Snapfish order - appalling. Their fault or mine?

rheinhessen

rheinhessen

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Edit My Images
Yes
Sooo...

I got my snapfish order...

Firstly, the 'matt' paper is EXACTLY what I had hoped it would be :clap:

Secondly? All the colours seem completely out..

I'm not sure if it's my fault? Could it be my fault due to my processing of the pictures?

For a lot of my processing I used the following method - I applied a 'bleach' preset - which is the equivalent of layering a B&W version over the top of a coloured version of the same photograph (so I read when I downloaded the preset)..

Now, I absolutely LOVE the effect it give - I then use the dropper to find the white balance by first using the dropper on a nice milky part of the skin and then again on the whites of the eye - which warms the whole picture up..

On the odd photograph, I do pinken the lips up a bit..

Most of the prints that have been processed in this way have all come back to me - they look as if the subject (my son) is in black and white, besides his cheeks and very obviously his lips - which I presume is because of the extra work I did on them in LR..

Now, is this MY fault because I just don't really know what I;m doing with regards to processing of the pictures and because my monitor probably isn't calibrated correctly etc, so what I think I'm doing to the image is actually producing something completely different? OR is it their fault and it's changing at their end?

When I saved the files, I just exported to a file on my desktop as a .jpg from it's RAW state - could that have effected it?

Is the only way to tell if it's them, by sending off the same photographs for printing somewhere more reputable such as Loxley or Digitalab?

I'm so disappointed... I just wish I knew whether it was my fault or theirs...
 
Monitor calibration is essential.

Also some labs perform additional processing which can change how your pictures turn out. Would be worth sending a sample picture to other labs to see how they come out.
 
andrewc said:
Monitor calibration is essential.

Also some labs perform additional processing which can change how your pictures turn out. Would be worth sending a sample picture to other labs to see how they come out.
Click to expand...

I agree - I did try and calibrate it using an online thing..

Also, have posted lots of my pics on this site and had many complimentary comments re. the processing - I can't assume that all of the people that commented also have un-calibrated monitors - but then you can never tell what somebody else sees..

ARGH!.

Guess it IS going to be a case of sending off a sample picture to a few different places and compare them all - it's the only way I'll find out..
 
did you allow the lab to 'colour correct'? always a mistake in my experience - especially when you are trying to do something 'out of the ordinary'!!
 
Can you link to some of the pics so we can see what they look like on calibrated monitors.

There could be a number of things causing problems.

1. Your monitors not calibrated and or too bright
2. You're working in a colour space the lab doesn't recognise (use sRGB for safety)
3. You're not embedding the colour profile (see above) so the lab guesses.
4. The lab are colour correcting (don't believe snapfish does though)
5. You're working "out of gamut" although by the sounds of the processing this isn't likely.
6. You're using a rubbish print lab ;)
 
JasonRS said:
Can you link to some of the pics so we can see what they look like on calibrated monitors.

There could be a number of things causing problems.

1. Your monitors not calibrated and or too bright
2. You're working in a colour space the lab doesn't recognise (use sRGB for safety)
3. You're not embedding the colour profile (see above) so the lab guesses.
4. The lab are colour correcting (don't believe snapfish does though)
5. You're working "out of gamut" although by the sounds of the processing this isn't likely.
6. You're using a rubbish print lab ;)
Click to expand...

Sure.. here are a couple of links to threads containing some pics...

http://www.talkphotography.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=212403

http://www.talkphotography.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=212321
 
pictures in these links look over exposed - out of focus (in some cases) - I have no experience of 'snapfish' - why not use a proper pro lab? I think you have problems to correct though before you go blaming the lab - hard to tell because we can't see the prints.
 
Can you scan one of the images and post the scanned one and the digital image? Might help someone to answer your question.

Callaborated screens are definately good.

Though I have to admit, I have no idea where to go for pro prints, I use snapfish who I'm usually happy with and can't find anywhere who can compete with price and quality (Kodak ones are pants and photobox are a bit better than kodak IMHO, Jessops are just....well let's say I took prints back there for a refund...)
 
Interesting how different people seem to have different luck with different printers.

I found snapfish to be very good and photobox to be very bad. I use DSCL now, I think I changed from snapfish when a picture of my nephew came back with a black tongue. We guessed it was spotted as red eye by part of their process and wasn't double checked by a human :lol:
 
I use Loxley - slightly more expensive but great quality and 100% reliable so far.
 
I stopped using Snapfish ever since they edited out a sun on one of my photos and left a great big white space in its place! All the other photos came bent too.

Use loxley now - more expensive but soooo worth it, print quality is fantastic and always get them pretty quick

(never use there colour correction option though)
 
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