Local Houston Photo Lab Help

[Jred]

I recently began trying to print and frame some of my better shots. As a member of Costco I downloaded their printer profile and reprocessed my .psd files on a calibrated 24" IMac monitor on Photoshop Cs5.

Unfortunately, the prints are not nearly bright enough and the saturation and vibrance are not even close.

I am frustrated. Has anyone else had this problem? Are there any labs that folks in Houston have worked with that I may inquire with?

I am looking for a place that understands printer profiles and calibration that can help me get the prints dialed in.

John

[venchka]

AZ Lab. In the Heights near Camera Co-op.

[Anthony Martinez]

What Wayne said.

[stephenpinn]

Jred, did you soft proof before sending the files to print? sorry if you are already familiar with the process

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[Jred]

Not sure what you mean by "soft" proof.

[stephenpinn]

You apply the color profiles that you get from the printer to your images to get a preview of what your images will look like. gives youa last chance to review before sending to the printer.

The organization that does the printing for Costco has a pretty good explanation, here is another, you might need to flip througha few pages to get to the soft proofing instructions.

http://www.google.com/gwt/x/im?wsc=y...im_without_mcd

Have fun


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[Jred]

I do not own a color printer. I applied the printer profile supplied by Costco as I said in my first post, not even close top what they printed.

[venchka]

I think Costco will reprint if you aren't satisfied. Is your monitor calibrated?
I see you have an iMac. A recent discussion suggested that iMac monitors may be overly bright leading to dark prints. My prints improved when I turned brightness & contrast way down.

[stephenpinn]

Venchka is correct they will reporting, the article I sent you was about printing and it addresses soft proofing and how to do it, that is why I said it wad in a few pages. Regardless of whether you use your printer or that of a lab, soft proofing will preview what your image will print like once the printer profiles are applied.

The entire article is a good review of color control in your workflow.

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[venchka]

This may or may not help.........

http://www.texasphotoforum.com/forum...ead-hurts.html

Talk to Costco. They want folks to be happy. They don't want people bad mouthing their products.

[Jred]

Ok fellas. Thanks for all your interest and help. Let's talk work flow.

1. I shoot with a 7d, within that camera's menu system is a color space setting. Mine is set to Adobe RGB. The other setting is sRGB.

2. I use Photoshop CS5. My color setting are set as follows: See attached pic 1

3. I also have a color setting that is calibrated to my monitor. How does this relate?

4. When I print I use the Costco xxyyzz printer profile. When I soft proof I use these settings: See attached pic 2

5. When I save a file to take to Costco how do these setting relate to the picture I print and what I see on my monitor.

6. What good are the Photoshop CS5 workspace color settings if they do not emulate a. what is seen on a normally calibrated monitor? b. the final printed product?

7. How would I get the Photoshop CS5 color setting Prophoto RGB Color setting be reflected in the final Costco Printed product? I assume that you must open both photos in the same space and adjust the Costco printer profile proof to look as closely to the Prophoto RGB picture as possible. Am I at least in the ballpark?

Please help.

[Jred]

Originally Posted by venchka

This may or may not help.........

http://www.texasphotoforum.com/forum...ead-hurts.html

Talk to Costco. They want folks to be happy. They don't want people bad mouthing their products.

I have repeatedly spoken to the folks at Costco. From a technical standpoint they are clueless. From a customer service standpoint they are very helpful.

[venchka]

Did you try: "Please reprint these until we get them right?"

[Jred]

Originally Posted by venchka

Did you try: "Please reprint these until we get them right?"

I did not. Since I am of the opinion that the error may have been on my part, I am still attempting to understand the proper workflow and once I do I will try that.

Do you have any thoughts on my post #11 above?

Many thanks,

John

[stephenpinn]

Jred sorry this is turning out to be such a pain. Let me refer you to one more document. Drycreek is the company that prints for Costco, this is a guide demonstrating how to use their profiles with Photoshop. A warning the information is a little dated so some of the screens in CS5 are slightly different but not significantly. I think the important part will be to read through this carefully, especially the information regarding rendering jpgs with the profiles for submission (doesn't come till the very end!)

Using Printer Profiles with Digital Labs

Originally Posted by Jred

Ok fellas. Thanks for all your interest and help. Let's talk work flow.

1. I shoot with a 7d, within that camera's menu system is a color space setting. Mine is set to Adobe RGB. The other setting is sRGB.
Not sure what "the other" setting is (not a 7D shooter)

2. I use Photoshop CS5. My color setting are set as follows: See attached pic 1

3. I also have a color setting that is calibrated to my monitor. How does this relate?
It doesn't, color profile for your monitor is m(most likely) already applied by windows (I am familiar with the Spyder software which installs profiles into windows profile list)


4. When I print I use the Costco xxyyzz printer profile. When I soft proof I use these settings: See attached pic 2
Make sure "Preview" is checked otherwise you will not see the change


5. When I save a file to take to Costco how do these setting relate to the picture I print and what I see on my monitor.

Covered in the referenced article

6. What good are the Photoshop CS5 workspace color settings if they do not emulate a. what is seen on a normally calibrated monitor? b. the final printed product?
This is a very complicate process, as you can imagine, here is my simplified answer (using lousy ascii art)
original subject - <capture in camera> - edit in photoshop - printed
-------------------^---------------------^-----------------^
(shoot color reference) (apply monitor profile) (apply printer profile)

so your monitor profile tries to make your monitor show you the colors that you captured (which is really important). Then the printer profiles (developed by using a specific printer/paper/ink combination) are used to let you render on the printer colors close to what you saw. Softproofing lets you see what color/brightness/contrast/sharpening adjustments are necessary to close the gap between screen and print rendering.

Remember that without going through this step there is no way that your calibrated system can present the correct data to the printer's calibrated system. Also understand that the 2 will never totally equal eachother since the monitor is presenting additive color (combing red/blue/green) and the printer is using a subtractive color system (cyan/magenta/yellow)



7. How would I get the Photoshop CS5 color setting Prophoto RGB Color setting be reflected in the final Costco Printed product? I assume that you must open both photos in the same space and adjust the Costco printer profile proof to look as closely to the Prophoto RGB picture as possible. Am I at least in the ballpark?

Hopefully the referenced document will explain this

Please help.