Step-by-step Piezography workflow

Hi,

I have read through several posts and have read the New Piezography user’s manual, but I still need help figuring out the ideal piezography workflow. I am working in Photoshop CS6 and will be printing with K7 Neutral inks on Hahnemuhle paper. This is what I usually do… When I first open up a Raw file, Camera Raw pops up and I typically don’t make any changes. Photoshop opens and from there I usually convert my image to B&W and then use Curves etc. Then I would usually try to figure out which profile to assign, flatten the image and prepare to print.
I’m mostly confused about color profiles, image modes and B&W conversion, and where they fit in the piezography workflow (e.g. when to assign color profiles).

-When should I convert an image into black and white? Should that be the first or last adjustment I make to a photo?

-In Photoshop, what image mode should I be working in?

-Which color profile must I assign? When?

-If I don’t intend on calibrating my monitor, how will that affect the piezo workflow?

For the following, would it be possible to send a screen shot of the dialogue boxes?

-Under Edit > Color settings, what should I select in the dialogue box?

-Under Edit > Assign Profile, what should be selected?

-Under Edit > Convert to Profile, what should I see? What should be selected?

If possible, I’d really appreciate having a step-by-step workflow. Please let me know if you can help : )

Thank you,

-Alex

Hi VillageSchool~

Are you printing from Mac or Windows? What operating system version?

I have some information/answers below:

  1. Working with Piezography, an image should be converted to grayscale as one of the very first steps before editing contrast, etc… Never save over the original image, so you can always go back to the beginning if you wish/need.

  2. Grayscale mode

  3. For Piezography printing, your grayscale images must have an embedded profile of Gamma 2.2.

  4. You can certainly print from an uncalibrated monitor, but don’t expect your print output to match your monitor preview. It’s best to view and edit images on a well calibrated monitor for the best match to your print output, which will minimize editing time and the number of proofs needed to get images looking as you want. It can be very frustrating to see one thing on your screen, and get something very different from your printer.

5, 6 + 7. We don’t have screen captures of these specific windows in our current Piezography Manual, though do show the Photoshop Color Settings window in our Quick-Windows Piezography guide. Page 66 + 67 of the Piezography Manual talks about assigning vs. converting an embedded profile.

I hope this helps.
Best regards and happy printing~ Dana :slight_smile:

This video may be helpful to you: http://www.piezography.com/PiezoPress/easy-to-use/