LR4 Beta Soft Proofing

[Remo Nonaz]

I played around with the soft proofing feature in LR4b last night. Even after watching the Julianne Kost video a couple of times and knowing the CS4 soft proofing features, I'm still a bit confused. I didn't go a far as to start printing screens to see what things looked like. Here are my concerns.

I figured out how to get the screen to emulate my paper by clicking on the 'Soft Proofing' box in the screen and the 'Simuate Paper & Ink' in the panel. This gets me to two screens that compare my adjusted image to the printer output image. I can then adjust the printer output image to match the adjusted image, but after closing all this and going back to the image, it is the adjusted output image. It would seem that I should be adjusting the output image only and keeping the adjusted image as it was.

I am aware of the save feature that pops up. I'm assuming that what you are doing is creating a new image in metadata that has all the printer adjustments. But the save also impacts what is in the panels (original, adjusted, proof, more?). It gets confusing.

It's also not clear to me what is actually going to print. I'm assuming it image in the 'Proof Preview' panel, which has all the adjustments for the paper or other media that is going to go to output.

My take on all of this is that if the proof is reasonably accurate to the output media, this is fabulous feature. It is tricky, though, and I think either a set of very good instructions, or possibly some changes to the controls and labels would be helpful.

[digitaldog]

It's also not clear to me what is actually going to print. I'm assuming it image in the 'Proof Preview' panel, which has all the adjustments for the paper or other media that is going to go to output.

Correct  (assuming you highlight the VC and take that to the print module).

These video’s might help too (the idea of screwing with the overlay is IMHO not time well spent):

http://digitaldog.net/files/LR4_softproof.mov
http://digitaldog.net/files/LR4_softproof2.mov

[Remo Nonaz]

Andrew:

Thank you for the response. I watched your videos and I have a better idea of what is going on. It is going to take some practice to get right - the whole process is a major shift in workflow.

Here's a related question you may be able to answer. When I print in CS4, the main Print panel, which includes the link to Page Setup (the tools in that panel match LR4b more or less), has Scaled Print Size option that I like to use. If I'm all set up to print a large print, I'll use a 1/4 sheet piece of paper and either scale down to see what the whole image in small size will look like, or position a 'crop' within the page to get a full scale section of the large print. It is a fast and handy way to make a real proof. I don't see a way to do this in the LR4b print options. Is it not there or am I missing something?

BTW, I cruised around your webpage a bit. Very nice and you have some useful-looking videos and tools. I'll be back!

[digitaldog]

I don't see a way to do this in the LR4b print options. Is it not there or am I missing something?

You should be able to accomplish the same process by making a different print template (sized to what you desire).