Thanks for the help.

LW

http://www.amazon.com/GretagMacbeth-Eye-One-Display-color-calibration/dp/B0007ZGCSW

Scanning Software Link:
http://www.silverfast.com/

Cheers-
Stephen

I run a ‘wet-paint’ operation for which material costs alone are sinus-clearing.

The digital area is a new and mandatory business direction and this is the origin of my ‘out-of-depth’ comment.

Yes, I’ve priced Rip software [Onyx] and that was the cause of the “piggybank” comment.

My V-750 Pro [Epson] came with a 2.6 version of MonacoEZColor which includes IT8 reflective and transmissive targets: Will these along with the inexpensive colorimeter you mentioned put me in the ballpark {for the scanner, at least}? And how do you feel about consumer hard/software pkgs like the ColorMunki?

Again, thanks a million for the help.

LW

To answer your question is difficult as what you are looking for is not easy to put into a simple few sentence response or something which may be affordable, to quote you, “without breaking what remains of my piggy bank?” Also, there are different levels of quality and each of course has different costs associated with it.

Here are a few suggestions…

1. Work in sRGB from Scan to Print.
2. Make sure your monitor is calibrated using a monitor calibration device ($200 or less).
3. Unless you are willing to spend some major bucks on a good RIP/ profile software (starting at around $3000+ without the spectro, have someone make the required printer icc profiles for you. This service when done right uses targets generated on your printer. This normally costs between $50 – $100 dollars per icc depending on who makes the profile… ps, I do not make profiles for sale.
4. For your scanner calibration just scan everything as a RGB positive, 16 Bit into either sRGB or Beta RGB but in the second example just convert to sRGB when you open photoshop, run sRGB as your default space in PS. I recommend sRGB as most monitors can show this space with calibration and it is a smaller compression from RGB to CMYK which means more accurate color / tone in the final print.
5. If you do not have a good scanner (at least a high end Nikon film scanner or better an Imacon or Premier) and you want the best from your film then send your film out to be scanned. As you are not printing that large a good Epson scanner may work for you but a scanner is only as good as the operator. I’d do a side by side and see if the cost of a pro scan makes a difference in your work.
6. Start saving money! Seriously… digital printing and scanning is fairly inexpensive on the low end but once you demand more the cost rises very, very quickly. For example the RIP and profiler I use at my studio runs over $12,000 without the spectro or printer.

Again, you must decided what quality level you really need but if you follow steps 1-5 and keep your monitor in cal and have decent icc profiles for your printer and work in sRGB most issues will be resolved.

Stephen

Lewis W

Cheers-
Stephen

If you want to maximize dynamic range and the white balance in your image isn’t perfect, you can do highlight recovery to get free highlight detail.
http://www.free-photoshop-plugins.com/download-filters/white-balance-plug-in.htm
(Shooting RAW and doing highlight recovery is the way to go, but I don’t think those tools are available for non-RAW files.)

Hope that helps.

Cheers-
Stephen