This means that creases and fluff and dust on my backdrop are made visible, and the skin on the faces of my gorgeous little subjects is overexposed and featureless. So it automatically prints the file brighter. The ‘brains’ of the printers at consumer labs tend to see all the darkness, and assume that the file is underexposed. This is particularly the case with my portraits that are set against a black background. And if one or more of these is incompatible with the file I have produced, the finished print can end up looking very differently from how it should. The kind of paper used, the sophistication and maintenance schedule of the printing equipment, and especially the balance of the different ink colours (calibration), all combine to produce a finished print. ![]() So why is this happening? Well, there are many variables at play that can mean a print of your digital file ends up looking different from the image I create on my computer. If that was the print I received, I would also question why my hard earned money was spent with me…. The colour has shifted again, and this poor bub’s head is so bright that you can’t see his beautiful soft fuzz. The extra magenta is really having an effect here!! The contrast is also increased, making the darks too dark, and the brights too bright. Here is another sleeping baby converted to a warm black and white, my Pro Lab print compared firstly with Officeworks. The contrast here has been increased, which has made our baby’s face darker, and completely blown the highlights on the blanket to the top of the image – there are large parts of paper that are just shiny white, no blanket detail there at all. The magenta has increased again, making baby appear very red, and turning the off white blankets a light pink. Here it is side-by-side with the Officeworks print. Here is a beautiful print of a sleeping baby on an off-white background from my Pro Lab. I conducted my experiment on some other photos, just to make sure the results were not a one-off. And my black and white portraits that are set against the black backdrop could go horribly wrong. Here is what I want you to notice about the Snapfish print.Īdd to this that the paper is flimsy and is not cut neatly (note the pulls on the edges I have circled above), and this makes me very sad! So many of my images use high contrast, and the effect would be completely lost in these prints. ![]() This one was even worse and really upset me in terms of the implications it could have on my work. So the next print I ordered through Snapfish. Here is what I want you to notice about the Officeworks print. I knew there would be some differences, but even I was shocked by the results….Īnd here it is side-by-side with my Pro Lab print. I’ve printed the same image at Officeworks and Snapfish/KMart (Snapfish use KMart labs). (Please accept that it looks slightly different here because I have photographed a photograph….). It pleases me – the skin tones are as I intended, no detail is lost, the lashes are lovely and sharp, the background is nice and dark. Here is an original file straight from my computer.Īnd here is the print from my Pro Lab. I conducted a small test of some popular local Brisbane printers, and even though I expected there would be some differences, I was still surprised by the results. The brightness, the contrast, the warmth, the sharpness, EVERYTHING about the image must match exactly with how I have edited it to look. It is a process that ensures that the printed photograph is EXACTLY the same as the image I am looking at on my computer screen. Well, colour management between computers and print labs is one of the things that separates professional photographers from amateurs. And I would never provide my clients with a product that was less than technically perfect. I allow my work to be judged by my peers so that I can continue to grow. I have spent tens of thousands of hours practicing, and learning about, and honing my craft. If there is one thing that I pride myself on, it is the quality of my work. In her email, she described how disappointed she was with the quality of the image, and that for the amount she had spent, she’d really hoped for something more professional. Last year I received an email from a client who purchased digital files of her Tiny Dancer and had them printed at her regular online printer for Fathers’ Day.
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