Amen on the calibration. And, my HP laptop needs to be turned down to 30 to balance screen brightness to print. And I still make test prints in a smaller size first.
Hey Hudson, back awhile we went over my calibration settings for my NEC PA272W. I forget what you told me when you calibrate.... Adobe RGB or sRGB. Thanks for the reminder.
Nice presentation, video. Your colorimeter is an i1 Display. Personally, I use an i1Studio - it calibrates displays (measures ambient light in the process), projectors, and calibrates printer-ink-paper combinations. More expensive maybe. I also use the ColorChecker Passport to create site-camera-lens-light reference shots that is turned into a profile by the Passport software. This provides an easy raw development to absolutely neutral. And a starting point for artistic deviation.
Sounds very comprehensive. I keep the studio lighting controlled and the curtains closed while editing, so I've never had the need. The i1 pro does do ambient and projector though. I've used the projector mode. Thankfully my Epson 9900 has never needed calibration and the Z3200 has a built in photospectrometer to create custom profiles internally. The pro has been more than enough for me.
Have a great vacation! My wife looks at the D850 with the grip and asks me if I really have to carry that every time we go on a trip. Maybe my Z6 will be more palatable to her when we head to Kauai next month! Love to hear your suggestions for great photo spots there - only my second time on that island. With the Z6, I plan to shoot more video than stills, but I’m guessing the beauty is the same whether it’s stills or video. I’ve used the Spyder Elite system and printing profiles in LR for years without any issues and it is amazing how much the monitors need to be dimmed - the latest version of the Spyder system has an option to automatically adjust brightness relative to ambient light. Thanks for the link for checking a monitor - hadn’t seen that before. I checked my new 12.9” iPad Pro and its color reproduction is spot on.
Nice! Enjoy Kauai. I love it there. Ke'e is my favorite sunset spot(hike through the woods along the edge of the beach to the left a ways to the tide pools, but I don't think the road is open again yet. :-(
Very helpful, especially the hint that most monitors are too bright. Some printing shops also offer LR plugins to check how the image would look printed. Brightness is often an issue, but so is color range. Do you also calibrate the printer (align the workflow). Or isn't that necessary at all?
Great question. WIth my HPZ3200 I do. It has a built in photospectrometer to calibrate each new ink and paper change, but it ranges a bit, so that's needed. I find that using Epson and Ilford papers on my professional grade Epsons, the tolerances are so tight that I have no need to calibrate them. The canned profiles from Epson and Ilford work great. You just install and activate them on your color calibrated monitor when soft proofing. LR has it's own soft proofing mode in Develop you just choose the right profile and rendering intent and what you wee should be what you get (again assuming your monitor is well profiled). The plugin's you discuss sound superfluous and I'm sure they can't be trusted if your monitor is not calibrated.
Please address management of the ambient light in the room when doing hardware calibration. Because I have windows in my room, I wait to calibrate in the evening which is when I am more likely to do editing. I also hang a black curtain in the doorway to keep glaze off the monitor screen which is opposite the doorway. Your thoughts are appropriated.
I'll hit this in a follow up video question, but the short answer is to not have any direct harsh light on your monitor from any source, especially the sun. Good curtains are your friend when editing and you don't want any point light sources aimed toward you or your monitor while editing. I have an atmosphere of open shade whenever and wherever I edit. I love reading a book in a sunny window nook, but don't edit there. With curtains and some common sense lighting, I've never needed to worry at all about ambient measurements.
A couple of questions - 1. In color management - do you use Software manages or Printer manages? 2. For rendering intent - which do you prefer - Perception, Saturation, Relative Colormetric, or Absolute Colormetric?
Great question Bruce. I always soft proof myself. I choose between perceptual (tone focused) and relative colormetric (color focused). I usually prefer perceptual, but that is one of the first things I look at (toggling them). I ALWAYS choose software managed color with the correct profile and rendering intent to match the soft proofing.
Most images are viewed on a bright screen. What would be the argument against editing on a bright screen, and making the brightness adjustment for printing at the printing stage?
The website looks great! I'm just having trouble understanding it. If an image that is edited on the average bright screen appears dark as a print, shouldn't there be an equally opposite effect when edited on a dim screen?
I'll do a video on Softroofing in the near future. It's a great question. Monitor calibration is the absolute key to soft proofing. Without a calibrated monitor, it's just useless to try.
As long as the base image is sharp you can uprez easily to 200%. I've printed great 24x36 prints with images from my 12MP D700 that hang in my home. With panorama capture techniques (see my course for advanced pano capture) the sky is the limit. :) I've done 10 foot prints that look stunning from D200 panos.
@@HudsonHenryPhoto thanks ! Although I have used Adobe Gamma for years and have always got what I see on my screen is what I get at any Lab. And yes, I have always kept a copy of CS2 on my machines to have Adobe Gamma. But use the latest versions of PS.
I have a D850. I vastly prefer the D850 over the Z7. It's a more refined product that does everything but low light well. It's shoots sports and wildlife in crop mode without giving up much to the D500. It never feels slow or clunky despite sporting a 46MP sensor. It's live view is great and it has so many great details like backlit buttons and direction aware playback deletion that the Z7 doesn't. The Z6 and Z7 have the same stills processing engine and circuitry. At 24MP it feels snappy and fast at 46MP, it feels slow and small buffered. The Z6 has incredible low light performance. It may even be as good or better than the D5. It's just jaw dropping. That's the one thing the sensor in the 850 and Z7 lacks. It's also produces better quality video than the Z7. It doesn't have to downrez from 46MP so they don't have to do line skipping. It can do full pixel readout which is much better. If I had to have just one camera right now. It's the D850. Thankfully I can have two. The 850 for action, wildlife and big single frame landscapes and the Z6 for video, lowlight and everything else.
@@HudsonHenryPhoto thank you so much for replying to me I just got the z7 and trying to get use to it I was shooting with d700 I do for wedding and event . I really enjoy your videos. '
I actually prefer the pc in general. I use both systems interchangeably, but I prefer pc's file management. I'd be all pc if the hardware existed to have 6 thunderbolt ports on a desktop the way my new studio ultra does. It's really just a toss up these days to be honest. Format exfat and your creative software behaves identically on both systems.
@@HudsonHenryPhoto Macs are designed to match the OS and the components together. PCs are designed with general parameters, nobody ensures compatibility, there are a lot of variables managed by the technology industries, every one manages his own. I`m not a mac freak, simply a designer who discover a solution as long as 30 years back in time. Of course I use both platforms but the mac wins hands down.
I enjoy your very based attitude. Your travels are amazing. Regards, Barrie
Amen on the calibration. And, my HP laptop needs to be turned down to 30 to balance screen brightness to print. And I still make test prints in a smaller size first.
Hey Hudson, back awhile we went over my calibration settings for my NEC PA272W.
I forget what you told me when you calibrate.... Adobe RGB or sRGB. Thanks for the reminder.
Nice presentation, video. Your colorimeter is an i1 Display. Personally, I use an i1Studio - it calibrates displays (measures ambient light in the process), projectors, and calibrates printer-ink-paper combinations. More expensive maybe. I also use the ColorChecker Passport to create site-camera-lens-light reference shots that is turned into a profile by the Passport software. This provides an easy raw development to absolutely neutral. And a starting point for artistic deviation.
Sounds very comprehensive. I keep the studio lighting controlled and the curtains closed while editing, so I've never had the need. The i1 pro does do ambient and projector though. I've used the projector mode. Thankfully my Epson 9900 has never needed calibration and the Z3200 has a built in photospectrometer to create custom profiles internally. The pro has been more than enough for me.
Have a great time Hudson and if you can spare us some time during your vacation that would be great too. Would love to see what you are up to.
Thanks Julie, I'm planning on it. ;)
Have a great vacation! My wife looks at the D850 with the grip and asks me if I really have to carry that every time we go on a trip. Maybe my Z6 will be more palatable to her when we head to Kauai next month! Love to hear your suggestions for great photo spots there - only my second time on that island. With the Z6, I plan to shoot more video than stills, but I’m guessing the beauty is the same whether it’s stills or video. I’ve used the Spyder Elite system and printing profiles in LR for years without any issues and it is amazing how much the monitors need to be dimmed - the latest version of the Spyder system has an option to automatically adjust brightness relative to ambient light. Thanks for the link for checking a monitor - hadn’t seen that before. I checked my new 12.9” iPad Pro and its color reproduction is spot on.
Nice! Enjoy Kauai. I love it there. Ke'e is my favorite sunset spot(hike through the woods along the edge of the beach to the left a ways to the tide pools, but I don't think the road is open again yet. :-(
Very helpful, especially the hint that most monitors are too bright. Some printing shops also offer LR plugins to check how the image would look printed. Brightness is often an issue, but so is color range. Do you also calibrate the printer (align the workflow). Or isn't that necessary at all?
Great question. WIth my HPZ3200 I do. It has a built in photospectrometer to calibrate each new ink and paper change, but it ranges a bit, so that's needed. I find that using Epson and Ilford papers on my professional grade Epsons, the tolerances are so tight that I have no need to calibrate them. The canned profiles from Epson and Ilford work great. You just install and activate them on your color calibrated monitor when soft proofing. LR has it's own soft proofing mode in Develop you just choose the right profile and rendering intent and what you wee should be what you get (again assuming your monitor is well profiled). The plugin's you discuss sound superfluous and I'm sure they can't be trusted if your monitor is not calibrated.
Please address management of the ambient light in the room when doing hardware calibration. Because I have windows in my room, I wait to calibrate in the evening which is when I am more likely to do editing. I also hang a black curtain in the doorway to keep glaze off the monitor screen which is opposite the doorway. Your thoughts are appropriated.
I'll hit this in a follow up video question, but the short answer is to not have any direct harsh light on your monitor from any source, especially the sun. Good curtains are your friend when editing and you don't want any point light sources aimed toward you or your monitor while editing. I have an atmosphere of open shade whenever and wherever I edit. I love reading a book in a sunny window nook, but don't edit there. With curtains and some common sense lighting, I've never needed to worry at all about ambient measurements.
Thanks for another really informative video. Enjoy your trip
I like your vids. Printing is so important to me.
A couple of questions - 1. In color management - do you use Software manages or Printer manages? 2. For rendering intent - which do you prefer - Perception, Saturation, Relative Colormetric, or Absolute Colormetric?
Great question Bruce. I always soft proof myself. I choose between perceptual (tone focused) and relative colormetric (color focused). I usually prefer perceptual, but that is one of the first things I look at (toggling them). I ALWAYS choose software managed color with the correct profile and rendering intent to match the soft proofing.
Most images are viewed on a bright screen. What would be the argument against editing on a bright screen, and making the brightness adjustment for printing at the printing stage?
As I always say... Point your bright screen at www.hudsonhenry.com and see if the images look too bright. They're all edited at 80cdm2
The website looks great! I'm just having trouble understanding it. If an image that is edited on the average bright screen appears dark as a print, shouldn't there be an equally opposite effect when edited on a dim screen?
an you please show us the correct way to soft proof in photoshop
I'll do a video on Softroofing in the near future. It's a great question. Monitor calibration is the absolute key to soft proofing. Without a calibrated monitor, it's just useless to try.
How big can you print with your nikon z6 so you maintain crispness, sharpness etc?Is 24mp enough for big prints?
As long as the base image is sharp you can uprez easily to 200%. I've printed great 24x36 prints with images from my 12MP D700 that hang in my home. With panorama capture techniques (see my course for advanced pano capture) the sky is the limit. :) I've done 10 foot prints that look stunning from D200 panos.
👍👍
link to website to check your monitor?
Whoops. I just added that to the description. It's w4zt.com/screen/
@@HudsonHenryPhoto thanks !
Although I have used Adobe Gamma for years and have always got what I see on my screen is what I get at any Lab. And yes, I have always kept a copy of CS2 on my machines to have Adobe Gamma. But use the latest versions of PS.
So you prefer the z6 over the z7 and why ?
I have a D850. I vastly prefer the D850 over the Z7. It's a more refined product that does everything but low light well. It's shoots sports and wildlife in crop mode without giving up much to the D500. It never feels slow or clunky despite sporting a 46MP sensor. It's live view is great and it has so many great details like backlit buttons and direction aware playback deletion that the Z7 doesn't. The Z6 and Z7 have the same stills processing engine and circuitry. At 24MP it feels snappy and fast at 46MP, it feels slow and small buffered. The Z6 has incredible low light performance. It may even be as good or better than the D5. It's just jaw dropping. That's the one thing the sensor in the 850 and Z7 lacks. It's also produces better quality video than the Z7. It doesn't have to downrez from 46MP so they don't have to do line skipping. It can do full pixel readout which is much better. If I had to have just one camera right now. It's the D850. Thankfully I can have two. The 850 for action, wildlife and big single frame landscapes and the Z6 for video, lowlight and everything else.
@@HudsonHenryPhoto thank you so much for replying to me I just got the z7 and trying to get use to it I was shooting with d700 I do for wedding and event . I really enjoy your videos.
'
One more reason to use a Mac for all kind of graphic projects.
I actually prefer the pc in general. I use both systems interchangeably, but I prefer pc's file management. I'd be all pc if the hardware existed to have 6 thunderbolt ports on a desktop the way my new studio ultra does. It's really just a toss up these days to be honest. Format exfat and your creative software behaves identically on both systems.
@@HudsonHenryPhoto Macs are designed to match the OS and the components together. PCs are designed with general parameters, nobody ensures compatibility, there are a lot of variables managed by the technology industries, every one manages his own. I`m not a mac freak, simply a designer who discover a solution as long as 30 years back in time. Of course I use both platforms but the mac wins hands down.
👍👍