Do shops adjust 4 u sharpening of digital images?

[David]

I wish to do bulk printing of my digital images... The USM that I apply is just nice to view on screen. But I understand that when printed out, the images can look less sharpened. I don't wish to waste time creating 2 sets of image files -- one for viewing and one for printing!

so can I just give the shop the images and tell them to do further sharpening as required?

What about colours... can the shop adjust them too like they do for film developing?

Thanks!

 

[jj1987]

I work at a professional color lab, so I feel I can answer this question with a fair certainty that this is the policy for all labs.


Sharpening- If you want images sharpened your best bet is to do it at home. Labs dont do this for free, although the i2e enhancement software that non-pro labs use to auto correct images does sharpen, with no human feedback (ick!).


Color Correction- Most all professional labs color correct by hand unless you tell them that you would rather them not. Some labs do give discounts for setting your stuff up color wise so they can save that time.

 

[David]

Thanks jj... Yah, But very often I find what is optimally sharpened for viewing on screen turns out quite soft when printed. It must be over sharpened to look nice on paper. However, then when I view my images on screen, they will look over sharp... It's usually one or the other... I haven't figured out this issue yet...

What's the workflow for all of you out there? Thanks.

 

[hanqiang1011]

Hi,

Maybe you would like to try out Photo Friend at Peninsula Plaza. Its a Kodak Shop just next to BATA.

They do: colour correction, contrast and sharpening.

Of course you can also adjust yourself at home but DO tell them not to adjust anything anymore.

Regards.

 

[ckiang]

Hi,

It's usually inevitable. As you have found out, you need different levels of sharpening for different purposes (e.g. print vs screen). This is the best way to get the best results. You should also sharpen at the correct size, i.e. If you are sending in a 6mp file to be printed at 4R, you should be using a 1800x1200 file (assuming the lab uses Fuji Frontiers which are at 300dpi).

You can also use a batch processing tool like IrFanView to batch resize (and optionally batch sharpen) your images to save you some time. After the batch is done, go through the processed images and re-do manually those which you are not satisfied with.

After printing, this "2nd set" can either be deleted or archived for future re-print (at the same size as the initial set of coz)

Regards
CK

 

[David]

Thanx...

So can I assume that you have 2 sets of images... One sharpened for web or viewing on the computer and another for printing?

Batch processing can also be done in Photoshop CS right? I don't need to use IrFanView?

 

[ckiang]

Batch Processing can be done in Photoshop CS's Automate function, but a program like IrFanView (freeware) would make things easier/faster. I have up to 4 sets of images - the original out-of-camera ones, the edited ones, the ones I tweak for print and if I put stuff online, I have a web version.

Regards
CK