Tips for Post Processing before send for lab printing!

[cheewooi]

Hi,
I used to send my photos for digital print without doing any post processing. Unfortunately, the photos come out not favour to what I wanted. Some are oversaturated whereas others are too dark or the photos are cropped indiscriminately!

Here's are some tips and steps I wanna share. I used photoshop CS in my post processing and image cropping!(Please make sure your monitor is calibrated using Adobe Gamma (cheapest way to do calibration!))

1. If the image is not horizontal or vertical, adjust it by rotate the canvas in photoshop (Ignore this step if you're satisfied with the image!).
2. Crop the image according to the printout size! Normally I printed in 4R size therefore I set 4 X 6 inches setting in photoshop CS cropping tools.
3. Do level adjustment!
4. Do hue saturation adjustment if neccesary!

That's all. When sending photos for lab printout, talk to the lab operator and ask them don't adjust the colors and just do some adjustment to the brightness of the photos if neccesary!

That's all what I did before sending the photos for lab printout! If you have anything wanna share please PM me or post to this forum!

Thanks! :lol:

Cheers.

[Hoopster]

Depending on the type of image, I also do a little unsharpen mask (or high pass filter). On my 20D I find a lot of my images come up fantastic with the following


1. USM Amount 18% radius 40 Threshhold 0
2. USM Amount 150% radius 0.3 Threshhold 0 (darken blending mode)
3. USM Amount 150% radius 0.3 Threshhold 0 (lighten blending mode)

Alter No 1 if you think its a little too much for your image.

[Rebel]

Depending on the type of image, I also do a little unsharpen mask (or high pass filter). On my 20D I find a lot of my images come up fantastic with the following


1. USM Amount 18% radius 40 Threshhold 0
2. USM Amount 150% radius 0.3 Threshhold 0 (darken blending mode)
3. USM Amount 150% radius 0.3 Threshhold 0 (lighten blending mode)

Alter No 1 if you think its a little too much for your image.


I've heard about the high pass technique, could you walk us through it if its not too complicated. People have often told me that unsharp mask is a somewhat crude way of sharpening images.

Thanks!

[Jesper]

If you want your prints to look exactly as you see your photos on your monitor, that's not going to be really easy.

The first thing you will need to do is calibrate your monitor, which means setting up the contrast, brightness and colour settings of your monitor so that it accurately displays colours as they should be.

A crude way to do this is make a test print and adjust the settings on your monitor to make what you see on your monitor match the print.

One step further would be to use software to calibrate and profile your monitor. If you have Photoshop (or Photoshop Elements), you'll have Adobe Gamma installed on your computer, which is a tool for doing this.

The best solution to calibrate and profile your monitor is to buy a hardware device to do it. To calibrate and profile your monitor, you attach the device to the screen and run the calibration and profiling software. The software uses the device to measure exactly how your monitor displays colours and this will enable you to setup your screen very accurately. This works much better than a software-only solution such as Adobe Gamma, in which you are using your own eyes to estimate if the monitor is setup correctly.

Finally, after you've calibrated and profiled your monitor, you need to learn how to use colour management and you'll need ICC colour profiles for your printer, paper and ink combination.

Do a search for "color management", you'll find lots of info. Here are some links to websites with a lot of info:

Photoshop CS Colour Management (http://www.computer-darkroom.com/ps8_colour/ps8_1.htm)
Photoshop CS Managing Colour when Printing (http://www.computer-darkroom.com/ps7_print/ps7_print_1.htm)
Monitor calibration and gamma (http://www.normankoren.com/makingfineprints1A.html) (Norman Koren)

[Hoopster]

The High Pass filter is also good for sharpening.


In photoshop, open your image. Duplicate the layer. While the new layer is selected go "Filter-Other-High Pass". The Radius should be set about 10. Click ok.
Still with the new layer selected click blend mode on the layers pallet and go to Overlay or Soft Light.

Then reduce the opacity of the duplicated layer until the sharpening looks right.

Hope that helps. There's a thousand ways to edit sharpening. I use both of these methods regularly.

[Arty]

I read somewhere on this BB, that the guy who invented PS recommends an unsharp mask of 20/50/0.

[Jesper]

I read somewhere on this BB, that the guy who invented PS recommends an unsharp mask of 20/50/0.Those settings will not sharpen the image, but will make the contrast better.
See here: Understanding Local Contrast Enhancement (http://luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/contrast-enhancement.shtml)

[DaveG]

If you want your prints to look exactly as you see your photos on your monitor, that's not going to be really easy.

The first thing you will need to do is calibrate your monitor, which means setting up the contrast, brightness and colour settings of your monitor so that it accurately displays colours as they should be.

A crude way to do this is make a test print and adjust the settings on your monitor to make what you see on your monitor match the print.

One step further would be to use software to calibrate and profile your monitor. If you have Photoshop (or Photoshop Elements), you'll have Adobe Gamma installed on your computer, which is a tool for doing this.

The best solution to calibrate and profile your monitor is to buy a hardware device to do it. To calibrate and profile your monitor, you attach the device to the screen and run the calibration and profiling software. The software uses the device to measure exactly how your monitor displays colours and this will enable you to setup your screen very accurately. This works much better than a software-only solution such as Adobe Gamma, in which you are using your own eyes to estimate if the monitor is setup correctly.

Finally, after you've calibrated and profiled your monitor, you need to learn how to use colour management and you'll need ICC colour profiles for your printer, paper and ink combination.

Do a search for "color management", you'll find lots of info. Here are some links to websites with a lot of info:

Photoshop CS Colour Management (http://www.computer-darkroom.com/ps8_colour/ps8_1.htm)
Photoshop CS Managing Colour when Printing (http://www.computer-darkroom.com/ps7_print/ps7_print_1.htm)
Monitor calibration and gamma (http://www.normankoren.com/makingfineprints1A.html) (Norman Koren)


The only problem I have with monitor calibration is that I don't understand how this affects how a lab prints out the digital files. I can have a "pefect" image file calibrated to the nth degree, but if the lab prints things that are slightly magenta, or light, or blue, or dark; then I'm just kidding myself. Monitor calibration would be vital if I controlled the whole process including the final print, but I don't.

What I have done is to try to use the "numbers" in Photoshop to adjust things. I shoot a model with a grey scale. I use the colour sampler tool to select three points of grey, white, mid-tone and near black. Then I make a colour adjustment layer and make sure that all the numbers are the same referring to the info pallete. If the highlight (white) numbers are all the same then there is NO colour cast in the highlights. If I do the same for the shadow and the midtones then there is no colour cast there either.

Since these adjustments were done on an adjustment layer I can drag that layer onto other images.

Now I should point out that getting all three targets to have exactly the same numbers is impossible. When I change the shadow it affects the midtones or highlights. But only slightly. Now if my histogram looks good I'm giving the lab a decent "negative" that's colour neutral and a good exposure. SURELY they should be able to take that and make a good print. I just think that this is a better solution than spending all of that time adjusting a monitor, which won't stay adjusted.

Until the day comes when I can adjust the monitor in five seconds, have the adjustment recorded within the EXIF information and then the lab's machine look for that benchmark, spending time calibrating my monitor is a waste of time.

[elmzarcega]

i have the same problem sending my photos for lab prints... ther results is always lost of shadow details and saturated colors...

does it mean that i need to brighten my photos meant for lab printing..???

[Twitch1977]

The only problem I have with monitor calibration is that I don't understand how this affects how a lab prints out the digital files. I can have a "pefect" image file calibrated to the nth degree, but if the lab prints things that are slightly magenta, or light, or blue, or dark; then I'm just kidding myself. Monitor calibration would be vital if I controlled the whole process including the final print, but I don't.

What I have done is to try to use the "numbers" in Photoshop to adjust things. I shoot a model with a grey scale. I use the colour sampler tool to select three points of grey, white, mid-tone and near black. Then I make a colour adjustment layer and make sure that all the numbers are the same referring to the info pallete. If the highlight (white) numbers are all the same then there is NO colour cast in the highlights. If I do the same for the shadow and the midtones then there is no colour cast there either.

Since these adjustments were done on an adjustment layer I can drag that layer onto other images.

Now I should point out that getting all three targets to have exactly the same numbers is impossible. When I change the shadow it affects the midtones or highlights. But only slightly. Now if my histogram looks good I'm giving the lab a decent "negative" that's colour neutral and a good exposure. SURELY they should be able to take that and make a good print. I just think that this is a better solution than spending all of that time adjusting a monitor, which won't stay adjusted.

Until the day comes when I can adjust the monitor in five seconds, have the adjustment recorded within the EXIF information and then the lab's machine look for that benchmark, spending time calibrating my monitor is a waste of time.

Some labs will provide you with the color profile for their equipment which you can use to ensure your prints match what you're seeing on your calibrated monitor. Costco is one example of a printer that has profiles available.

Kurt

Edit: Blah didn't realize this was a post from the days of yore that I was responding to. Sorry. :(