Compare the Pair

[olrac]

Help I can't choose which I like better,
Original



Processed


I have also tried to print the second image on my epson r1800
I am loosing allot of detail in the flame where I want the most detail any suggestions?

[DaveB]

Losing the distracting background elements helps a lot, although I'm not sure I'd lose the fire-eater's right arm.

I have also tried to print the second image on my epson r1800
I am loosing allot of detail in the flame where I want the most detail any suggestions?

There are some bits of the flame which are overexposed, but I presume you're not referring to those.
My first questions would be:

• What paper are you printing to?
• What rendering intent are you using when converting to the printer/paper's profile?
  (either as a separate Convert to Profile step, or within the Print with Preview dialog)

With a good profile, a good monitor, and the right technique, you can use Photoshop's soft proofing to check the differences. But that can stray into the realms of Advanced Photoshop...
With an image as dark as this, soft proofing is definitely valuable: each test page is going to use a lot of ink! Previewing the results of Convert to Profile is useful (even if you later do the conversion within Print with Preview) but the full soft-proofing environment needs to be done properly to be accurately.

Of course, in the above I'm assuming you're using Photoshop. Correct me if I'm wrong.
I'm also obviously assuming you have your monitor profiled and have the right profile for the paper (and driver settings)...

[olrac]

I am using light room the downloaded profile for ilford pearl

I have also just tried to print the same image from Photoshop and am getting a worse result.

I am going to try to convert to a profile first as you have suggested.
Should I use SRGB

[DaveB]

I am using light room the downloaded profile for ilford pearl

And you're using the matching driver settings for that profile as per the Ilford instructions?
Those profiles should get you close, but the R1800s do vary a bit and it's possible that you'll benefit greatly from a custom profile. But I'll proceed at the moment on the assumption that this profile is a reasonable one.

I have also just tried to print the same image from Photoshop and am getting a worse result.

So from Lightroom you selected Edit In Photoshop and ended up with a TIFF or PSD file in one of ProPhoto, Adobe RGB, or sRGB (as per the Lightroom preferences)? Then when you print it you're using Photoshop's Print with Preview and selecting the Ilford profile for the printer?
Which version of Photoshop are we talking about?

I am going to try to convert to a profile first as you have suggested.
Should I use SRGB

Um, no.
One possible workflow is to convert (from the Adobe/sRGB/ProPhoto space) to the Ilford profile and then use Print (with colour management turned off) to send the data directly to the printer. When the data's in the Ilford colourspace you should get a reasonable preview on the screen as regards the limitations of that colour space (although with some caveats: soft proofing with white-point compensation and with nothing else on-screen helps). In the yellows it may lose a bit of detail, and any loss here will probably be noticeably different depending on whether you converted using the Perceptual or Relative Colorimetric rendering intent selected. Try experimenting.
Note that you generally don't want to work in the printer's colourspace due to thing such as greys not being represented by values where R=G=B. We're used to working in "normal" colour spaces such as sRGB/Adobe RGB.

Once you've decided which rendering intent you like best for this image, you can use that in the Print with Preview dialog (back in the workflow where we work directly from the Adobe RGB/etc version of the file).