How complicated can printing be?

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ManVan

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Name
Neil.
Edit My Images
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Spent the last few months finding my way around my camera, composition, shooting in manual and thought I was getting along quite well. Until that is I looked a printing some of my images.

Just looked at DSCL's site - JEEESSSSSUUUUSSSS whats that all about - Download this,resize that, calibrate this that and the other.

Shooting manual seems a doddle compared to printing. Where do I start? Perhaps its time to sell up - my brain hurts.
 
Its not that bad lol, just send them off and let them colour correct!
 
Pretty simple... you can let them auto correct, or I just edit my pics as normal in LR, export to a desktop folder as jpg and import to DSCL. I would resize in LR anyway so no issues with me.
 
If you're not that bothered about getting exact colour prints (ie...the colour you see on your screen is what you seen on your print)...
then set your camera to shoot sRGB (it will be in the settings somewhere) instead of AdobeRGB.

Are you shooting jpeg, or raw?
If jpeg, then there shouldnt be any further work to do as regards to colour correction.
if you're shooting RAW then you might need to set Lightroom (or whichever RAW processing software you use) to process the images as sRGB.

Okay, so the next thing is resizing the image...
DSColour require you to size your image resolution to 300
So, when you export your RAW files from Lightroom then make sure you set the output/export resolution to 300.

Now let's say you want to print a 7x5"...
The dimensions of a 7x5" print are (i think) 2100 pixels X 1800 pixels.
So if you open up photoshop, and select the crop tool. Then in the little settings boxes you can enter "2100px" and "1800px" and the resolution to 300. Then make your crop.

Then that's it. The image is sized correctly.

As I said though... if you haven't had your monitor calibrated then the colours may not come out exactly as you see on your screen. But it will probably be somewhere close
 
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Thanks for your replies guys.

Perhaps I need to take this in bite size pieces,

I understand I may need to perform a screen calibration for which I think I have to buy some software.

Not sure at all with the resizing bit - Currently I shoot RAW and crop out the
c--p in Lightroom. If I have to crop again to print am I right to think I cant print the image I really want ie my first crop?

Regards
Neil.

.
 
I don't size like that. I just crop in LR to what I want, say 10x8 and then export at 300dpi, never mess around with pixels.
 
Download their desktop software, upload your images, decide if you want them to adjust colour or select the pro (no changes thanks) option, sit back and wait for your images to arrive. Never had a problem with DSCL.

Phil.
 
Don't want to confuse you but there is no need to loose part of your image if you need to crop to fit a paper size. The solution is not to make it fit!

There is no law that says an image has to be composed to fit A4 or A3 format. What you can do is use Photoshop to first create a blank canvas. Make the resolution whatever your printers want and the dimensions the same as the paper it will be printed on.

This canvas is the "image" you will send to the printers. Within that canvas can be a pasted a copy of your image. The image neededn't be the exact same proportions as the canvas. If it is a bit longer than normal, more like a panorama, simply position and size it when pasting to fit in a pleasing manner.

This will leave blank borders top and bottom maybe but you can use that space to insert your signature maybe. This will obviously get printed as well since the printers will simply print your entire canvas regardless of the proportions of the image upon it.

To maintain quality, ensure the original image is as close to the canvas size as possible before you start as resizing it on the canvas may degrade it if it is too different.
 
brianw said:
Don't want to confuse you but there is no need to loose part of your image if you need to crop to fit a paper size. The solution is not to make it fit!

There is no law that says an image has to be composed to fit A4 or A3 format. What you can do is use Photoshop to first create a blank canvas. Make the resolution whatever your printers want and the dimensions the same as the paper it will be printed on.

This canvas is the "image" you will send to the printers. Within that canvas can be a pasted a copy of your image. The image neededn't be the exact same proportions as the canvas. If it is a bit longer than normal, more like a panorama, simply position and size it when pasting to fit in a pleasing manner.

This will leave blank borders top and bottom maybe but you can use that space to insert your signature maybe. This will obviously get printed as well since the printers will simply print your entire canvas regardless of the proportions of the image upon it.

To maintain quality, ensure the original image is as close to the canvas size as possible before you start as resizing it on the canvas may degrade it if it is too different.
Click to expand...

I second what Brian says :agree: that is exactly what i do. Just a little bit further to that, I have had some of my images printed on a black background using this method, it really makes some images more vibrant for some reason :thinking: Perhaps its the lack of bright white background to the images that doesnt draw ones eye away. Give it a go, you wont be disappointed. Iain
 
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