Strange shadows/black levels

[toomanygittars]

This is reeeally bugging me...
Whenever I try to print photography - and it doesn't matter which media I'm using - something strange happens:

Faces and skin tones are just fine.
However - darker areas and especially deep shadows in, let's say, someone's dark suit, will be overly dark, like someone painted the shadows on there with a brush. It looks.... cartoonish, almost.

Does anybody have any idea what to do about this? I've cleaned and calibrated the head, my VersaWorks is up to date.

The printer I'm using is an ASBRU Compact 54 (a slightly modified Roland SP540). The ink is Bordeaux Prime-Eco.

Any tips appreciated....


Trygve

 

[romichoux]

I don't like this ink. to much solvent in it.but this is not the matter I think.

could you send a picture of your problem

 

[J Hill Designs]

you probably need to create your own profiles if you are using a modified printer/inkset

 

[romichoux]

or print with unidirectional option

 

[toomanygittars]

or print with unidirectional option

I've tried both uni- and bidirectional. The settings I use are generic Vinyl II, W-pass, High quality. AdobeRGB1998, EuroScale Coated, raster setting "perceptual" (tried other settings but those are the best ones.)

Maybe I'll go back to using the original ASBRU ink that came with the machine... although the Bordeaux ink is said to be 100% compatible.

I've attached two (bad quality) photos of the prints. Notice how the black levels are saturated, in a way:

 

[sardocs]

Sorry, I can't help with your ink issues, but I can say with 100% certainty that you can never have too many gittars....

 

[toomanygittars]

Sorry, I can't help with your ink issues, but I can say with 100% certainty that you can never have too many gittars....

Well, I have.

 

[romichoux]

try to print by using Prepress EUROPE parameter, then clic on properties and choose Perceptif.

 

[guato]

If the photo is in RGB, RIP will convert to CMYK and will darken a bit!
Try to use on original photo some alpha channel (0.1 -0.2)!

 

[Cale Frederick]

Our xc-540 does this also after we swapped to 3rd party inks... We usually try to think of it before hand when editing the photos in photoshop and pull back the dark shadows. Different technique for different photos but we try to lighten up the dark shadows by at least 30 percent or so.

 

[Jack Knight1979]

The problem you're having is called "clipping". Photoshop can be setup to show where clipping issues will occur using the profile you're printing with. You can then in turn bump up the color in those areas.

The true way to fix this problem is to create your own profile. Your K channel is too high and you could probably re-linearize that profile.

Profiling has been discussed at length within these forums. Do some searching and all will be revealed to you.