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Hi,

I am a painter and graphic artist. A moderate Photoshop user and I am trying to get giclee prints made for my oils on canvas paintings. What drives me nuts is how much colors change from the original to a digital photograph and then further onto a canvas or paper print.

What is the best way to match colors to look the same as my original paintings, instead of retouching and taking prints again and again. Also I'd like to avoid taking the printer's time to color correct each painting.

I tried matching it thru the info pallette as monitor calibration can mislead your eye, but I still don't seem to quite get to the right place.

Can anyone please give me a solution to this problem? I'm a fast learner and slightly Photoshop biased

If interested, you can take a look at my work at http://www.myprisms.com

Thanks in advance

That's beautiful work you're doing!

As far as a color management workflow, that's a whole world unto itself and I don't pretend to be anything near expert at it. However, others are and have made their expertise available.

You might want to check into the Beaux Arts Printing Mastery DVD Workshop (assuming your workplace can foot the cost!). This is probably the top-end instruction for fine art printing (it's an actual seminar put on DVD).

Otherwise, check through the various photo forums linked from this page.

Hi,

Thank you for the link. Expensive tho and I'm not making too much money Yet!

But will continue diggin in. This would be something most artists would want to get their hands on.

regards,
Rachna

This book has some information about "Color management for predictable results and reduced headaches" and "Preparing your images for print and getting top-quality results". Much cheaper, too!

My two cents: Your workflow includes three very different media types, so I don't think you will always get the best results if you only rely on color management alone. Color management is not magical thing that will always get the colors right for you, because some colors in your painting can't be displayed on your monitor and some colors on your monitor can't be printed on paper. Of course you should calibrate your scanner and monitor, but if you want the best results, you will sometimes need to do a few test prints until you get the colors more or less like they are in your original painting.

FWIW, here's an interesting article I just came across today:

Color Management is for Wimps

Take it for what you will!