Do we need to edit photos if we intend to send them for developing?

[ordinaryless]

Dear all,

For photos taken by digital cameras of say 6.3MP, if we wish to develop at popular photos labs such as KT Colour Centre and ask them to do colour correction, sharpening, exposure correction , do we still need to do basic correction in ps ourselves ?

Can we just send in the pictures without correcting ourselves even if the photos taken by the camera is 1 stop underexposed?

The size i intend to develop is 4R

 

[ortega]

it depends on the lab, how good they are. Try first to see their skills.

 

[drumma]

hmmm, u might want to try.. like what otega said.. but best bet is not to if u are quite particular bout ur photos..

developed my photos at far east earlier on this week.. forgot to tell them not to edit anything.. so anyway, they edited my photos.. and i wasn't too happy.. told them that i wanted as it is and they reprinted for me.. very good service but the prints not so good lah..
oh ya, whether they got sharpen or not, i can't really tell.. 4R abit hard to tell. but they did exposure and contrast. and colours also.

 

[snowspeeder]

Usually labs will only do some basic editing (or auto adjustments) at most.
If you really want your pics to look good, must put in the effort to learn how to use photoshop (especially the curves). By doing your own editing, you have a sense of satisfaction on being in full control on how your images will eventully turn out. For my images in colour, I will allow the lab (whom I trust) to print at their discretion, as I know they only make small adjustments to the contrast level to ensure that the prints turn out nice from their printing machine. For monochrome images, I will ask them not to make any changes as the underexposures and shadows of monochromes are intended.