Please help, printing issues (noob)

Bevy187

Bevy187

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As some of you might know, i'm new to photograpy but I've taken what I thought were a couple of really nice shots, done a nice job in pp and thought i'd print a few off.
I took about ten, a mix of mine and my hubby's and got them done 8x6 off my memory stick on the instant machine at Boots. I was really excited, but tbh I was a bit gutted at the results :(

The biggest thing was they were cropped about an inch off each axis ruining some quite carefully placed images, a few just looked bad compared to what I see on screen, and really only one or two came out as I see them on my monitor.

I'm fully prepared to accept I have done something wrong, maybe in pp or sizing or something, but I dont know what. I never expected the best quality from Boots, more of a test really, but the cropping really wrecked most of the images!

I'd really appreciate any advice :)

Thanks
Bevy
 
I'm guessing you have a dslr - the shape of the images from these are 2:3 - that means the files give a print that should be 6"x9" - so the 8x6 you have ordered will either have white bars top ond bottom (like watching an old tv program on a widescreen tv) or as they have done - cut some off.

Simple solution is order 6x9 prints - or precrop your photos to 8x6 so you are in command of what gets cut off.
 
Thanks David, some were on the DSLR, mine were from a point and shoot and the cropping was the same on mine.
I will give it a go at pre cropping to 8x6 see if that helps, but think I just assumed the pics would be sort of shrunk to size if you know what I mean!

You have had some good recommendations, I will use you next time! :P

thank you for the advice.
Bev
 
The point and shoot will perhaps have a number of crops you can select - most have 3:4 as standard - which is a perfect match to an 6x8 print (but not for a 6x4) - and sometimes you can even set panoramic sizes. However they are just cutting bits off the sensor - have a look in the manual...
 
as said, it's down to ratio, I made the same mistake when I first started out.

3:2 = 6x4, 9x6, 12x8 etc
4:3 = 8x6, 16x12, 20x15 etc

also I can assume you shot in JPEG so your working with 8-bit colour and so any colour editing or heavy change will cause a mess with prints and leave them with tone splashes and block colour. Try and do little editing as possible with JPEG files, simple thinks like cropping and resizing, anything with colour editing and you'll get that blocky colour etc.
 
Thank you for the replies, I'm still confused! Should I be looking at setting the camera to something different or in PP? I have the options of:

large, medium 1, 2 & 3, small, postcard and widescreen on the camera, then a sub menu saying superfine, fine and normal - is that it?

I have it set on large superfine atm (3072 x 2304 what ever that means) because I thought more pixels was a better picture. I dont understand the ratios or what size pixels relate to what size photo (i'm so sorry if this sounds really thick)

If nothing else I do find I crop most of my pictures, sometimes very hard to get the bit I want, so maybe I need to stop doing that so much too!

Thanks in advance for more advice :) :)
Bevy
 
Bevy187 said:
Thank you for the replies, I'm still confused! Should I be looking at setting the camera to something different or in PP? I have the options of:

large, medium 1, 2 & 3, small, postcard and widescreen on the camera, then a sub menu saying superfine, fine and normal - is that it?

I have it set on large superfine atm (3072 x 2304 what ever that means) because I thought more pixels was a better picture. I dont understand the ratios or what size pixels relate to what size photo (i'm so sorry if this sounds really thick)

If nothing else I do find I crop most of my pictures, sometimes very hard to get the bit I want, so maybe I need to stop doing that so much too!

Thanks in advance for more advice :) :)
Bevy
Click to expand...


Widescreen = 16:9
Postcard = 3:2 (I think)

The superfine thing is the compression of the file for example a HQ image will be recorded in superfine (8mb for example) and a LQ would be in standard/normal (4mb) so the more mb the more data recorded if you know what I mean.

Megapixels are the myth, they don't really mean better image quality.

3072x2304 is the size of the photo, it means that it's 3072 pixels wide and 2304 pixels high

Shoot in your normal 4:3 ratio at superfine and then crop in PP for 3:2 ratio photos or print out 8x6 normally :)
 
Bevy187 said:
Aw ta Luke... soooo.... to aim to print at 8 x 6 and allow a bit of cropping, which setting do i put it on to get 4:3?
(please dont hate me! I am a technophobe who loves photography!)
Click to expand...

I think Large superfine should do it, just remember that if you crop then always make sure it's a 4:3 ratio, usually you can do this when cropping and in the width box you'd put 4 and in the height box you'd put 3 and vice versa :)
 
mastertrinity said:
I think Large superfine should do it, just remember that if you crop then always make sure it's a 4:3 ratio, usually you can do this when cropping and in the width box you'd put 4 and in the height box you'd put 3 and vice versa :)
Click to expand...

Thanks Luke, I think I get it now. I just had a play in photoshop to see what sizes relate to 4:3 and what it does to my pictures. I just never had it in my mind what it would do to my pictures when I had the first lot printed - I think I just assumed it would be adjusted in proportion when they printed it, I was wrong lol

thank you so much again!
Bev
 
Bevy187 said:
Thanks Luke, I think I get it now. I just had a play in photoshop to see what sizes relate to 4:3 and what it does to my pictures. I just never had it in my mind what it would do to my pictures when I had the first lot printed - I think I just assumed it would be adjusted in proportion when they printed it, I was wrong lol

thank you so much again!
Bev
Click to expand...

No problems, I had the same trouble a few years back when I printed 6x4s using a 4:3 ratio point and shoot and I always assumed they would have just resized the image rather than crop it :lol: I finally got it sorted out when I spoke to a staff member at max spielmann who had alot of experience in darkroom and digital printing :)
 
it is also worth just having a few done through a wet lab as well, as i've seen some amazing differences across different machines in my town.


in my town i think there is 5 places that have wet labs and 4 places that have the instant machines, and i'm pretty sure i'd get slightly different results from each places. our jessops machine is a bit more contrasty than i'd like so i edit my pictures slightly differently than i would get my dad to print them. Another shop the pictures look a little 'cooler' which basically means everything looks a little bluer that they should be. Tesco's new instant machines are suprisingly good (better than i thought).
 
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