Canon 10D

[mmtrask]

My pictures seem to be grayish and flat with very little color. It may be the photo lab I'm using but if not what could cause this. My camera is 1 week old and I'm using a Canon AF 70-200 2.8 lens. Please advise. Thanks

[robertwgross]

Start by telling us the details of what you're doing. For example, what camera mode? Are you saving the images initially as RAW or JPEG? Any parameters stuck in the camera, like color or sharpening? How are the digital images getting processed from there? You mention photo lab, so it sounds like you get the lab to make your prints. What kind of lab?

---Bob Gross---

[mmtrask]

I have been shooting in M mode as well as fully auto. In photo shop it seems that adjusting the saturation seems to make the photos closer to real-life. I adjusted the color in the camera and that seems to be on the right track. Thanks Mike

[mmtrask]

Also,
I had them printed at Longs Drug store with a new Fuji Frontier. I will try another source as well.

[robertwgross]

I don't know if this is a big factor, but every single good image that I have shot on my Canon D60, has been printed right here at my own computer, on my own printer, with my own paper. I have full control over all image quality in the final result, and that is important to me. If I need to make brightening adjustments between the RAW image file and the finished TIF, then it is completely up to me.

If I needed to get a quantity of prints done, then I might take it to a commercial lab or machine, but for onesy-twosy prints, it is my own cottage industry.

---Bob Gross---

[PPi-]

I am ashamed to admit that I encountered similar problem in past with my Minolta. All pictures needed less or more tweaking before they did look “good enough” to print.

Well, later I discovered the origin of my problem. Minolta used different colourspace that was wider than sRGB and therefore it had to be converted into sRGB before editing at all to make the colours look vivid on monitor. And then if I want to make a photoprint of it, I need to covert it to profile supplied by my photolab. Then everything looks fine. I wonder if there is something similar going on with your case?

Lesson that I did learn from all of this (once again): Read the manual, man.. I suppose I never change :D

[defordphoto]

mmtrask wrote:
My pictures seem to be grayish and flat with very little color. It may be the photo lab I'm using but if not what could cause this. My camera is 1 week old and I'm using a Canon AF 70-200 2.8 lens. Please advise. Thanks

Could you post a sample photo here? Or at least a link to a photo that's at least 800x600? Would be nice to see in person.

[maderito]

My first questions would be:

1. What color space are you using in the camera?
2. What's your working color space in Photoshop?
3. If your Photoshop working space differs from your camera's how are you handling the mismatch?
4. Do the images look good in Photoshop and bad after coming back from the printer?

If your camera is acquiring in sRGB and your working color space in Photoshop is Adobe RGB, you need to read up on color managment. See the today's posting by Scott Berger: http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=20558#116425

[mmtrask]

Thanks for all the input, I printed out the pictures using a different source, they came out way better, thank God. I will research all the color source stuff as well. Thanks Mike

[kuyajames]

Hi MM-
I see that you have found your processing may have been the problem. I found an on-line processing/print source call Ofoto.com
I had a couple of images printed since they offered me 10 free prints and I had a 16 x 20 made. I was very happy with the results sent to me in just a couple of days.
seeYA jim