photoshop settings/ printing and crap colour

[arumdevil]

Two questions, one about photoshop settings and the other about getting prints.

1. I just upgraded to photoshop CS (Mac OS X) and now all my settings are gone (actions, save for web settings etc). how can I get them to show up in CS?

2. I took my first photos from my 300D to the local printing lab the other day. I was disappointed with the colour. Should I be converting the images to CMYK and/or embedding a particular profile into them? at the moment they are in RGB mode with Adobe RGB 1998 colour space.

the pics came out undersaturated....


thanks for any input.

regards,

arum

[Scottes]

1) Well, this is for Windows... PS stores all actions in files called <something>.atn. Can you search for these? Simply copy the old (PS7?) one to the proper directory in PS CS. I don't know about Save For Web settings, though.

2) Your printer probably expects files in sRGB unless they can tell you otherwise. Generally I get blank looks when I ask about color profiles - which means I give them sRGB. You will lose a bit of saturation - bright reds for instance - when converting to sRGB, but not as much as giving them the wrong profile.

Also, be sure to tell them that the images are color-corrected and that they should make no changes. Then you'll get what you see on the monitor (sorta), rather than what they think should be done. To check, many photo places that print photos use Fuji/Noritsu/Agfa printers which will print out color correction codes on the back. Generally you'll see a string of Ns if they didn't color correct. If they did do something you'll see things like +1, -2 etc.

[arumdevil]

thanks scottes.
I couldn't get the photoshop settings to work yet but I'll keep poking around. If anyone knows exactly what to put where please let me know.

as for the printing - I kind of assumed that they expect SRGB as assigining that profile to m pics makes it look almost as they came out. i'll try that next time. I asked the guy about the profile before I took the disk in but he didn't seem to know what I was on about. also we have a language barrier as I am in spain and don't speak a lot of spanish.

anyway, I'll see how it goes. thanks

[Jesper]

2. I took my first photos from my 300D to the local printing lab the other day. I was disappointed with the colour. Should I be converting the images to CMYK and/or embedding a particular profile into them? at the moment they are in RGB mode with Adobe RGB 1998 colour space.

the pics came out undersaturated....

No, don't convert to CMYK. Convert your images to sRGB, because that's most likely what your local printing lab expects. Undersaturated looking colors is a typical symptom of viewing an Adobe RGB image as if it is in sRGB. Most printing labs don't understand color management with ICC profiles, so even if you send them a file with an embedded Adobe RGB profile, it will be ignored and they will treat the image as sRGB.

[arumdevil]

No, don't convert to CMYK. Convert your images to sRGB, because that's most likely what your local printing lab expects. Undersaturated looking colors is a typical symptom of viewing an Adobe RGB image as if it is in sRGB. Most printing labs don't understand color management with ICC profiles, so even if you send them a file with an embedded Adobe RGB profile, it will be ignored and they will treat the image as sRGB.

tossers :roll:

ok, thanks guys, i'll see how it turns out in sRGB

[arumdevil]

To check, many photo places that print photos use Fuji/Noritsu/Agfa printers which will print out color correction codes on the back. Generally you'll see a string of Ns if they didn't color correct. If they did do something you'll see things like +1, -2 etc.

I checked the back of the prints. this is waht I found:

MOSTRAD 265 1/ 1................... 7/ 13
slide_B&W_1856.tif


the red section was the same on each print, the rest varied according to the file name.do you think the "1/ 1" indicates that they altered the colour? the other thing is when I went in they're printer was broken so they took it somewhere else and I'm not sure if it will be the same machine when I try again.

the best part is these guys are called FOTOPRIX

[Scottes]

I don't about the numbers, and I can't find anything about Mostrad printers due to the fact that everything comes up in Spanish. I'm used to seeing plusses and minusses...

[arumdevil]

lol, ok thanks anyway

[tarves57]

Also, be sure to tell them that the images are color-corrected and that they should make no changes. Then you'll get what you see on the monitor (sorta), rather than what they think should be done. To check, many photo places that print photos use Fuji/Noritsu/Agfa printers which will print out color correction codes on the back. Generally you'll see a string of Ns if they didn't color correct. If they did do something you'll see things like +1, -2 etc.

This is very interesting! I just got back two totally sh*te pictures from a local photography shop, including that one picture was cropped by half an inch all round, even though the size was correct in Photoshop. What really bugs me is the dull colours. yellowish greens, grey blues and dull reds. I think if they had simply upped the red it might have been okay. I think I had it in Adobe RGB too, so I'll know next time to make it sRGB.

However I looked at the back of the photos and saw a string of Ns, so they had obviously just stuck it in their machine and printed it as was. (That's okay I suppose, but they could at least have asked me what I wanted).

Can anyone recommend a good online printing service? (In the UK)
Thanks
Susan