Prints - What company doesn't "auto-correct" your photo?

Moab Man

Senior Member
I am so frustrated with trying to get proper prints done. Everyone's machines seem to auto-correct my photo's and screws them up. They tell me they are unable to stop the machine.

On this photo the system darkened the sky to a deep blue, made the underside of the plane very blackened, and the wing tip red is now purple. Day152B17TakeOff.jpg

On the Milky Way photo is turned most of the Milky Way green, not a tint of green as in the picture but turned it GREEN, and muted the stars.

4.jpg

Any of my other pictures with a normal range and spread of colors that are not odd or a huge contrast they do fine. So who do you use to do prints that will just PRINT THE FILE THE WAY IT IS!

Thanks everyone.
 

ohkphoto

Snow White
I use American Color Imaging labs for printing. They actually have two ordering systems: one for color correction, the other for studio color, i.e. using the embedded profile in the photo as you process it. I've been pretty happy with them. You just need to make sure your monitor is calibrated.
 

MrF

Senior Member
I use mpix (which I believe is affiliated with Millers). They have an option to check if you want them to correct your photos, or uncheck if you want them to leave them alone.
 

Moab Man

Senior Member
The other image printed tonight matched. It's just the pictures that have a huge contrast or crazy color combinations their machine doesn't like.

For example, this photo below is a dead match to my screen and their kiosk. The colors, the sky, no darkening of anything and all three were printed within seconds of the above two. However, the above two didn't match my screen or their kiosk screen once printed.

Day152Skydiving.jpg
 

wud

Senior Member
I dont know if you can do the same in US, but I took my pics on a usb and stayed looking through them with the guy in the shop. A few needed some cropping, but I got to say how it should be done.



An extra question, if its okay - do you use RGB color profile for prints? I make my pictures in sRGB (for upload) and actually didn't change it for printing, is that wrong?



 

Krs_2007

Senior Member
I used National Photo and they have the multiple options as well, please with the first print I had them do. They have the auto-correct or not option.
 

Dave_W

The Dude
Not to sound like a broken record but I feel making your own prints is just as important to the creative process as making the image you're printing. Below is a cut/paste from an earlier post about printing that sums up my reasons for making your own prints vs. sending them out to a lab.

The print is truly the most important part of photography. It is the final product in a long series of challenges, from finding the shot, composing it just so and then processing it to get the color and the saturation just right, why would you then leave the final product - the print - up to someone else? While I understand that prints can be made cheaply, it just doesn't make a lot of sense to spend so much time and money on our cameras to then walk away from the creative process at the most critical point. Your print is what everyone will see and is what your skill as a photographer will be based upon.

In the same way as a cell phone takes decent photos, a photo lab produces decent prints but prints from a lab will never compare to the prints you can make. Things as simple as choosing the paper can make a huge difference in the final product. All paper is slightly different from one another even though it says "glossy" or "pearl" or "metallic" on the package. Finding that right paper to accent the image is everybit as satisfying and challenging as shooting that perfect photo was.

So if you have any inclination to make prints I suggest you run with it and buy a semi-professional printer like an Epson R2000 and a few types of paper and have at it. If you enjoy making photographs I guarantee you'll enjoy making prints.
 

hark

Administrator
Staff member
Super Mod
Contributor

BackdoorArts

Senior Member
I print my own at anything below 8 1/2 x 11 (looking at investing in something bigger) and use a local guy for anything bigger where I can go in with a thumb drive, look at it on his monitor and know that it's calibrated.

With high contrast photos know that there are printers that may not be able to handle the colors. Not a lot of people talk about it, but most printers will not cover the full spectrum of colors within a given color space, and those spaces outside of sRGB in particular. Adobe is great for monitors, but can easily go beyond what a printer can handle, so work in sRGB if you plan on printing.

The SoftProofing feature in Lightroom 4 (and 5) is critical if you really want to make sure that the printer you're using is capable of rendering the image you're looking at.
 

Eduard

Super Mod
Staff member
Super Mod
Check out myPhotopipe.com. I use them for my prints. Great prices and service as well as color correction being an option.
 
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