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cessing – no computer involved – and assigned a new Portrait picture style plus a strong level of Auto Lighting Optimiser, exposure and contrast adjust- ment. The reprocessed JPEG was saved on the CF card in sRGB, and printed out by plugging the camera in to the printer and pressing the play button. This immediately brought up a menu of print options. We found this process very fast and intuitive – the camera recognised the printer, and you could go from shoot to print in a matter of seconds using the last remem- bered set-up.
John was very impressed by the quality of the output from the camera directly, and from files we loaded on to a Mac- Book Pro. “We normally have all our volume print orders made by one lab”, he explained. “For awards entries – where we need the very highest quality on special papers – we have been sending our files to a specialist printer offering Pearl base gloss paper.” To find out if the PIXMA Pro1 would be suitable for award entry printing – single prints of the best possible quality we printed some of John’s recent work on Canon’s own Photo Glossy Pro II paper. Third party paper suppliers now offer Pearl base gloss paper compatible with the PIXMA Pro1 “The Canon printer makes a nice quality competition grade print”, John said. “The Canon paper has a good gloss and a true black. The detail and density in the midtones are even closer to the original as seen on screen than our lab print”. John compared a couple of different output versions of the test (top right) using the alternative Canon ‘Automate’ print method and the usual Photoshop print dialogue. The option accessed through the ‘Automate’ menu offers queuing up of many images, multiple prints on single sheets of paper, and productivity which far exceeds the single print method direct from Photoshop. It pro- vides some of the functions of RIP software without extra cost. Despite the usual prob- lems making sure unfamiliar
Examples of John Parris’s current work – top, one of the images we used to test the PIXMA Pro1 output; John examines prints
Photoshop print drivers are correctly set for colour manage- ment, we managed to get a per- fect match. Canon’s dedicated print Automation was simpler to use and more versatile but any experienced Photoshop user should be able to get the standard Photoshop dialogue set up without error. Canon’s dialogue includes options to use, or omit, the Gloss Optimiser which is like a clear varnish. It can be applied to the image area, to a manu- ally set rectangle, to the whole print or not at all.
Recently, John as a ‘Master’ at Fellowship level has been part of the Paragon Pixels and Crystal Cruises premium portrait photography service. He and Sandra have, as a result, travelled to Australia, Indonesia, New Zealand, the USA and to the Amazon Basin. “We have yet to test the 5D Mark III in tropical rain forest conditions”, he said. “One big difference between the 5D Mark II and the 1D models is the degree of seal- ing. The 1D bodies don’t mist up inside, but the earlier 5D does. We’re hoping the Mark III with
its improved seals will be as good as the 1D and 1Ds bodies have proved in these condi- tions.”
And, the lighter weight smaller body is ideal when trav- elling – even if wedding clients really like to see that chunky grip attached.
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MASTER PHOTOGRAPHY 55
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