raineth Posted June 9, 2011 Share Posted June 9, 2011 I went to a camera shop today and got some of my photos printed.But they haven't turned out well. The colour is less vibrant, and it seems as though the contrast has been turned up so there are really dark bits, and really light bits; not at all good for faces! Also most of the catch-lights that I got in the eyes of my subjects are not there I really wanted to send my mum and dad some photos - they are not in the digital age and so the only way I can share photos with them is to print them. I don't know what went wrong? Do I need to edit them specifically for printing? Any tips and information would be so much appreciated! p.s. my poor black dog came out looking like a big black blob. All his facial detail was lost Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
persephone Posted June 9, 2011 Share Posted June 9, 2011 That's awful You don't have a printer? Perhaps take a leap, and go to a local printer- not just a camera shop? Someone who will make adjustments and try for a good quality print? if the photos are really bad quality- go back to that shop and let them know you can't use them ! can you post a couple of the originals that didn't print well? Someone may know if you can edit or something Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
huga Posted June 9, 2011 Share Posted June 9, 2011 It could be your monitor too. Most of the time they are too bright (dark prints) and on the cool side (yellowy prints). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
raineth Posted June 9, 2011 Author Share Posted June 9, 2011 Hi Persephone, Thanks for you response No I only have a printer that's designed for printing word documents. Here is the one of Digby. In the print he is just black, like it was a silhouette photo. and here is one of my little boy. In the print the left side of his face is very bright and the other parts are dark and very ruddy. I think I'll take your advise and tell them that I'm not happy with them. Then atleast maybe they can explain why they didn't turn out Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
raineth Posted June 9, 2011 Author Share Posted June 9, 2011 It could be your monitor too. Most of the time they are too bright (dark prints) and on the cool side (yellowy prints). oh great! Thanks Huga. I'll have to see if I can adjust my settings so that the monitor reflects how the photos really are Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frodo's mum Posted June 9, 2011 Share Posted June 9, 2011 (edited) I did mine done at Harvey Norman once they all came out dark I complained and they said you needed to lighten them off before printing so got a free new lot done as was fault in their machine I now do all mine with snapfish and never had any colour problem at all :D Edited June 9, 2011 by Frodo's mum Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
redangel Posted June 9, 2011 Share Posted June 9, 2011 Some of the local photo machines have weird calibration.(ie settings) In your case if you are viewing it on a LCD monitor the setting is much brighter and backlit than most calibrated monitions so dark appears darker in print. Using a calibrated monitor to an equally calibrated printer solves this. I calibrated my monitior with a spyder tool & took some sample shots to test it to get settings truer to print. That being said I use a printer such as Digitalworx to process my photos, much better result. My local printer agency uses the same jpeg and all comne out with a blue cast to them. Im definitely not an expert, but my solution worked for me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Linda K Posted June 9, 2011 Share Posted June 9, 2011 on the black dog one, using an eye dropper in photoshop, there is not a lot of tonal variation - ie very similar readings in a lot of the areas, but there are no areas reading 0, I can find redings in all the darker areas, so you did actually get detail there. I would suggest if the dog is now printing as totally black, sounds like they might have done a curve bump, which pulls the blacks down and bumps up the whites, which in the case of the dog, will have pulled all those blacks right down to nearly zero, since they are all so close, just what you don't want. On the one of your son, on the left of his face there are areas where the channels read 255, so will print as pure white - the detail has been blown (ie blown highlights), so this would not print well. I try to keep areas below about 245, as otherwise they can be a bit dodgy to print. For a quick print job, I have used Harvey Norman successfully, no problems with the colour, and I told them not to colour correct, just to print as is, but I do use a professional lab for my client jobs that I am calibrated to, so I know I don't need to worry. Did they do any further color correction - most consumer places will assume generally, unless you instruct them otherwise, to do color correction, and it sounds like they might have done that if the catchlights have also gone - no idea why they would want to remove those, as the whole point of trying to get catchlights is to avoid the awful dead pool of eyes. Hope you can get it sorted. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
raineth Posted June 9, 2011 Author Share Posted June 9, 2011 Thank you so much everyone! You have all been so helpful! I'm definitely coming to a better understanfing Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
huga Posted June 9, 2011 Share Posted June 9, 2011 Raineth, now that I've seen the photos, the dog doesn't have much detail and the side of the little boys face is quite blown out (on my not calibrated, but pretty spot on monitor). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
raineth Posted June 9, 2011 Author Share Posted June 9, 2011 Raineth, now that I've seen the photos, the dog doesn't have much detail and the side of the little boys face is quite blown out (on my not calibrated, but pretty spot on monitor). Thanks Huga, yeah I can really see that it is blown out now that its been pointed out to me hehehe But although I knew Digby's face was dark I wasn't expecting it to come out with no detail... But I'm definitely going to work really hard on exposure now so I can get it right Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
raineth Posted June 19, 2011 Author Share Posted June 19, 2011 just wanted to update. I did an experiment this weekend. first I downloaded picasa. Then I took the photos that were a bit dark and used the "fill light" tool. And on a couple that the colour ws flat I used that satuartion tool. Then I took them to a different printers and got both the originals and the edited photos done. The originals are much better quality than at the other printers; and the ones i edited look really really good :D So I'm very excited now as I think I've worked out what sort of editing I need to do to get good prints AND I know what printer to take them too! everyone for all the great advise. It really helped Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
persephone Posted June 19, 2011 Share Posted June 19, 2011 That's good news, raineth .... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stutterfly Posted June 20, 2011 Share Posted June 20, 2011 LCDs and LEDs (un-calibrated ones) are all gonna make things looks brighter than they really are. The only monitor that will give you a nearly-perfect idea of what they'll look like prinnted is actually a CRT, the old chunky monitors The best of the pro photogs and graphic people all use CRTs. Glad you found a way to make them look good printed Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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