Advice needed re lack of vibrancy/ punch in photos

[Mike Whitworth]

My printed photos lack vibrancy it is as if their is a VERY THIN veil in front of them I do stress this is slight but it seems to stop the photos having any punch/ vibrancy .

My set up is as folows

Cannon MX925.

useing adobe elements 13 software.

Windows 7 home premium

I am useing a refillable ink system supplied by "City ink express" and their foto-rite inks .

Paper is & day shop .com glossy paper.

I have had a ICC profile done useing the above inks and paper .



Things I have already tried

all sorts of different settings in photoshop elements 13 and also elements 6

Differnt papers ie Epson , HP, Tdk etc etc

the only slight improvement I can get is with the printer set to matt paper when actually useing Gloss.

I have also tried downloading test photos which while reasonable they still have a slight veil / lack of clarity /punch



What am I missing ?

What more can I try ?

HELP PLEASE.

 

[Gremlin11]

Hi Mike,

I am afraid you have already nailed the most likely cause.

Although you have set up your ICC profile to suit the aftermarket inks you are using, no matter how good the profile is, you will never really get the high quality finish on the media. The reality is that profiles are created not just for the inks, but also for the media and the printer. You need to get all three right.
Unfortunately, I have never seen a great deal of success when using non genuine inks to produce the fantastic photo finish.

Your best bet is to hunt around and find media to suit your profile, try a few different media settings within the print driver and see which one works. I can assure you that it has nothing to do with your imaging software or operating system.

I understand that this might not be what you want to hear, but I have seen this many times over my 20 years in the printing industry.