Tag Archives: photoshop

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OS X 10. 6 “Snow Leopard” installed – and printer problems ensue.

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I was actually on the beta test list for “Snow Leopard,” so I have been using it without problems for a while – but not on the computer I use for my photographic work but rather on a separate laptop. After the very trouble-free experience on the test machine I went ahead and installed in on my photography workstation yesterday.

Today I tried to print. Ouch!

The first problem I encountered was that the Epson 2200 sitting next to my computer no longer appeared in the the printer dialogs in Photoshop. Knowing that Snow Leopard supposedly will add new drivers as needed I tried to use the 10.6 preference panel to add drivers for the 2200. No luck – the system didn’t even see the connected printer.

I finally went to the Epson web site and followed their instructions which include:

  1. Install Rosetta from Apple install disk.
  2. Download the most recent pre-10.6 drivers for my printer and install.
  3. Download and run their updater for drivers under 10.6

Done. Now I can see the printer via its Firewire connection… but not, as far as I can tell, via its USB connection.

So, I fire up Photoshop and try to make a test print using a black and white image. Things seem to be going more or less OK as I work my way through the usual setup and print process: Photoshop manages colors and all. But the print emerges looking very green and way too dark. I attempt to download and reinstall the Epson profile for the Epson Premium Lustre paper I’m using at the moment. Installer downloads… but won’t run.

I do a restart and try the profile installer one more time – still no go. Since the photo was one that I had not previously printed I decide to remove one variable and instead print a color image that I had successfully printed right before installing the update to OS X. Again… very greenish and far too dark.

There is no joy here at the moment…

Update 8/31/09:

  • I will try to continue reporting on my CS4/Epson 2200/Snow Leopard printing issue as I continue to try to understand and resolve it. This may take a while, as I don’t have any urgent printing business to take care of.
  • As a – otherwise very successful – beta tester of Snow Leopard, I should not have allowed my enthusiasm for the new OS and otherwise good experience with it on the test machine to blind me to the standard practice of waiting a while to install on my production machine. Some of us never learn!
  • Other than this issue – serious to me, but probably a non-issue to most – the upgrade has otherwise been positive. One pleasant surprise was that the installation gave me back 125GB of space on my main drive!
  • I welcome any information about the printer issue that you may have. Please either leave a comment or send me an email.
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A Couple Quick Updates

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PeterP wrote left a “comment” asking how I do black and white conversions. I replied with a brief overview of my approach to using the “Black and White” layer in CS4 and then working with multiple masked curves layers to fine tune the resulting image.

I returned yesterday from a four-day pack photography backpack trip into the Young Lakes area of the Yosemite back-country out of Tuolumne Meadows. I’m currently going through a few hundred RAW files and beginning to work on a few of them. Conditions in the Sierra this past week were “interesting” – meaning some pretty good sized thunderstorms every afternoon and lots of interesting light somewhat marred by occasional smoke floating up from a wildfire burning lower in the Tuolumne River drainage.

Commentary, News, Photographers, Workshops

News From Charles Cramer

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I got an email from Charles Cramer last week, meant to pass some of his news along right away, and then became very busy and forgot. (My excuse is a combination of having a ton of papers to grade and about 40 prints to make!) Anyway, better late than never…

The Ansel Adams Gallery in Yosemite Valley is having a show of Charlie’s work through May 27th. You can see some examples of his work from the show here. (I’m fond of most all of his photographs, but the luminous photograph of an aspen grove found in this series is one of my favorites.) If you are in the Valley during the next week and a half, be sure to stop by the Gallery and linger for a while  – if nothing else it sounds like a great way to spend some time during the midday non-shooting interval! (It would certainly be more edifying than what I usually do in the middle of my epic One-Day Bay Area to Yosemite and Back marathons: nap for an hour in my car!)

Charlie does workshops. He reports that almost all of them are currently sold out, but that are still some openings for a workshop in Santa Clara, California on June 26-28. Highly recommended – more information online. I’ve been fortunate to have Charlie share some of his vast knowledge of photography and printing with me, and I know personally how well he explains important concepts and techniques and how insightful he is when it comes to seeing and critiquing your photographs. He also has a great – though slightly twisted – sense of humor as well. If you have a chance to read his Photoshop Techniques booklet, you know what I mean.

Commentary, Technique

Some Thoughts on Black and White Conversion in Photoshop

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Every so often you run across an article that offers some unfortunate advice on an important subject – perhaps it offers outdated advice or suggests a less effective technique. I saw such an article today on methods for converting color digital images to black and white in Photoshop. Sometimes seeing such an article encourages me to write something about the same topic as a counterpoint – and that is what led to this post.

I cannot claim to be the master of this conversion process, and I recognize that there are several ways to do it that are both effective and different that what I’ll describe. In addition, this will be more or less an overview rather than a detailed tuturial. IN any case, I want to offer some ideas that might be a bit more contemporary, flexible, and powerful than those I read about in that article. Continue reading Some Thoughts on Black and White Conversion in Photoshop →