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Lightroom 2 and Soft Proofing
Most of the features that I wanted to see in Lightroom 2 are in, including multiple monitor support, metadata based localized corrections, and tons of improvements in the Library. There is one significant missing piece to me, however,and that's soft proofing in the Print module. Of course, nothing replaces making test prints, but it is nice to be able to use soft proofing to make sure that you're in the ballpark before laying ink to paper. The good news is that the work around for this issue, which involves using soft proofing in Photoshop, has gotten better.
You see, the most straightforward way to soft proof an image in Photoshop with Lightroom 1 was to use the "Edit with External Editor" feature. This creates a copy of your original RAW file as a TIFF or PSD and opens it up in Photoshop. The problem with this approach is that you've made a second file just for soft proofing and are cluttering things up. An alternative in Lightroom 1 was to save out the metadata for the file, find the RAW file in the finder, and then open that into Photoshop, going through Adobe Camera RAW. This nicely avoids making a second file, but is a lot of hoop jumping.
Lightroom 2's new "Open as Smart Object Photoshop" simplifies the work around of going to Photoshop to soft proof. With a single command, Lightroom launches Photoshop if needed, and then opens up your RAW image as a smart object. This means that the same image you were just looking at in Lightroom appears in Photoshop on a layer and is rendered using Adobe Camera RAW without creating a copy TIFF or PSD file. You can do a quick soft proof and check things out, returning to Lightroom when you're done. Or you can just print out of Photoshop.
Obviously, there are lots of other cool things you can do with opening up RAW files as smart objects in Photoshop, but sorting out that my soft proofing workarounds just got a lot easier was something that made me happy indeed.
Comments (6)
I agree soft proofing would be nice. It can save a lot of ink. In also agree that the way LT2 opens file in PS in better. Being able to open a file, and work in PS without making a dupe is great. When you save however it automatically makes that dup as it see's you want it.
Gav
How about for those of us that cannot afford Lightroom AND Photoshop? :)
The way I do it (and I don't know if this is accurate or not, but it seems to work for me - and I'm very much only an amateur/hobbyist) is to print to "Microsoft Office Document Image Writer" (after having chosen a colour management profile, and not "Managed by Printer"). This will output a file you can then open up and review.
This obviously does not simulate how the colour will look on the specific type of paper you will print on, but at least this way, you can see how choosing the multitude of different colour management profiles available with your printer will affect the colours of your image.
Thanks for a VERY useful tip - it's a workaround, admittedly, but it's MUCH better than nothing, especially when sending images to an outside printing service, where real proofing may be time consuming (i.e., snail mail back-and-forth), costly, and adjustments are always kind of "hit-and-miss".
Still, Adobe's decisions regarding which features (not) to include in LR2-B (e.g., 'no' to soft-proofing; 'no' to watermark overlays in the File > Export; 'no' to slideshow export in formats other than PDF, but 'yes' to sending multiple exposures and panorama components directly to CS3 as layers, or images as smart objects), make me think (perhaps I am wrong, and just too skeptical / suspicious) that they are being extra careful and deliberate not to add so much to LR that it would undercut current CS3 and future CS4 sales. Alas, for the end-users this seems to come at a steep price in $$, convenience, usability, and leaves out many useful features that the competition has... (BTW: A great photo! Is it one of the new prints for your Zenfolio print gallery?)
FZ: Yah, this solution won't work if you don't have PS. I don't have a good answer for you if that's the case. Without PS, the best way to really proof is to print out small sizes, 4x6/5x7 or strips across the image. Of course, that's not soft proofing, but it does keep you from having to make a full 8x10 or 12x18 print to see how things will look.
George: Indeed. I really look forward to having real soft proofing in the product and I hope it's a feature that is on the list for the next version of Lightroom. The photo is isn't in my online store, but I have been playing around with it a bit in LR 2 and having fun with it. We'll see what happens... :)
FWIW there was a discussion about the lack of soft-proofing in Adobe's Lightroom forum and according to people who should know creating soft-proofing code would require a significant rewrite and demand signficant programmer time, much more than a casual observer would think and more than who ever makes these decisions thought it was worth. That's why it hasn't been added to beta v2 but it doesn't explain why the original requirements capture didn't include it. A curious oversight given Adobe's implementation in Photoshop. Said sources implied that we won't see this feature in v2 due out in Aug timeframe and will have to wait for v3. Frustrating...
Has any one thought to check their printer drivers? My Canon i9900 has a preview option in the dirver setup. It's quite effective if your color management is correct. I've been softproofing since day one.
The printer driver is where you really want to softproof in my opinion. If possible. Softproofing only will work on calibrated systems with profiles for the ink/paper combinations your using. Other wise your sitll not WYSIWYG and still wasting paper.
Regards.