color? That led me to figure out how I could use PhotoShop to make gray scale separations that were not gray. I discovered how to do this and how to maintain the pure colors used in dye transfer printing.

 

In dye transfer, separations are made for the yellow, magenta, cyan and black layers. From each of these separations a matrix is made, the matrix is used to carry a color dye, each in turn, that is transferred to the print media in a manner similar to silk-screening. This is how Technicolor movies are made.

 

By making grayscale separations and applying the correct color pigment to each it is possible to make a Print layering multiple transparencies in registration and reproducing the original color.

 

 

Making a printer profile for transparencies is a bit tricky. I use Monaco EZColor and have both reflective and transmission ITT test targets. I tried various ways to make a transparency profile. The most workable method I found was to print the test patches onto the transparency material and attach the reflective target. This is placed in the scanner with a piece of bright white photo grade paper on top, I used Moab Kayenta. This is then scanned normally as a reflective source and used to produce the resulting profile. Trying to scan as a transmission with the transmission target simply would not work due to the low densities inherent in the hi-light colors. A good working profile is important to insure that the primary colors will print as pure as possible.

 

Prepare your selected image for size, color balance, and other chosen manipulations. You may want to enlarge the canvas a bit to add some registration marks that will