First printed pictures, a disaster.

theTinker

1 part rant, 2 part advice.

I've been carrying my camera for about 1.5 years like its my new arm. I just love shooting. From bowls of tomatoe soup on a table to black bears in the smokie mountains.

This week, I printed off my first ever set of photos. A gift for a friend.
I went to Boots to print them off because the Fuji place needed 24hours, and the other camera store was 65cent a 6*4. A bit too pricey for me.

However when i got my prints, I was extremely dissappointed. Can anyone advise me if the problems im seeing are due to faulty printing, or something on my part i could correct in my workflow. After reading, I believe i should lower the brightness of my screens and buy Spyder to calibrate better.

issues:
1) Pic of orangey brown dog came out brown. The warmness in the picture was competely gone.
2) Any dark pictures such a bird eating a fish in front of a sunset, or a sunsetting forest, shadows around waterfall came out really too dark. Its like the blacks are too black and an all or nothing decision rather than light shadows. Lost lots of detail due to this.
3) an orange + white clown fish came out white + VERY dark orange/brown.
4) Whites are often total washed out whites. No gradual fade to whites. Clouds are terrible.
5) Six pictures came out with red smeared across them. No common theme in pictures.

The pictures look far superior on my laptop and on my widescreen.
Could anyone advise me on this? or did i just get an unlucky batch?

Thanks for your opinions

Kintarō Hattori

Not every developer is equal! Have you never seen One Hour Photo? In all seriousness if I was printing off photos for myself or a friend somewhere like Boots would be the last place I'd go. You need to go somewhere where the developer has pride in their work.

stcstc

it could be lots of things

do you calibrate your monitor?

some of the issues do sound like lab problems

but the white point and blacks sound more like calibration issues

a laptop screen is generally not that accurate for colour etc

if you want me to have a look at the images and the prints and give you some advice, gimmie a shout and you can call into my shop

Thecageyone

I have had images printed at Fuji labs and they've been fine bar the darkening issue. When I know I'm going to get prints done in there I throw some fill light into the image before saving a copy to a usb key. I don't know if it's the lab doing the blacks too dark, or my monitor is way off. But it's nothing as major as how you explain your problems.

sineadw

Sounds like calibration alright. See if you can get a loan of a spyder somewhere to see how off your screen is. Most are way too bright though. And those instant prints are only really good as test prints for composition etc. Lousy quality otherwise..

homerun_homer

Pharmacy's and photo developers like this don't cater for people looking for fine quality versions of their prints. I complained about 12x8 prints I got done in my local one a year ago and there was no arguing with them. They showed me their process and they calibrated all photos which made them darker, more defined in their eyes for the print settings. Sometimes they may brighten it up - therefore your whole post processing is thrown out the window because they use some crappy generic software to apply to each photo.

The owner of the shop then had the nerve to blame me for taking photos indoors or using long exposures to get my shots, saying that is why the colours bled and washed in with each other in print. I compared my photos on screen Vs his prints and said "you know you are talking complete s***e"*.


*May not have been said in so many words:o

Thecageyone

I wouldn't agree on that, unless you're talking about those crappy Kodak stalls that only print up to 8 x 6 or whatever? With no quality options. The bigger labs, like the Fuji ones offer much larger print options and choices of matte/gloss and actually come out nice. I've seen worse 'pro' prints.

stcstc

the fujo things can produce stunning prints, and also really rubbish

it depends on soooooo many factors

if the machine is looked after correctly, ie chemicals changed correctly etc.
if the machine is cleaned properly etc

if the person using it know what they are doing, which in general, they dont, as its not their primarly role.

the fuji printers are not only used in the local chemist etc, they are also used in some pro labs, where someone knows what they are doing generally :-)

and then can produce proper prints.

there are some hidden things to be aware of too.
1. they generally only use srgb
2. they have a lower colour gamut than a good quality inkjet
3. they use colour chemistry paper even for B&W
4. the stated longevity is generally not as long as a good quality inkjet.

i dont think its generally worth buying cheap prints of your picutres, lets face it we all spend lots on camera, lenses, software etc and then only wanna spend tupence hapenny on the final part the print.

mind i guess i am biased :-)

Thecageyone

I might very well be lucky with my local lab, but anything I've had printed up to date [mostly 10x8" - 10x12"] have been nice jobs. If I was doing anything larger, or by request, I would indeed go to a print specialist - but for your family portraits and prints to hang in your own home, the labs are fine.

Trev M

For what its worth Ive used Photobox.ie several times and Ive been blown away by the quality they produce, Ive also had 2 canvas prints and they were really great.

goldseeker

Try those guys.
http://www.gms.ie/contact.asp

theTinker

Thanks everyone,

Ill bring some pictures into steves shop and get some redone. I'll bring my laptop and perhaps ask if the screen is set too bright/colors wrong.

I wont be bringing back any more business to boots prints.

All my photos will be 7*5 max. So i may even invest in my own home printer shortly. I've just read with that cost of ink/paper. labs are still quite a bit cheaper.

I'll calibrate my two computers screen and see if that helps.

Will let you know.
thanks for the advice

davmigil

Are you using sRGB or a different colourspace? Can be a factor.

artyeva

it does sound like a calibration issue tbh. i was blown away by the difference once i got my [laptop] monitor calibrated :eek: everything was no longer dark and murky looking.

also, +1 for photobox, excellent quality prints, and their delivery times are usually good. having said that when i got prints done for the print exchange the delivery was about 4 days late, but that's been a once off in my experience with them. and they're very well priced.

as for fuji labs, well i'm a bit biased seeing as i used to work in one, but i've always found them to be of a very very high quality. but as others have said it does depend on whether the people operating it have a genuine interest in photography/what they're doing. i tried a local place here and while the prints were ok, i asked them if they'd consider doing some cross processing on a slide film i had, once they got to the end of their chemical batch... the young fells proceeded to have a blazing row with me that putting a slide film into c41 chems would ''literally melt'' the film...:(