Posted by Barbara Graham on September 10, 2011 at 1:06 PM
I haven't yet printed or had printed any images. I want to get just one image printed by three or four different printers to see what the differences are. I *think* from what I've read that there might be differences in color. What kind of image or what colors should an image include a lot of that would make a good "test" image for printing? Thank you.
The best image to use is a printer profiling target. These have color patches and greyscale patches.
Once you obtain the target, have it printed on each printer. In order for the test to work, the same paper, paper profile and resolution should be used in each of the three printers.
Once you have the test prints in hand you can compare the prints to the target. There is a caveat to this, however. The target must be viewed on a calibrated monitor, and the ambient room lighting should be the same color temperature as your monitor. You must also keep in mind that the prints are reflective, and the monitor image is transmissive; the match may be close, but it will not be exact.
As you can see from the foregoing, such a test will not be easy, nor will it be inexpensive. Given that you are new to printing, my advice would be to find a printing service you like and work with them to get the best prints of your work.
--P
Posted by Barbara Graham on September 10, 2011 at 2:22 PM
Thanks, Preston. I think you're right. I don't want or need to get that involved in it. I just was hoping that if something looks a color on the web that it might look what someone would still call that color on a print and not go from, say, pink to red or vice versa, or teal to blue or vice versa, for example. I did get my Spyder color calibration tool but haven't used it yet. I hope to do that today or tomorrow. It's very intimidating to me. :)
Posted by Cory Freeman on September 10, 2011 at 5:53 PM
if you have a costco near you that would be the cheapest easiest thing to do if all you want are some prints for yourself and don't want to hassle or get in-depth with color management. Costco prints are cheap and actually very good and very convenient, at least the ones that I used. If you want a larger gamut and more consistent prints then going with a printing lab would be a better choice.
It's easy to be overwhelmed and intimidated by some of this color theory and the whole digital image/printing process - there seems to be an endless amount of knowledge to learn. Taking small steps like calibrating your monitor is a step in the right direction and fairly easy to do. The next step would be to just upload your photos to a printer like Costco or the like and make some prints. Just keep in mind one thing: not every print needs to be perfect, that's why we make test prints. Make a print and then see how it looks and go from there. It's too easy to get caught up in the idea that every print needs to be perfect on screen before we hit the print button. NOT SO!
And like Preston said, the print will not match the screen in luminosity. The color/tones should be pretty darn close though if the monitor is calibrated to your viewing light.
Hope that helps, now just do it!
Posted by David Bostedo on September 10, 2011 at 6:20 PM
Barbara... One of the points of using a calibrated system, and a printer who has profiles and calibrates their systems, is that everything will look close to each other from any of the printing companies. Costco I believe does provide profiles, and you can soft-proof which may help set expectation for what you'll get. They're cost effective too.
If they don't provide paper profiles, they probably do some sort of color correction on their own to keep things neutral. That could be fine too depending on how critical you are.
Posted by Harold Ankney on September 10, 2011 at 8:41 PM
Barbara... If you plan on using Costco, you can download a printer profile for free for the store you are planning to use.
I tell you, printing can be a bear! Especially if you do your own printing. I use CS5 for post-processing and printing to an Epson R800 using an older Mac. I know what to expect from the older mac (which is using CS3 btw). My CS5 and MacBook Pro will give me a different result from the older set-up and I just have not spent the time to figure out why.
I recently printed 15 images for an upcoming show. Some of the prints I already had up on my wall. While I used the same settings for the new prints, two images were off color. I had to change settings until I was happy and they looked like the wall photo. Just kinda weird...same internal settings in all files. Stuff just happens!
Using an outside printer that probably prints thousands of images a day can take quite a load off of you, and save alot of paper and ink. They have experts (we would hope - or at least someone doing print after print all day). They will be able to look at an image and have a much better understanding of what they might need to do differently on a case by case basis.
Understand that when you send to an outside printer, you have some decisions. For cheaper prints, you can select no color correction. OR you can pay for color correction which makes you think there is a human involved in "fixing" or setting up settings before they print. I know that in outfits like printshops in drugstores used to let you do correction or no correction. This was handled by the machine - not a human. You should call and talk to the folks at the printers you select and ask them questions related to that. Also, ask if they have color profiles for their particular printer and the paper you have selected that you can download and apply to your image.
If you are lucky you will be able to find a rep in the printing company so you can establish a working relationship. There is a place I use sometimes that let me send the image to that person directly instead of just sending up to their website. She caught a problem and let me know before they printed - saved me time - great customer service.
All in all, most companies will print whatever you send them and ship it to you - even if it looks crappy. It is an issue for people with websites that provide a printing host. "Clients" select a image from your site and off it goes to the printer. I have had issues where folks selected a marginal image and then had it blown way up and the result was terrible. The printing company had a great customer service method (after the fact) where the customer could take a photo of the print cut in half and send it to them and they refunded the client's money.
So, all this is to say their are more things to think about besides just the quality of the print. Like I said, call the companies and talk to them. Ask any question related to the printing process, getting a rep, return policy, shipping prices, how they handle color correction, etc. Make a friend there!
You might want to check out http://www.bayphoto.com as one of your test printers. They currently have an excellent track record.
Discussion
6 repliesThe best image to use is a printer profiling target. These have color patches and greyscale patches.
Once you obtain the target, have it printed on each printer. In order for the test to work, the same paper, paper profile and resolution should be used in each of the three printers.
Once you have the test prints in hand you can compare the prints to the target. There is a caveat to this, however. The target must be viewed on a calibrated monitor, and the ambient room lighting should be the same color temperature as your monitor. You must also keep in mind that the prints are reflective, and the monitor image is transmissive; the match may be close, but it will not be exact.
As you can see from the foregoing, such a test will not be easy, nor will it be inexpensive. Given that you are new to printing, my advice would be to find a printing service you like and work with them to get the best prints of your work.
--P
It's easy to be overwhelmed and intimidated by some of this color theory and the whole digital image/printing process - there seems to be an endless amount of knowledge to learn. Taking small steps like calibrating your monitor is a step in the right direction and fairly easy to do. The next step would be to just upload your photos to a printer like Costco or the like and make some prints. Just keep in mind one thing: not every print needs to be perfect, that's why we make test prints. Make a print and then see how it looks and go from there. It's too easy to get caught up in the idea that every print needs to be perfect on screen before we hit the print button. NOT SO!
And like Preston said, the print will not match the screen in luminosity. The color/tones should be pretty darn close though if the monitor is calibrated to your viewing light.
Hope that helps, now just do it!
If they don't provide paper profiles, they probably do some sort of color correction on their own to keep things neutral. That could be fine too depending on how critical you are.
Costco Printer Profiles
I recently printed 15 images for an upcoming show. Some of the prints I already had up on my wall. While I used the same settings for the new prints, two images were off color. I had to change settings until I was happy and they looked like the wall photo. Just kinda weird...same internal settings in all files. Stuff just happens!
Using an outside printer that probably prints thousands of images a day can take quite a load off of you, and save alot of paper and ink. They have experts (we would hope - or at least someone doing print after print all day). They will be able to look at an image and have a much better understanding of what they might need to do differently on a case by case basis.
Understand that when you send to an outside printer, you have some decisions. For cheaper prints, you can select no color correction. OR you can pay for color correction which makes you think there is a human involved in "fixing" or setting up settings before they print. I know that in outfits like printshops in drugstores used to let you do correction or no correction. This was handled by the machine - not a human. You should call and talk to the folks at the printers you select and ask them questions related to that. Also, ask if they have color profiles for their particular printer and the paper you have selected that you can download and apply to your image.
If you are lucky you will be able to find a rep in the printing company so you can establish a working relationship. There is a place I use sometimes that let me send the image to that person directly instead of just sending up to their website. She caught a problem and let me know before they printed - saved me time - great customer service.
All in all, most companies will print whatever you send them and ship it to you - even if it looks crappy. It is an issue for people with websites that provide a printing host. "Clients" select a image from your site and off it goes to the printer. I have had issues where folks selected a marginal image and then had it blown way up and the result was terrible. The printing company had a great customer service method (after the fact) where the customer could take a photo of the print cut in half and send it to them and they refunded the client's money.
So, all this is to say their are more things to think about besides just the quality of the print. Like I said, call the companies and talk to them. Ask any question related to the printing process, getting a rep, return policy, shipping prices, how they handle color correction, etc. Make a friend there!
You might want to check out http://www.bayphoto.com as one of your test printers. They currently have an excellent track record.
Troup Nightingale
Southeastern Photography
http://www.southeasternphotography.com