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Braidsta

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Hey all,

Another basic question for you guys if you could lend an eye...

I want to get some pictures printed. I shoot in JPEG and use (camera's at home so can't be sure) SRGB colour. After post processing the pictures are varied sizes after cropping etc.

Is it as easy as giving in the pics and they'll print them or will their colours differ drastically from mine? My photos are richly coloured and very warm and obviously I want to keep them as they are on-screen.

Another question I guess is - will I need to resize them first?

Sorry, probably a right messy question as it goes. I have been researching but sometimes you can't beat a bit of friendly advice. If anyone could lend a hand I'd be grateful!


cheers all!:thumbs:
 
Saving them in sRGB is fine . The only problem is how they will look compared to your monitor.

The only real way to ensure this is to use a calibrated monitor. Now you may not want to go down this route at the moment, so the best idea is to have a some test prints made, say 6 x 4 or similar and see how your prints look compared to your monitor.

As far as resizing is concerned, unless the printing lab specifically asks for this then just supply the camera JPEG. Any decent print software will resize for the print size required, unless it's some unusual size or print system
 
Print out a sheet with red, green and blue boxes on it, compare it to your monitor and alter so it gets as close as you can (you probably won't get them all perfect). Once you've done that, print out a photograph and compare it onscreen and as a print. Again, it won't be perfect but as long as it isn't a million miles off it'll be fine.
 
I would expect them to be fine. Digital is not like film in that all the image processing is done pre-printing, either in camera with white balance etc, or in post porocessing.

So if it looks good on your equipment, unless your calibration is out (it isn't usually), what you put in is what you get out.
 
Cheers for the advice!

I'm giving Snapfish a shot on their free trial - didn't see the bad feedback on them till I'd ordered but fingrs crossed! Really, they're only so I can give a few photos to the old ladies in the sandwich shop!

It's going to be rare I print so I'm gonna go to a pro lab for them (those canvas wraps look wicked!).

I also found a page to help calibrate monitors

http://www.photofriday.com/calibrate.php

And my monitor seemed perfect after a bit of dimming and lowering contrast. (edit: too easy and cheap to be true?)

Now to find a photo worthy...

:thumbs:
 
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Evening all,

The photos from Snapfish arrived today, gotta say I won't be using them in future. I can't moan over the cost though - it was a 20 prints for free deal and I only paid 99p P&P. I picked out a few from different collections to check out colour etc. Pretty useless without pics but I don't have a scanner and everyone understands "head chopped off".

Colour-wise I'm happy for the most part - the long exposures are too dark though and the glow from candles etc lacks the ambience that makes the pic. In a few photos the warmth is overpowering. I prefer very warm photos and this is too much even for me. (edit: all came out fine on the office laserjet though??)

Crop-wise, it's hit and miss. A couple of giraffes with no heads or feet, in some photos the meaning is lost where it's cropped out. TBH I think this is my fault as I wasn't 100% on resizing for print (they DID assure me it'd be fine though).

Good news is that my monitor seems to be calibrated ok, or at least not as whacked out as I feared!

All said and done, I got 6 I'm gonna keep for 99p. They still aren't bang on but first go n all that!

Off topic, but I'm well impressed with the feel and look of the prints (forget the picture itself). I've only ever handled photos from Boots, snapped on disposables. To see the white border and rich colours in my hand feels quite special! I look forward to gettin a shot worthy of print.

cheers for the advice
 
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