These instructions detail how LightRoom Classic can be used to output a file ready to upload to an on-line photo printing company.

NOTE: The printing service I use is DS Colour Labs. They have 3 ‘standard’ print finishes: glossy, lustre (a silk-like paper) and pearl (a paper with a metallic effect). The method I describe works very well for me – it may not work for you! I use a Windows PC so no mention of Macs will be made!

Introduction

I use ICC (International Colour Consortium) profiles when I ‘print’ using LR CC. ICC profiles mean that in theory, you will have the best possible colour rendition from the printer for your print. I have never not used ICC profiles with my printing supplier so I don’t know what the difference might be. I do know of others who don’t use ICC profiles and they get as good results so, take your pick!

The printing supplier I use offers ICC profile files on their website which you can download for various print media eg glossy, lustre and pearl.

I mount my own prints using cut-out mounts. I cut my own mounts so I’m not limited by size or aspect ratio. As such, I can crop my images to any aspect ratio which suits the image

ICC Profile

You only need to do this once for each profile you will use.

On the print service’s website, find the ICC profiles and download all that you think you will need, eg for standard glossy print, maybe another for lustre or silk finish prints etc.

Right click each downloaded file and install it. Windows pops it into the correct location for you.

In LR, in the Develop module, find the photo you want to print. At the bottom of the image frame will be a tick box called Soft Proofing. Click this to ‘tick’ it. On the right hand side, under the Histogram, a few ‘new things’ will appear. One of them is called Create Proof Copy. DON’T CLICK THIS BUTTON YET! Below that button is the currently selected ICC profile next to Profile:. Click the  arrow at the far right and a list will appear. Select the profile you want from the displayed list. This will be the paper type you want your finished print on. LR should pick up the ICC profiles you downloaded automatically – it always has for me, anyway!

Underneath the Profile selection line is the Intent: option. This a little tricky – bear with me! There are 2 options: Relative and Perceptual. This controls how ‘out of gamut’ colours are handled. What is a gamut of colours? Right, here goes…

No device in the digital photographic workflow can reproduce the full range of colours viewable to the human eye. Each device operates within a specific colour space, which simply describes a range, or gamut, of colours that the device can record, store, edit, or output. Some colour spaces are bigger than others. For example, the CIE Lab space is large; the sRGB space, used by many web browsers, is relatively small.

In addition, each device describes colour either additively, using the RGB colour model, or subtractively, using the CMYK colour model. Cameras and monitors use RGB; printers use CMYK.

This shows an example of some colour gamuts of various ‘devices’. The Lab colour space is the main area, other outlines show common colour spaces. Notice that the SWOP CMYK gamut, used by many printers is very different from the other gamuts used on digital displays!

This is the crux of the problem. What if your image has a colour in it which is OUTSIDE of the gamut available to your printing device?

This is where the Perceptual and Relative settings come in and here’s the basic difference.

Special Note:

The following information is taken from

http://www.cambridgeincolour.com/tutorials/color-space-conversion.htm

The decision about when to use each of these [perceptual or relative] depends on image content and the intended purpose. Images with intense colors (such as bright sunsets or well-lit floral arrangements) will preserve more of their color gradation in extreme colors using perceptual intent. On the other hand, this may come at the expense of compressing or dulling more moderate colors. Images with more subtle tones (such as some portraits) often stand to benefit more from the increased accuracy of relative colorimetric (assuming no colors are placed within the gamut mismatch region). Perceptual intent is overall the safest bet for general and batch use, unless you know specifics about each image.

Does it really make that much difference anyway? Try both. You’ll need to create a proof copy of the image first (see next para) but then you can switch between perceptual and relative to see which gives what you think is the best colour rendition. Remember, because this is LR, you can change between the two to see the difference because the changes are not permanent!

Now click the Create Proof Copy button. This creates a virtual copy of your selected image and tags the filename with the profile name. If your monitor is correctly profiled, then your screen should imitate the colours of the selected printer profile.

Now, if you change any of the sliders in the Develop module on THIS copy of the image, it will change to show you what the printed output will be.

Soft Proofing

Did you use the Soft Proofing capability in the Develop Module?

Soft Proofing? What on earth is that? Well, it all comes back to the whole device colour gamut thing above. Your monitor can display a whole load more colours than your printer (or anyone else’s printer either) can. So, what should the printer do when it encounters a colour that it just cannot print? Well, there are a couple of ways it can cope with that as we’ve seen above, the Perceptual and Relative methods of rendering.

But, what will this look like for your print? Soft Proofing is a way to get a good idea of the effects because they will differ according to the type of image to be printed.

If you click the Soft Proofing tick-box, bottom of the Develop module screen, a new pane opens on the right hand side. Click on the Create Proof Copy button in the Soft Proofing pane.

LR creates a COPY of your image, giving it a new name (check the filename shown at the bottom of the screen).

You can now click on the Intent you want. It is worth while ticking he Simulate Paper & Ink tick-box as well. If you can’t see much difference (or indeed any difference) between the intents, don’t worry: your image will work just fine with either. If there is a difference (in particular, check for colour banding in the sky for instance), use the intent that works best for the image.

This ‘proof copy’ should be the one you then ‘print’ using the Print module.

‘Printing’

Click the Print module.

The selected image in the Develop module is shown in the Print module, or at least, some of it will be. The print module is really designed for home printing, but also works perfectly when using a commercial printer.

On the left hand side…

If the paper size and style you want, eg 12”x16”, isn’t shown, create your own template, like this…

In the Template Browser bar, click the PLUS symbol (+)

In the pop-up window, type in a name for the template, eg “12x16” – it makes sense to have the name contain the size and aspect ratio of the print (12x16 is different to 16x12!)

Click the CREATE button

Your template will now be shown, usually in the User Templates section

Highlight it (=click on it!)

On the right hand side…

In the Layout Style section, set the following:

Single Image / Contact Sheet Select

This setting will not normally need changing again.

In the Image Settings section, set the following:

Zoom to fill Un-ticked

Rotate to fit Ticked

Repeat one photo per page Un-ticked

Stroke border Un-ticked (I don’t think I’ve ever used this, but feel free to do so!)

These settings will not normally need changing again.

We’ll skip the Layout section for a minute…

In the Guides section, set the following:

Rulers Ticked

Page bleed Ticked

Margins and gutters Ticked

Image cells Un-ticked

Dimensions Ticked

These settings will not normally need changing again.

In the Page section, set EVERYTHING to un-ticked.

In the Print Job section, set the following:

Print to Jpeg file

Draft mode printing Un-ticked

File resolution 300ppi

Print sharpening Ticked, standard

Media type Glossy (I don’t think this matters for a jpeg output file, I’ve never changed it and my prints have always been OK!)

Jpeg quality 100

*Custom file dimensions ‘Tick’ this and set this to the overall paper size you want, eg 12” x 16” or whatever

*Color management If using a downloaded ICC profile, select that from the list otherwise use what your printing lab requires. If the lab doesn’t specify, select sRGB

Intent Set this to match the Proof Copy setting if you made a Proof Copy (see Soft Proofing, above) or try Perceptual which is a good ‘go to’ setting (see Special Note above – worth reading if your delivered prints look ‘odd’!)

Print adjustment Un-ticked

The only 2 entries in this section which may need changing for other print jobs are the ones starting with an asterisk.

Now we’ll return to the Layout section…

Set the Ruler units to Inches.

In the Margins sub-section, choose a margin. This is white space (=un-printed) around the edge of your photo. This does not increase the overall paper size you set in the Print Job section, eg 12” x 16” but decreases the image size. If you’re going to mount your image in a cut-out mount, this can help as it gives you the ability to size your image to the cut-out. I normally set this to 0.2” on each side. If you are going to surface mount your image, set the margins to 0 and you get no white space at the edges if your image aspect ratio EXACTLY matches your selected print size.

In the Page Grid sub-section set the Rows and Columns sliders both to 1.

The Cell Spacing sub-section should be greyed out.

The Cell Size section is clever. Use the sliders to change the aspect ratio of the image on the paper. This way, you can get a letterbox print or an odd size meaning that if you have cropped your image in the Develop module to suit the image and not the final print, it doesn’t matter. Yes, you may end up with a bigger gap top/bottom or side to side but you get the final printed size exactly as you want. You can always trim off any additional unprinted paper later.

Lastly, click the Print to File button, bottom right. You then need to enter a file name. I normally use the image number followed by the paper size followed by the paper type eg:

3245 12x16 Lustre.jpg

Click the OK button and LR will produce a jpeg file in your chosen location ready for you to upload to your chosen commercial printer.

To ‘print’ your next image

Go back into the Develop module

Select the image

Select Soft Proofing

Select your profile

Click Create Proof Copy

Go into the Print module

In the Print Job section, set the following:

Custom file dimensions Set this to the overall paper size you want, eg 18” x 8” or what ever

Color management If using a downloaded ICC profile, select that from the list otherwise use sRGB

Set your required margins

Change the cell size for the print size you want

Click the Print to File button

Uploading

Upload the jpeg files you ‘printed’. Select the print sizes for each file according to the paper size (that’s why I put the paper size in the filename, otherwise I’d forget!) Select ‘borderless’ prints. This stops the printer from adding a margin. Instead, the printer will use your margin, if you’ve set one.

Pay the bill and away you go!

Important Considerations

The first time you use an on-line print service, be aware that what you get back may not be what you wanted! Images may be too dark or too light and colours may be off. If you’re printing for a competition BE CAREFUL!

Consider sending the on-line service several ‘test’ images, eg a representative mono and a representative colour. By representative, I mean representative of your ‘style’. You might choose more than one image for each of mono or colour, eg for the monos, choose a very contrasty image and a much less contrasty one. For colour images, choose a highly, strongly coloured image and one far less colourful.

The first time I used my preferred printing service, I sent a dozen or more images. Some were the same image: one perceptual and one relative (see Special Note, above). Some were deliberately slightly bright, others deliberately slightly dark.

So I knew what I’d done to each image, I used the Photo Info option in the Page pane on the right hand side. Tick the Photo Info box and then click the little arrow to the right of where it says “Filename” (Filename is the default – it may be different on your computer). Select the Custom Text option then enter the text eg “Exps +3 clicks, Relative” to describe what you’ve done to the image in the Develop module. This text will appear under your image, increasing the bottom margin.

I recommend printing smaller images for these tests than you would normally: they’re cheaper that way!

I did this as I wanted to know how their printers would handle my images so I would know when I wanted ‘proper’ final prints, exactly what I was going to get back. Yes, there is a cost associated with this approach, but there is far less disappointment when you get prints done for a competition! You should do this again if you re-calibrate your monitor or buy a new one.

One other point. On-line print prices may be very low eg £0.75 for a 10 x 8 but P&P may be £4.99. As a result, don’t print just 1 or 2 images at a time, get a load of them done – it keeps your costs down 😉