Step 2: Tap the Soft Proofing Checkbox at the Bottom Left and Create a Proof Copyīut if it’s not present, you’ll need to hit the dropdown menu on the right and select Soft Proofing: The soft proofing process is about getting the displayed image to match the printed image–and if you tweak your image after soft proofing, you’ll need to go through the soft proofing process once again. Here’s how it works: Step 1: Open Your Photo in the Lightroom Develop Moduleīefore soft proofing, you’ll want to make sure you’ve edited your photo to taste. Soft proofing in Lightroom is pretty easy and intuitive. Soft Proofing in Lightroom: A Step-By-Step Guide In such cases, you cannot do a soft proof–but a hard proof will still work, and it’s often worth doing (especially if you’ll be printing a lot of photos). You’ll sometimes run into situations where you don’t have access to a printer-paper profile. It’ll make the hard proofing process easier (and will prevent you from having to create multiple hard proofs). That said, I do recommend you soft proof before hard proofing. And you don’t want to spend a chunk of change on prints, only to find that they don’t look how you imagined. If you’re planning on printing your photos in bulk, it often makes sense to just get a couple of test prints done.īecause while soft proofing is useful, it’s not perfect. Hard proofing involves printing out physical copies of your image. If you’re thinking about printing your photos, you may have come across another term:īut what is hard proofing? And how is it different from soft proofing? Soft Proofing Alternatives: Hard Proofing As long as you convert the color space to sRGB before uploading your photo, the uploaded photo will look just as you expect it to. Note that soft proofing isn’t very useful if you’re looking to simply display your images on the web. If you’re not sure what printer-paper combination will be used, make sure to ask before sending your file off for printing (good labs should have profiles mapped out for all their materials). This includes printing that you do yourself, as well as printing that you do at a lab. Soft proofing is useful for anyone looking to print images.Īfter all, if you’re spending money on a print, you don’t want it to look desaturated or faded or too blue, etc. …without actually going through the effort of printing.Īnd you can then tweak the image prior to sending it off to the printer so that it looks exactly as you want it to. Soft proofing uses profiles–that is, evaluations of different printer and paper combinations–to simulate the look of your final print. That’s where soft proofing comes in handy. This can be hugely frustrating if you’re using different print-paper combinations and you want them all fit the same style. Second, it means that your prints will vary in terms of their look. Obviously, this is a problem, and for two main reasons:įirst, it means that your prints won’t match what you see on the monitor (and, generally speaking, what you see on your monitor before hitting the Print button, is what you want). Which means that if you print a standard seascape photo, one printer-paper combination will exaggerate the yellows, another printer-paper combination will desaturate the whole shot, another printer-paper combination will boost the darkest tones, and so on. You see, every printer and paper combination will render the same image slightly differently. Soft proofing refers to a process by which you can simulate the look of a print on your monitor. So if you’re ready for a comprehensive guide to soft proofing–both in Lightroom and Photoshop–then keep reading. If you’re aiming to print your photos, then soft proofing is a hugely useful tool–one that’s offered by both Lightroom and Photoshop.īut how do you actually soft proof your photos? What’s the overall process? And what, precisely, will soft proofing get you?