from monitor to prints, need advices

[dennisthetiger]

hi guys, would like to know if prints turn out to be darker than what you see on your computer screen? given the fact that a computer screen transmit light and photo prints do not, which i presume makes your eyes feel that the prints turn out to be darker. my calibration of the monitor had been very careful to be as close to what prints get, and the histogram on the photos during PS had shown to be well exposed, can anyone give some of your views? thx

 

[flipfreak]

did u profile the photo to the printer?

 

[jfoo]

hi guys, would like to know if prints turn out to be darker than what you see on your computer screen? given the fact that a computer screen transmit light and photo prints do not, which i presume makes your eyes feel that the prints turn out to be darker. my calibration of the monitor had been very careful to be as close to what prints get, and the histogram on the photos during PS had shown to be well exposed, can anyone give some of your views? thx

you mentioned that you calibrated your monitor to be as close to what the prints get. can you elaborate more on how you calibrate your monitor. hardware? software? eyeball calibration?

 

[dennisthetiger]

you mentioned that you calibrated your monitor to be as close to what the prints get. can you elaborate more on how you calibrate your monitor. hardware? software? eyeball calibration?

well i use my eyes to calibrate, as for the prints, i sent it to normal kodak shop to process

 

[jfoo]

well i use my eyes to calibrate, as for the prints, i sent it to normal kodak shop to process

if you sent the photos for printing at the lab, they shouldn't come back dark unless you had specifically told them not to adjust the exposure and colour correction.

i thought you were saying you had printed the photos yourself with an inkjet. these prints usually come out darker than what appears on the screen because the entire system isn't calibrated.

 

[dennisthetiger]

if you sent the photos for printing at the lab, they shouldn't come back dark unless you had specifically told them not to adjust the exposure and colour correction.

i thought you were saying you had printed the photos yourself with an inkjet. these prints usually come out darker than what appears on the screen because the entire system isn't calibrated.

ic, ya i did told the person not to adjust, cos im afraid they would adjust the color, but im ok if they correct the brightness, so should i just tell them not to adjust the color but free to adjust the rest? and one question, why do the prints turn out dark if u ask them not to adjust?

 

[jfoo]

ic, ya i did told the person not to adjust, cos im afraid they would adjust the color, but im ok if they correct the brightness, so should i just tell them not to adjust the color but free to adjust the rest? and one question, why do the prints turn out dark if u ask them not to adjust?

your system isn't calibrated to the lab printer so whatever you give them isn't going to come out as you have envisioned.

best to leave the colour and density correction to the lab and let them give you the best they can get out of the file you gave them. it's even better if you don't adjust anything except crop and sharpen. but sharpen on the gentle side as their printer will have some sharpening dialed in as standard.

if you are going to handle your own printing, ie inkjet printing, you will do well to get your system calibrated. basically what you need is a hardware device like sypder to get your screen calibrated.

as you already know, what you see from screen in backlighted and on paper is reflected so there will be a slight difference in screen and print.

in photoshop there is a setting in the print dialog under color handling, use "Photoshop Manages Color". this makes photoshop like a co-ordinator between what you see on screen to what is printed by the printer.

i won't go into details of calibration and printer/paper/ink profiles here as there are tons of information on the net. if you want to learn more about them, just google for it.