Am I on the Right Track?

[Marni48]

I recently printed some photos on my Epson R200 printer that I scanned on my Epson Perfection 3170 Photo scanner. I scanned the prints at 600 DPI using the professional mode. Nothing was checked to enhance the scan.

When I looked at the prints, the flesh color was quite off, leaning toward yellow even though my monitor, Dell LCd type E176FP showed they were more on the pink/red side.

I had tweeked the photos in Photoshop 7 using the color space Adobe RGB 1998 that was advised in Scott Kelby' Book Photoshop for Digital Photographers.

I decided to take the files to get them professionally printed to bypass the possibility that my printer was the culpret but they came back different from the printer but closer. I thought maybe the answer was to set my monitor to equal what my scanner was reproducing using the print I had done and rescanning it and then comparing it to what I was seeing on the monitor. To do that, I was having to really change settings big time from what was the factory preset, and it still was off.

I don't see much available in my monitor settings to change other than contrast, brightness and color which have several presets, factory, user, then using red, blue and green sliders. I can't find anything that tells me what the temperature of the monitor is and there is not a lot of data on it. I have looked at the Dry Creek Photo. com website that was recommended on this board and ran the tests and I don't see anything that jumps out at me.

Other than purchasing a new monitor, what do you suggest? Is trying to set the monitor to the scanner going in the right direction? I am TOTALLY frustrated. Should I run Adobe Gamma?

[Dave.Cox]

Adobe Gamma might help you, but only to a small degree. Purchasing a new monitor would change what you are seeing, but would still not fix your problem. If you want to see what I mean, just go to a TV store and look at the different TVs on display showing the same program. You will see a wide disparity of colors, even with the same brand. If you really want your colors to be accurate and consistant, you need to calibrate your monitor, scanner and printer. so that they all see and display or print the same. The only way that I know of to do this is with the proper hardware and software designed just for this purpose. It will monitor you monitor and create a profile that you color correct your monitor for you. Then you can also use it to print out a color chart that you scan back in, and it then creates a printer/scanner profile. For more information about this, I would recommend that you search for Pantone's web site.