Color changes

[PAKMN]

Hello all
I recentaly scaned a picture into Photoshop 7 to print,The picture
wasnt the same color, the background had changed from a light lavander to a light blue, It also printed like that.Is this a scanner problem or Photoshop, also tried the same picture in Photoshop Elements 2 with the same results Scanner is a Canon , and printer is the same, series 860.
Thanks all

 

[tranquil222]

Ok, there are many things involving your perception of what color things are. For what you see on your computer, it is entirely dependent on your monitor. Every monitor has its own profile, and will render colors differently than others. What you perceive on a printed page is largely determined by your lighting conditions. Flourescent light and light bulbs give out different wavelengths, and will make the page bounce back slightly different colors.
There is also a chance that your scanner may be defective. If the difference between lavender and blue is very stark then this might be the case. As far as looking different in Photoshop, you might want to try seeing what your color settings are. Ctrl+Shift+K will open your color settings box. Chosing sRGB from the list will interpret colors the same way any other image program would interpret them. If your RGB viewing is set to Adobe RGB, then your colors will be much brighter, because they are stretched across a much larger range of colors(aka gamut). How different are the two colors?
If you get frustrated and cant figure it out you can always do a replace color, or a masked hue/saturation layer. After all, you are using the best bitmap editor on the planet

 

[tranquil222]

Also check out this post: http://www.photoshopgurus.info/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3812

 

[wbiss]

Ahhhhh PAKMN.... there are so many variables to this common, everyday problem.

An excellent article http://www.outbackphoto.com/color_management/cm_01/essay.html deals with this very topic.

Tip: When converting from RGB (screen/digital camera/most scanners) to CMYK (print), use CTRL(Command)+Y to see the color shift between the two color spaces. Repeat to undo. Furthermore, if you use CTRL(Command)+Shift+Y, PS will fill in those color shift areas with gray. This will enable you to make color corrections to these affected areas.

 

[AppleCider]

Wendy, what a great tip! Thanks, I never knew about the color-shift tricks.

 

[Erik]

try this, as your printer probably does work in CMYK, but does the conversion itself, in its software, like most deskjet printers do:

Before anything: run the calibration utility you got with Photoshop!

1/ Open a new doc in PS.
2/ Double click on the foreground colour and set its RGB values to R 128, G 128 and B 128.

This adds up to medium grey.

3/ Make a selection, square, circle on your doc (it mustn't be big at all), and Alt+Delete (=shortcut) fill it with the foreground colour.
4/ Print this on the paper you intend to use. This is how your printer prints medium grey.
5/ Let it dry!!!
6/ Scan this at default settings.
7/ Look at the results.
8/ Open in Photoshop and look at the Info Palette. Here you see the result of what your scanner, combined with your printer have made from the initial medium grey.
9/ Note these values and adjust them in levels or curves with the gamma slider.
10/ Save this.
11/ If you apply this levelsor curves setting to your scan, the medium greys should be good.

Best is to do this also with a three quarter and a one quarter grey. At least!

But deskjet printing at home does not always follow hitech stuff like profiles etc because most home users have affordable material and still want good quality.
This is possible.

I'm still working this out, so the above is just a rough draft.
WIP so as to say.

 

[wbiss]

Seems logical and makes sense Erik!