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09/18/2009 02:27:01 PM · #1 |
Ok, I know there's a difference between the printed photo and the photo on the screen. Emission vs reflection--it's never going to look the same. (I always like slide better than print, as well.)
But my photos are always much darker when printed than on the screen. I usually just use the brightness/contrast option, since that's supposed to affect the mid tones more than the extremes.
The question is: do you have a standard thing that you do when you print your photos? I print ones that I don't care about at home, but the Richmond Camera lab does a much better job than my i9900. It's hard and expensive to continually send it back to the lab for reprinting when I guess wrong.
Any tips/tricks that you know of would be greatly appreciated! Thanks folks! |
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09/18/2009 03:07:02 PM · #2 |
What printer and photoshop settings are you using?
What paper/ink profiles are you using?
Is your monitor calibrated? |
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09/18/2009 03:27:22 PM · #3 |
If you are only printing at home on YOUR printer, calibrate your monitor to match your prints from your printer.
If you will be printing from various sources, get a Spyder II or other software to calibrate your monitor. Then mess with your printer settings until it prints where you want it. It can be done (at least on an Epson) but requires time and many prints getting it adjusted. Print small images to do it (4x5ish) and put the image you're going to print on an 8x10ish background and just move it into different corners of the background so you can put 4 on the same sheet of paper in 4 different printings.
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09/18/2009 04:20:59 PM · #4 |
Originally posted by Ristyz:
If you are only printing at home on YOUR printer, calibrate your monitor to match your prints from your printer.
If you will be printing from various sources, get a Spyder II or other software to calibrate your monitor. Then mess with your printer settings until it prints where you want it. It can be done (at least on an Epson) but requires time and many prints getting it adjusted. Print small images to do it (4x5ish) and put the image you're going to print on an 8x10ish background and just move it into different corners of the background so you can put 4 on the same sheet of paper in 4 different printings. |
When printing on my printer, I can adjust and get it the way I want, but my printer is broken now, so I'm sending out. Also, on things I want to frame, I send out. The colors are fine, but it all seems very dark. I just assumed that you needed to adjusted something when printing, because no one has said anything about my photos being off... I just assumed that you had to brighten things when you print since the photo is viewed on the screen with light coming through, vs printing is view with light reflecting off the image.
Message edited by author 2009-09-18 16:21:53. |
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09/18/2009 06:14:43 PM · #5 |
| One thing to do is review the histogram. |
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09/18/2009 06:22:43 PM · #6 |
Originally posted by vawendy:
....... I just assumed that you needed to adjusted something when printing, because no one has said anything about my photos being off... I just assumed that you had to brighten things when you print since the photo is viewed on the screen with light coming through, vs printing is view with light reflecting off the image. |
Back when I printed my own, I never had to adjust an image to print once I got it all set to each other. It sounds like your printer and an issue.
Another way to test your calibration is to take a file to a lab and ask them to print it with NO ADJUSTMENTS and see what you get. Your DPC images look decent so even if your monitor isn't perfectly calibrated, it's not way bad either. I hope that sending the printer off to get repaired fixes your woes. An yes, check your histogram... it says a lot.
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09/18/2009 08:10:55 PM · #7 |
| I assume you are using an LCD monitor... keep in mind that many LCD monitors at their default settings are way too bright, so you wind up making photos darker to look correct on the monitor, then when you print, well, you get the picture. Go here, it is a lot of reading, but it will help you set up your monitor as best you can without actually using a hardware monitor profiler. |
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09/18/2009 08:54:49 PM · #8 |
Originally posted by kirbic:
I assume you are using an LCD monitor... keep in mind that many LCD monitors at their default settings are way too bright, so you wind up making photos darker to look correct on the monitor, then when you print, well, you get the picture. Go here, it is a lot of reading, but it will help you set up your monitor as best you can without actually using a hardware monitor profiler. |
But this doesn't make much sense... I assumed that my photos looked fine, or they wouldn't do well. Do the photos look dark to anyone? Here's the best example.  the underside of the wings look a light grey and light blue to me. When printed at Richmond camera, they were a pretty dark grey. (I always play with levels and fix the histogram -- it's the first thing I do. This one's histogram is a bit weird, but still fine.) It's definitely an LCD monitor, but again, I assumed if my pictures were off, that I would get comments. No one has ever said that there's a problem, so I'm curious how things look to others...
Message edited by author 2009-09-18 20:56:05. |
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09/18/2009 09:11:16 PM · #9 |
Wendy, I don't know much except that I had very very frustrating experiences for years trying to print. I primarily use Millers Lab now & let them adjust themselves, so I don't know how much help my former experience will be, but:
If you're using a local printer, as I used to, I finally had to sit with them at the monitor & first ensure that their monitor saw what mine saw, and then complain until the printed result matched their monitor. Using any commercial printer that didn't allow that was simply an exercise in frustration and a waste of money. I finally found a local printer who took serious care with their images, and was happy to work until the printed result matched what I needed. I still use them as much as possible, but as they don't have all the products I need I sometimes end up at Millers.
When at Millers Lab, I found that I get the best result by letting them adjust. Once in a while this won't work & I have to resubmit the order without adjustments, and I haven't bothered to complain to see if they would give me my $$ back for the first set. |
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