Tips for Printing Photos

[muvouser]

Need advice.

Last week sent some jpg to the lab for printing. The shop assistant claimed that I have over-saturated and over sharpen my images. She said that sharpening is UN-neccessary becos their machine will automatically boost sharpness prior to print.

As a DSLR shooter who would like to PP my images for improvements, should we allow them to do the adjustments? Do we even need to PP on our own like contrast, sharpness, and saturation since these can be done by the lab?

TQ

 

[ExplorerZ]

Need advice.

Last week sent some jpg to the lab for printing. The shop assistant claimed that I have over-saturated and over sharpen my images. She said that sharpening is UN-neccessary becos their machine will automatically boost sharpness prior to print.

As a DSLR shooter who would like to PP my images for improvements, should we allow them to do the adjustments? Do we even need to PP on our own like contrast, sharpness, and saturation since these can be done by the lab?

TQ

post a pic... no picture how to judge if it is really over saturated or sharpened

 

[centurion_sg]

I believe it will depend on each photographer's own preference. Since you do prefer to PP your photos, then choose a lab which doesn't interfere too much and is more cooperative with you.

There's another whole bunch of stuff on color management which I won't tread into coz I'm no expert and don't really need it for my own casual prints. For me consistency of the lab output is more important.

 

[noob117]

i thought you could tell them no correction or no enhancement?
sometimes if u let the shop correct, they might correct away a effect u might what.
n also i think u nd to calibrate ur screen so colours .ect will look correct.

 

[nikonrus]

No idea which lab you went to, but most labs usually cater to the general public and their printers are always set to do some adjustment for people who have little or no knowledge about correction.
Go find a lab that caters to more pro than consumer and you should be able to tell them what type of output you want for your prints.

 

[TME]

U need a pro lab to have them just print without adjustment... I realise that even for general photo labs (Like No. 1 Color), they may say they don't adjust and they really don't but their machines are tuned to adjust sharpness automatically... I have watched the ladies do their job and all they really do is to crop and adjust brightness and saturation... the sharpening is done automatically... so you have no choice as they can't control the machines too (or at least are not trained do so)... so pro lab for u if u don't want them to alter the pictures... I usually don't sharpen a lot if I send to the general photo labs... their sharpening for a small print (around 4R) is pretty pleasing to me... anyway it's not a large print so u can't really see much.