The Test Print Continued

Last week we continued an overview on the knowledge I've acquired on my journey toward producing a quality print at home.  If you're coming to this post late in the game, you can catch up by reading the following posts:

• Screen Calibration - Step 1 Toward Quality Prints
• The Proof is in the Paper - Step 2 Toward Quality Prints
• ICC Color Profiles - Step 3 Toward Quality Prints
• The Test Print - Step 4 Toward Quality Prints

At the end of last week's post, I promised to share how I added the "Brightness" label next to each of the cells in the test print as shown below.

If you followed along with the video tutorial I shared in last week's post, you'd have noticed that once the print hits the tray you really have no immediate way of telling which cell matches up with which virtual copy.  Here are a few tips I've employed that should help alleviate any confusion.

1. Create a separate "Print Copies" Collection Set to hold your print adjusted images. Inside the "Print Copies" collection set, create a new collection for your current image.  For my example above, I added a collection called "Moulton's Pride".
2. Add your original processed image to the collection you created in step 1.
3. Create 3 virtual copies of the original within that same collection using the Ctrl + ' key shortcut.
4. Select the first virtual copy and navigate to the Metadata panel in the Library Module.  Enter "Brightness = +20" in the "Copy Name" field. 
5. Press "D" to enter the development module and increase the Brightness Slider another 20 points over your original setting.
6. Repeat steps 4 and 5 for the other virtual copies increasing the brightness another 10 points over the prior image.  Again, I varied the brightness on my virtual copies by +20, +30 and +40 from the original image.  I may end up refining this with more experience as should you.
7. Select all 4 of the images in your collection (original + 3 virtual) and then click on the "Print" module option.
8. If you're not already viewing your selected images in the 2x2 template, select the "2x2 Cells" template from the Template Browser.
9. As my selected images are in a landscape orientation I'm going to check the "Rotate to Fit" option under the Image Settings to utilize as much of the page size as possible.
10. Scroll down to the "Page" panel.  Find and check the "Photo Info" option and then select the "Edit" option from the drop down to the right of the option.  This will bring up the Text Template Editor as shown below.
11. Find "Copy Name" in one of the drop downs under the Image Name section and click insert or simply type the text into the text box as show in the screen shot.
12. From the "Preset" drop down, select "Save Current Settings as New Preset" and title it "Copy Name".

That's it.  Now any time you want the text inside the "Copy Name" meta data text box to appear on your print, simply click this newly created Photo Info template from the list.

Once you've identified which of your images produces the best quality print, either use one of Lightroom's features to identify the specific image copy (set a color label, etc), or simply remove all of the other copies of the image from that collection.  If you are printing to different types of media you may need to become a little more elaborate with your organization structure or meta data to help you match the correct adjusted image with the media to which you'll be printing.

Stop back next week we'll review how to use Lightroom to produce an attractive, ready to hang poster from your favorite image.

Until next time, keep click'n.

-Ken