 (CC 2014.2) which will hopefully fix the issue.
The focussing rail I use in this video is the Really Right Stuff Macro Focusing Rail B150B-LMT-Pkg: For collared macro lenses
Here’s the video in Full HD, so go full screen to view.
Here is the resulting photograph. Note a great shot, but you can see how the entire flower head is now in crisp focus because we merged all of the sharp areas from each image in Photoshop.
Sunflower Focus Stack
Show Notes
Really Right Stuff Macro Focusing Rail B150B-LMT-Pkg: For collared macro lenses
Audio
Subscribe in iTunes for Enhanced Podcasts delivered automatically to your computer.
Download this Podcast in small iPhone video format. Note that you can download the full sized video from Vimeo.
by Martin Bailey | Jul 21, 2014 | Podcast, Tutorial, Videos
In this week’s podcast, I’m going to show you how to make an animated GIF in Photoshop from a series of photographs. This is a simple technique but seems to be somewhat hidden in the depths of Photoshop, so I hope this is useful for some of you.
Here’s a brief run-down of the steps, but it will be much easier to just watch the video below.
- Select the images that you want to animate in Lightroom, then right-click and from the shortcut menu, select Edit > Open as Layers in Photoshop…
- To open the files directly in Photoshop select File > Automate > Photomerge… (Turn of Blend Images Together, and Photoshop will then auto-align the images for you during the import.)
- If you opened your images a layers from Lightroom, select all layers in the Layer panel, then select Edit > Auto-Align Layers.
- Check each layer to see how much the images have moved during the auto-alignment, and crop the image down as necessary.
- Select Window > Timeline
- Select Create Frame Animation in the Timeline panel
- Duplicate the first frame in the Timeline panel and hide the next layer, then repeat this until you have a frame for each layer of your photograph.
- Change the frame order for best effect if necessary
- Ensure that you specify for the animation to loop forever
- Adjust the frame time to taste
- Select File > Save for Web… and select GIF, ensuring that you use as few colors as necessary to keep the file size down, then the image resize as necessary during the export (there’s a screenshot of this below).
- On a Mac you can preview your animated GIF in the Finder, or just drag the file to an open in a browser to view – Voila!
One word of caution though, is that you need to be somewhat careful how you share these animations. Some people will automatically unfollow you if you start to share animated GIFs on social networks, because they’ve got a reputation for being a bit spammy, and they use up a lot of system resources to display in the browser. If you know your audience then you can share them, but do so sparingly. 🙂
Anyway, here’s the video walkthrough. I hope you find this useful.
Here’s the resulting animated GIF file, scaled down for the blog.
Kingfisher Animated GIF
Here too is a screenshot of the Save for Web settings panel.
Save for Web Settings
And this is my favorite frame from the series. 🙂
Hovering Kingfisher
And don’t forget, I’m running another Pixels 2 Pigment In-Studio workshop here in Tokyo on August 23/24, 2014, so if you are in town then, I’d love to see you. For details and to book your space, please visit the Pixels 2 Pigment page.
Show Notes
Pixels 2 Pigment Workshop information: https://mbp.ac/p2p
Video
Subscribe in iTunes for Enhanced Podcasts delivered automatically to your computer.
Download this Podcast as a small MP4 Video format for the iPhone etc.
by Martin Bailey | Apr 12, 2014 | Art Talk, Interview, Podcast
Today I chat with commercial photographer and the king of compositing, Josh Rossi, in a fascinating interview in which Josh shares some of his compositing skills and business acumen. Based in Salt Lake City, Utah, Josh really does take his photography to a whole new level with his creativity and mad Photoshop skills.
Use this audio player if you’d prefer to listen:
This episode is brought to you by lynda.com. Learn lighting, portraiture, Photoshop skills, and more from expert-taught video courses. To start your 7-day free trial, visit lynda.com/mbp.
As this was an interview there is no manuscript this week, but here are some of the questions that I posed to Josh, to give you an idea of what we discussed.
- Tell us about yourself and how you started and came to create such fantastic work.
- How much time goes into one of your images, starting from the shoot(s) and working through to the finished image?
- Where do you get your ideas or inspiration for your images?
- I saw on your site that you were working on your composites for a year and a half before you showed anyone your work. Why was that?
- Are there any special tools that you use in your editing?
- Do you ever license images, like for example an explosion, for use in your composites, or do you shoot every element yourself?
- Tell us about Composite Planet?
- What advice can you give to someone that wants to start to create composite images?
- Can you give my listeners a discount code for your videos?
- How do you connect with your clients for your composite images?
- Do you ever show people straight photographs any more or is it all composite work?
- Tell us about your Podcast the Full Time Photographer?
Links to everything Josh is into are at the bottom of the post.
Before you get there, here are a few of Josh’s incredible works of art for your viewing pleasure…
Beat Down © Josh Rossi
Adobe © Josh Rossi
Slingshot © Josh Rossi
Sponsored by Lynda.com
We are proud to have Lynda.com on board as our current sponsors lynda.com. Learn lighting, portraiture, Photoshop skills, and more from expert-taught video courses. To start your 7-day free trial, visit lynda.com/mbp.
Show Notes
Music by UniqueTracks
Audio
Subscribe in iTunes for Enhanced Podcasts delivered automatically to your computer.
Download this Podcast in MP3 format (Audio Only).
Download this Podcast in Enhanced Podcast M4A format. This requires Apple iTunes or Quicktime to view/listen.
by Martin Bailey | Jan 6, 2014 | OMG!, Podcast, Promotion
The most complete and best value Photography Bundle ever compiled!
The moment this Podcast went live marked the very moment that the Complete Photography Bundle goes live on the 5DayDeal Web site. Today I’m going to walk you through some of the main details of this incredible photography related product package.
What will 2014 mean for your photography?
How would your photography change if you could get your hands on some of the top products by some of the top creators in photography?
What if you could get it all in one place, one clean package, and for one incredible price?
This may top what Santa got you.
For 5 days only – January 5 at noon EST till January 10 at noon EST – the team over at 5DayDeal have put together a pack of tools to revolutionize your photography and made it available in a bundle for over 90% off!!
Over $1200 of photography tools for ONLY $89
That’s one killer sale!
But that isn’t all. †The bundle also includes over $400 of awesome discounts for even more photography products bringing the total value of the bundle to…
… wait for it…
over $1700!! (over 94% off)
So, what’s the catch? It’s only available for 5 days.
These full products, offered by some of the biggest names in photography, are offered together for one crazy low price for ONLY 5 days.
Incredible right?
5DayDeal has combined training, tools, and inspiration in the form of ebooks, presets, and video to cover a huge range of photography including HDR, long exposure, fashion, food, portraits, business tools and so much more.
The bundle is packed with tools for beginners all the way through advanced and professional photographers.
If you’re interested in photography, your gonna love this bundle!
What’s included?
Ebooks
- An Introduction to Landscape Photography at Night – by Alister Benn $5.00
- Understanding Lenses Part 1: A Guide to Canon Wide-Angle & Kit Lenses – Andrew S. Gibson $11.00
- Photographing the 4th Dimension: Time – Jim Goldstein $20
- I | We – Scenes From The Big Picture – Karen Hutton $9.97
- Essential Light: Photography’s Life Blood – Richard Bernabe $7.95
- Crowd Control – Corwin Hiebert $9.97
- Powerful Imagery – Mitchell Kanashkevich – $14.90
- Tasty Food Photography – Lindsay Ostrom $19.99
- The Art of Photographing Wildlife – provided by Gordon Laing $10.00
- The Long Exposure ebook – David Cleland $5.00
- A Practical Guide to HDR Vertorama Photography – Klaus Herrmann 19.95
- Printing 101 Notebook †- Ron Martinsen $19.97
- Seeing the Light – Mitchell Kanashkevich – $12.00
Photography e-courses
- HDR Photography Essentials pack†-†Alex Koloskov†- $49
- The Photographerís Workflow†-†Gavin Gough†$30
- Big World Little Lens†-†Justin Balog†$9.97
Presets and Actions
- Eddie Tapp’s Personal Action Set -†Eddie Tapp $50.00
- MBP Fine Art Print Border Scripts – Martin Bailey $12.00
- Creative Control Preset Pack – Nicole S. Young $50.00
- Fashion Presets 1 – Lindsay Adler $25.00
- Black and White Photoshop Action Suite – Bill Jones $29.00
- ApertureExpert Adjustment Preset Pack (Film and Funk/Split Tone) & Live Training – Joseph Linaschke $17.98
- James B Lightroom Presets Bundle – James Brandon $19.97
- Fairytale + Princess + 3 Bonus Super Pack Photoshop Actions – Amanda Diaz $108
- Lightroom Presets Volume 2 – Lights – Serge Ramelli – $27
- Alexandra Sophie’s Film Action Pack – Alexandra Sophie – $55
Video
- The Photographers Guide to Creating HD Video with the Canon EOS 5D Mark II & 7D – Juan Pons and Rick Sammon $49.99
- Snapseed – The Definitive Guide – Justin Balog $20
- Post Edgy Photoshop Techniques – Joel Grimes – $99
- Color Grading Tutorial – Jaime Ibarra – $200
- The Art of Black and White With Lightroom – Serge Ramelli – $57
Textures & More
-
- Firenze Texture Packs – Lindsay Adler $10.00
- Texture A Photo Transparent Collection – Bryon Lippincott $69.99
- Location Rebel Information Product Blueprint – Sean Ogle $99
Software
- Snapheal – Macphun Software†$9.99
- Before/After Image Crossfade Plugin Pro – Griffin Stewart $9.97
If that isn’t enough, check out these awesome discounts you get when you purchase the bundle
- Designing an Image – Lindsay Adler $112.00 off (50% off current price)
- Topaz Adjust – Topaz Labs $25 off
- Iacrylic – $10 off a $50+ product
- Mastering Star Trail Photography – Jim Goldstein (35% off or 35$ off)
- Graph Paper Press Forever Plan – 50% 149.50
- Perfect Photo Suite 8 Premium Edition – OnOne Software $30 off new (not upgrade)
- 10 Common Photography Mistakes (and how to fix them) – James Brandon $14.98 off
- Blurb Book – printed copies only $10 off of $50 order in either CA or US – blurb.com
- Learning the Art of Mobile Photography – Justin Balog – FREE $35 value
- The Photo Frontier Lightroom Presets – Justin Balog $20 off + bonus of 5 presets only offered to 5DayDeal customers
- Moab Landscape Photography – Justin Balog – $50 off
But remember the catch?
This is only available for 5 days. January 5 noon EST – January 10 noon EST.
There’s More
For every bundle sold 5DayDeal will donate 10% of the sale price ($8.90) to charity.
Charities included are:
- SeedLight – offering creative opportunities to children in disadvantaged communities all around the world
- HeART Speak – bringing photography to high-intake animal shelters around the US
- Flashes of Hope – providing free portrait packages to over 50% of kids diagnosed with cancer in the US
- OpLove – providing photography to US armed service members deployed to combat zones and their families
- Charity Water – providing clean water to communities all over the world
- Davis Phinney Foundation – helping people with Parkinson’s live well today
What will 2014 mean for your photography?
More Info:
- If you still have questions – check out the Q & A page on the 5daydeal site – here
- The sale is from noon EST January 5, 2014 through noon EST January 10, 2014. There will be no late sales.
- If you make a purchase through my links I make an affiliate commission. As usual, I thank you for supporting the Podcast and my site.
Thanks very much for listening today. Remember that you can find me on Google+, Twitter and Facebook etc. and links to everything that I’m up to are at martinbaileyphotography.com, so do drop by and take a look. I’ll be back next week, with another episode, but in the meantime, you take care, and have a great week, whatever you’re doing. Bye bye.
Show Notes
Get your copy of the Complete Photography Bundle here: https://mbp.ac/5dda
Music by UniqueTracks
Audio
Subscribe in iTunes for Enhanced Podcasts delivered automatically to your computer.
Download this Podcast in MP3 format (Audio Only).
Download this Podcast in Enhanced Podcast M4A format. This requires Apple iTunes or Quicktime to view/listen.
