While we’re on the subject of taking and printing photos, how do you make sure you get the best prints from your camera and printer? Have you ever printed a photo and had it not match what you saw on your computer screen? Many of us have, and it is the result of not having your computer monitor match your printer output.
Monitor Calibration
There are several ways to calibrate your monitor so that what you see is what you get. First, you will need to make sure that you don’t have any bright lights shining directly on your screen, and that the light in the room is subdued. Also, allow your computer monitor about 15 minutes to warm up before doing any photo editing. Dry Creek Photo has some excellent information on calibrating your monitor.
The easiest way to calibrate your monitor is to order a calibration print from your favorite online service. Then once you get the print, hold it up next to your monitor and adjust the color, contrast and brightness to match. Remember that if you are working with a flat screen monitor, the angle at which you are viewing the image will affect the color quality.
And keep in mind that your monitor can display many more colors than your printer can print, so the monitor version of the print will always be sharper. You want the closest match you can get, but it will not be perfect.
Printing with online photo labs
Online photo labs calibrate their equipment too, though some not as often as others. If you want consistently high quality prints, make sure the lab you work with calibrates their equipment frequently. Some labs calibrate their machines two or three times a day. Others, such as Shutterfly, calibrate theirs every hour.
Some labs adjust your photos when you order prints. KodakGallery uses Perfect Touch Processing, which is supposed to improve images with imperfect exposure, and minimize red-eye. If you don’t want this service you may disable it. Shutterfly automatically adjusts every image with its VividPics technology, whether you ask for it or not. To stop that you’ll need to do some digging in your photo album.
Printing at Home
Your printer at home, as well as photo editing software, has some settings for color adjustment too. In my printer settings, I can choose between color management, no color management, or anything in between. And in photoshop there are color adjustment settings that you can use. For your particular printer and software, see the user manual and help files.
Next, we’ll compare online photo printing services, to see how they vary in color quality.