Preparing Digital Photo Images For Prints

[jayhan]

I am looking forward to feedback from experienced shooters on how to prepare or post processing photo images for prints. I notice some of my prints come out to be out of the original color intended, and this could be worse if the skin tone colors are out of proportion.

This is assuming that post processing is required in PhotoShop CS2 and images is not taken to print directly out from camera.

cheers!

[ND40]

Some of the machine, they don't calibrate it correctly. I had play with the machine and setup the machine b4. It got hell lot of color spaces. Ask them to make it SRGB.

I tried once and all my color washy. Then i ask my friend to change his color space of the machine to sRGB. After that, the problem solved. These days, not much shop really care about the printer's setting. Sometimes when you send in your photo, they will re-tune the brightness and add some saturation also. Remember to tell them not to change any setting of your photo.

[blur]

Usually I stick to the same shop if I find the results satisfactory. And when I send for print, I always tell them not to do any adjustments at all. Not even brightness or contrast. Just print as is.

As for the cropping, I always crop my pics to the ratio I want to print before sending.

[jayhan]

Hrmm I guess cropping is also another issue cuz the shop tend to crop away some of my images (if not all of them!). Thing is some of the attendants at the shop will just go:

"Hah? What SRGB? We print 4R ok ah? Dun have SRGB lah. Got 4R and big big size la."

[Peisqo]

Hrmm I guess cropping is also another issue cuz the shop tend to crop away some of my images (if not all of them!). Thing is some of the attendants at the shop will just go:

"Hah? What SRGB? We print 4R ok ah? Dun have SRGB lah. Got 4R and big big size la."

lol agreed ... some extreme cases will go to "Erm we run out stock la ... come next time" .. i was like wtf ? :?

so far i have no problem with colour ... but proportion got problem abit ... my prints came out kena cut at the left and right .. so i ask "y like this" .. then he talk 1 bunch of bull**** ... but what he meant was .. i think the printer prints 3:2 or 2:3 ratio .. dunno about other camera but I think the Nikon D40 ... the ratio is slightly over 3:2 ..something like tat la ... so better use PS to crop it abit ...

[ivanchong]

I cropped the required size for printing ie. 1200*1800 (300dpi) for a 4R print out.I ask the shopkeeper what is the dpi required should i want to make large print. Make my profile to sRGB. When i get home, i compare the printout with the one on my monitor side by side to see if there is any major variation. I can still cope with slight changes in brightnest, contrast and saturation. So far i have yet to have complaints from my clients about the printouts :)

Always refer to the same person who does your printing, for me i will return another day if the person i always deal with is not around.

[The Dark]

I usually have problem with low-key images when printed by photo labs. They will always try to bring the shadows up and blowing up the highlights:ranting:, it drives me crazy sometimes that I just don't bother printing these images at a photo lab and use my Epson isntead.

[ShaolinTiger]

If you plan to print at a minilab regular stick to one and calibrate your monitor colours according to the minilab print out.

That's the ONLY way you'll get accurate colour rendition.

Unless you want to use colour profiling and print at a pro lab.

Make sure you use sRGB aswell, most of them screw up Adobe.

[etano]

Maybe I know what is the ideal resolution for doing large printing such as A4 and A3? Would 300dpi good enough?

Can anyone recommend a good printing shop that speaks photography? I went to my regular one and they don't know what I am talking about when I asked about dpi, sRGB, etc. I guess they just set the printer to default settings that make a lot of 'smart' correction that turns out to be something we don't want.