I take pictures to print to hang in my apartment or sell to clients. And while it’s important to me that those prints appear sharp and detailed, it’s also important to accurately represent colors and contrast. To achieve this, a process known as soft checking should be used in print preparation whenever possible, and in this article I show you how.
Soft checks are essential to get better prints because colors and contrast often look different from how they are displayed on screen when printed on paper. For some types of glossy paper, the difference can be very small. But if you use matte paper or canvas, the colors can change dramatically and the image may look flat.
Prerequisites for soft testing
Before I explain how to do soft testing, let’s talk about some requirements:
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You need a monitor capable of displaying a large color gamut. Many labs require you to convert the files you provide them for printing to sRGB. So you should at least invest in a monitor that can display the sRGB color space. But because widescreen These days has become more affordable, I would recommend buying one of those, if you want to get serious about printing your photos.
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Owning such a screen is not enough. You also have to calibrate it, which I show in this section calibration manual monitoring.
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Soft waterproofing should be done in a well-lit room. As I explained in the monitor calibration guide, if your room is too dark, your photos will also become too dark. It becomes more of an issue for prints as they already appear a bit darker than what you see on your calibrated monitor unless they are viewed under a very bright light source.
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While soft testing is possible in various photo editing programs, we will focus on Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom. Either of those two programs is a prerequisite for following this article. The basic concept is applicable in any editing software, allowing you to view your images with different color profiles applied. An example is Capture One, which Todd Dominey has a Introduce for soft proofing is available on his YouTube channel.
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Last but not least, you must also download the color profiles for the papers you want to print from the lab of your choice and install them on your system. In Windows you can right click on such an ICC file and select Setting. Mac users must manually copy the profiles to the correct folder: ~ / Library / ColorSync / Profiles.
Soft Testing in Lightroom
I love using Lightroom for soft testing because of how the feature is built into the software. The interface allows creating virtual copies, comparing proofs with originals, and zooming and scrolling in a side-by-side view in a synchronous fashion.
Before you apply any adjustments to an image in preparation for printing, you must make some initial setup:
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inside Develop, build module, switch Soft Verification box.
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Choose desired File from the drop-down menu on the right. By clicking More… you can add additional records.
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Work Paper & ink simulation.
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Set display intent to Relationship.
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Click Make a copy of the proof to make a copy to which you will make adjustments.
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Enable side-by-side comparison view.
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The set Before to display The original image. It will show up in Copy side-by-side window views.
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You should also activate Destination gambling alert. It will highlight areas where colors cannot be properly represented in the print. For example, it can happen if the saturation is too high.
Now, everything is ready to start with the adjustments. The goal is to get Proof preview look like Copy. After some global adjustments to brightness and contrast, you may want to zoom in on individual areas and look at the colors. Try to combine those as best you can.
For most papers, just changing the white balance slightly, increasing the brightness and adding some contrast and clarity is enough. But you may also have to use the HSL slider and target individual colors.
Don’t be afraid to make the proof a little brighter than Copy to compensate for the light in which the print will be viewed. If you print your own, you’ll know how bright the room you’re going to hang your prints in. If you’re printing for a client, it’s hard to tell in advance, but adding some brightness usually doesn’t matter.
Soft proofing in Photoshop
Now that you know how to do a soft effect in Lightroom, you might be asking why do it in Photoshop? The reason is that some profiles don’t work in Lightroom. I discovered this a while back when I was trying to prepare a canvas print. The profile doesn’t show up in Lightroom, even though I have it installed correctly. Looks like profiles created in CMYK color space don’t work in Lightroom, only RGB is supported. In Photoshop, you can use all color profiles.
In this introductory video, you’ll learn how to prepare the Photoshop workspace for the same soft proofing experience as in Lightroom. You must first copy the main file, stack the windows vertically, and activate the copy check. It is also possible to zoom and scroll in a tiled view in a synchronous fashion: Shift + Space + Right Click and Move Mouse move both images, Shift + Ctrl / Cmd + Space + Right Click zoom in and Shift + Ctrl / Cmd + Alt + Space + Right Click shrink.
To get both images consistent in color and contrast, a combination of curves, image filters, and HSL layers often does the trick.
Hard evidence for optimal results
Even if you have a perfectly calibrated monitor, soft testing may not yield perfect results. Print brightness is particularly hard to come by. While you’ll be able to refine your tweaks more and more as you gain experience, you might want to check it out further.
That’s where the proofs come in. If you’re printing yourself, this is ideal as you can create a test print, compare it with what you see on the screen, and make further adjustments as needed. But what if you order from a lab? Good labs offer the option to create proofs at a reduced price. Otherwise, you can still order a test print on the paper of your choice in a small size. To evaluate color, brightness, and contrast, you don’t have to appreciate and you can save a lot of money that way.
Once you are satisfied with the results, you can order your final prints. In the video above, I talk about this process. In 2020, I did an exhibition where I spent over $600 on prints. Back then, I used soft proofing and proofing techniques to make sure every photo looked the way it was supposed to.
