Development of the images into photographs

[Raincheque]

Hi all,

My virgin posting.

With slight relevance to the Francis Swee's thread, I noticed my images turn out BAD, to say the least when I developed them into physical photographs.

Anyone else have this experience? Is it just my images or photo developer issue?

Will appreciate any feedback. My wife is killing me coz my pictures are turning out bad!

Let me know if anyone needs any pictures for reference......

Cheers!
RC

 

[Galdor]

Hi...firstly a warm welcome to you.

What is wrong with the images? Composition, colour or something else? Maybe you could show us a scanned picture and the original as example too.

 

[Raincheque]

Thanks for your quick reply..
Mainly the colour/brightness/sharpness..

My wife went to this 25c per piece outlet in Ubi...
Or maybe you have a regular photo processing outlet that I can check out??

 

[ortega]

you shoot digital or film?

if digital then what does the digital image look like?
if film then what does the neg/pos look like?

 

[Raincheque]

HI Ortega,
DSLR 40D..
Where can I upload 1 image + its subsequent process picture.......??
Sorry, newbie qn...

 

[ndroo]

Gosh. You made it sound like you shot film. LOL.

Post some sample photos here and I'm sure someone can tell you what went wrong.

 

[Octarine]

Where can I upload 1 image + its subsequent process picture.......??

So many sticky threads like this: http://www.clubsnap.com/forums/showthread.php?t=94574

 

[Raincheque]

Thks Octarine.

I have difficulties resizing a picture taken of the processed picture coz I am working a notebook which I have just formatted.

Anyway, thanks for all the help rendered. I can only speculate that its the photo processing centre issue.

Meanwhile, what size is optimal for them to process the pictures?? I have edited the RAW files to produce files of 150Kb average. Are they too small? Any comments?

Thanks again.. Will be contributing more pictures after I helped my wife sort out all the disastrous pictures.... :dunno:

So many sticky threads like this: http://www.clubsnap.com/forums/showthread.php?t=94574

 

[Anson]

Thks Octarine.

I have difficulties resizing a picture taken of the processed picture coz I am working a notebook which I have just formatted.

Anyway, thanks for all the help rendered. I can only speculate that its the photo processing centre issue.

Meanwhile, what size is optimal for them to process the pictures?? I have edited the RAW files to produce files of 150Kb average. Are they too small? Any comments?

Thanks again.. Will be contributing more pictures after I helped my wife sort out all the disastrous pictures.... :dunno:

I am sure you don't send the RAW file for printing right? You can use Infranview to resize your JPEG image ... a max of 800 x 600 image size should be enough....

 

[Raincheque]

Hi Anson,

Thks for your tip.
I use either Canon or Nikon software to do my editing, but current notebook will be sent for another overhaul so I am not installing any software now.
I do processed the RAW files into JPEG files before sending them to the photolab.

My concern is the photos turn out very bad; either blur, dull or yellowish..
I am checking if anyone has this bad experience or its just my shooting skills(but the photos were 'perfect' when I view them on my notebook)...

 

[catchlights]

first thing, is the monitor of your notebook calibrated?

second thing, have your try sending same files to other labs to see the results of the print out is it same as first batch?

third thing, if you take all the trouble of shooting in raw, post processing, editing, than why sending those files to the cheap cheap labs for making 25cents print?

 

[Raincheque]

hi catchlight,

firstly, thks for even bothering to reply.. haha..

1. not that i know of, i have just formatted the laptop, and i did not tweak any settings.
2. yes, 1st batch was over-exposed and too sharp.. 2nd batch, yellowish and dull, too extreme to verify its my image fault..
3. very good point, as mentioned, my wife sent the pictures and she wasnt so technically inclined to foresee this possible outcome. for a layperson, a picture is just a picture rite?

we are making do with the pictures for now, as we have urgent use for the pictures..
meanwhile, what are the sizes of the JPEG files u sent in for development? Anyone??

thanks!

 

[Octarine]

1. not that i know of, i have just formatted the laptop, and i did not tweak any settings.

That looks as if you need a good read up about monitor profiling (also called calibration, although not correct). There are threads in "Digital Darkroom" that deal with that topic in depth. Please read them. In short: you must make sure that what you see at the monitor is exactly the same as what the camera sensor has seen and has digitally described in the RAW file. If you don't start at this point you'll never get anywhere with your prints. The reason is: every display (be it CRT, LCD, projector) has it's own characteristics about rendering colours. This needs to be balanced off, hence your first step is: monitor profiling. Secondly: it needs to be done for every monitor separately that you are going to use. You can't copy the profile as short cut.

2. yes, 1st batch was over-exposed and too sharp.. 2nd batch, yellowish and dull, too extreme to verify its my image fault..

Apart from the possible misadjustments due to your unprofiled monitors (and possible the low resolution) the cheap labs will just apply standard settings for "Make good looking pictures". That's roughly the same as the "Auto Mode" at your camera. So whatever you have done will be reverted to some general average values (or worse: to some funny settings the guy at the printing machine thinks looks nice to him). Depending on your picture this might be either halfway ok or totally off. For instance: if you have a picture with lots of blue objects you can bet that the automatic settings in the lab will interpret this as colour cast and reduce the blue portion. Hope you can imagine the rest. That means: whenever you give your self-edited and adjusted pictures to any lab make sure they don't do anything except printing. No adjustments. Good labs know what to do, but they don't cost 25 cents per print. Really good labs let you have test prints so that you can check before hundreds of prints are done. My recommendation: TripeD at Burlington, next to Sim Lim.

we are making do with the pictures for now, as we have urgent use for the pictures..
meanwhile, what are the sizes of the JPEG files u sent in for development? Anyone??

Read up here about resolution and print sizes: http://www.cambridgeincolour.com/tutorials/digital-camera-pixel.htm
In short: your kB size is irrelevant. What is necessary is the length of the image sides and the resolution in dpi. Both together tells you how many Megapixels are needed to fill the picture with enough information to make it look sharp.

 

[Raincheque]

Hi Octarine,

Thks for your comprehensive reply! Will take the rest of my off days to study your suggestions..

Hv a great weekend!

RC

 

[catchlights]

Octarine has answered your reply to my post.

just to add, if you don't have your monitor calibrated (you will not know how off the monitor be), don't have the skills and eye for editing and enhancing the images, best is just leave it to the labs. They can do the job well far better than you.

Do you know if you get your fundamental right during the capture of images, you can get very decent print out results by shooting in jpg (large and fine) and send the jpg straight with out editing, to some reputable labs mention by many CSers here.

 

[Raincheque]

Hi Catchlights,

My Achilles heels are the WB & brightness(adverse to flashlight), so I do a fair bit of post-shoot editing. Not so pro as to shoot & print immediately.

Thks for the time taken to answer my newbie qns.

Time for another church wedding!

RC

 

[Octarine]

For correct white balance on the spot I recommend gray cards or Expodisk, especially in mixed light conditions. For Expodisk there are several DIY versions since the original disk is not cheap. It will help you to get the WB to a neutral setting, although most people like to have it a bit warmer. But that's just a minor adjustment later and if you still use RAW then you still have all freedom.
What is your problem about brightness together with flash? Sounds rather like an exposure problem. Care to describe a bit more?

 

[Raincheque]

Hi Octarine,

Just back from a church shoot. Didnt get alot of nice pictures as I wasnt comfy zipping around the altar area. Left that job to the official shooter.

As for brightness, its just my personal preference nt to use the flash. I rely on bigger aperture to get as much light in, but realise that I have problem with DoF. Hmmm.. looks like its time for a flash?!

I play with the K setting a fair bit, if all else fails, its customs WB for me. Not really into the pro gadget like white card and stuff yet. I am just an amateur..

Thanks for your comments..

RC

 

[Octarine]

I understand your point about "as much natural light as possible" but sometimes it doesn't work. In return: using flash doesn't mean laminating the whole subject in glaring white light and suppressing all ambient light. The key word is: Fill Flash. But coming back to exposure: you may want to have a look at these links and guides from zoosh (I appreciate and admire his efforts to put all this together).
Guide: About Exposure 1/3
Guide: About Expsoure 2/3
Guide: About Exposure 3/3
There is a point when the equation about ISO speed, shutter speed and aperture cannot be solved anymore (due to handshake, noise, missing tripod...). Then it's time for a flash to support exposure. Fill in enough light to brighten up the subject and still capture the ambient light. It's possible.
Gray cards and WB are very basics, even an amateur should understand this .. or better must understand this. Unless you shoot film. A simple piece of white paper can work as white card to adjust WB, no need to get expensive tools. Check you camera manual how to do this.

 

[Raincheque]

Got it, Octarine.

I do understand how the customs WB works. But sometimes the subject doesnt wait for me to find a white wall, shoot, customise the WB and then return for the shot. But I do sincerely appreciate your well-intention.

Guess I have more to read up on. And yes, my wife is going 'what? clubsnap again?!' hee...

Getting ready for the wedding dinner ..