staceyl7

Hello all:

You all have been so helpful in the past and I have a PS7 question. My friend took some pics that I'd taken (w/ retouching in PS7), to COSTCO to print them out. I used the highest resolution possible on my Sony 717 (2560x1920) and I'm pretty sure I saved them in JPEG format. When she got the pics back, they looked terrible--not how they looked on my monitor at all. Some of them looked completely washed out and/or the faces had a weird colored tinge to them. Does anyone know what possibly may have happened? I know sometimes that if you retouch in PS7, I don't have any pictures to post, but what other information can I give that could help? And can anyone tell me what to do to stop this from happening next time?

Thanks in advance,
Stacey

klaas_visser

Firstly, have you calibrated your monitor using Adobe Gamma? This will provide reasonably accurate color correction to what you see on the screen. This is the first step in a colour managed workflow.

Also, are you embedding a colour profile into the images (for example AdobeRGB, or sRGB)?

I have no idea what hardware Costco use for printing your images out, but it is possible that their workflow doesn't involve colour correction, and thus the images are washed out, or have colour casts. Or is does involve correction, and they double correcting your images.

You need to talk to the operator at Costco to find out what they are doing during the printing. Once you have that information, it will be easier to provide suggestions on what you need to do, to get accurate colour output from them.

staceyl7

No, I have not color calibrated my monitor using Adobe Gamma. Can you give me some easy to follow instructions? If I haven't calibrated my monitor, then I don't have to tell you I don't know what embedding my images into a color profile is either ;-). Thanks for helping out a newbie. This forum is awesome!

Stacey

lenhewitt

Stacey,

Take a trip to http://www.computer-darkroom.com/photoshop_6/ps6_1.htm as
spend 15 mins or so reading about colour management. It will save you hours
of frustration....

philo_calhoun

Two issues: making sure your monitor is properly calibrated, and second making sure you have done the steps necessary for accurate printing. The recommendation for Ian Lyons website is great for the first. For printing at Costco, check out <http://www.drycreekphoto.com/>

klaas_visser

Len, good pointer, but you've linked to the PS6 page

As Stacey mentioned v7, I'll add this link, just in case:

<http://www.computer-darkroom.com/ps7-colour/ps7_1.htm>

lenhewitt

Well caught, Klaas - I had misread Stacey's post.

staceyl7

Thanks so much for all the help. Once I get home, I'll be sure to follow all of these instructions. I'll let you know my results ;-)

Stacey