where have i gone wrong from screen to print?

[c-bass]

i have about a hundred photos that i am very pleased with and would like to put several of them in a frame. they look great on my computer screen but once i print them they just look kind of dull and not nearly as dramatic and colorful as i expected. i have used several different printers and none seem to be all that different. below is my workflow that i generally use.

DPP correct white balance/adjust contrast/brightness/and saturation. will use trimming tool when neccesary. most are left in raw format. from here i am ussually happy with the way they look. i may sharpen some and then send to print.

should i only correct wb save to tiff and do all other editing in paint shop pro? is my monitor not calibrated and even if it were how do i know it is set to the labs printer?

also would the picture being larger on the monitor have anything to do with the way that i am looking at the pic from a perspective compared to a 4x6 print?

[eddarr]

Make sure the sRGB profile is embedded into the images. Printing in aRGB will almost always give you a washed out print.

You should get your monitor calibrated. When you embed the profile into the image then they know what color space to print with. If you monitor is not calibrated then they will print to sRGB but it still won't match what you see on the screen.

A little light reading for you. http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?p=3740438

[Lowner]

A printed image will always appear to be "duller than the same image on your monitor. To get some sort of handle on how much duller, always view an image in proof mode and if required make final tweaks there before sending to the printer.

Another important but not much mentioned point is that ink jet printers spray minute quantities of ink at an absorbent surface, where on contact it spreads and blurs. Although paper and printer advances have improved this, it is still vital to apply a final sharpening prior to printing. A correctly sharpened image ready for printing will appear to be totally oversharpened on screen.

How much final sharpening should you apply? Only the final print can tell you that, but if the sharpening is apparent in the finished print, then it's been too much!

If your system was calibrated and you used a reputable printing house, they should be able to offer advice on profiling for their machinery. Without this basic step you will always be making a big leap into the unknown every time you send files off for prints.

Richard

[c-bass]

after checking several prints alongside my monitor it seems they are all much darker. the bright blue water is washed out and not very bright. i will get a calibrator program this week and give that a try. the pics are not unsharpe looking but more that they don't "pop" like on the monitor.

[tomd]

From Rene's sig. information. He has a lot of good information.
http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=296149
Tom

[ChasP505]

c-bass... I certainly agree with Lowner's practical advice. Another thing to watch is whether you're "double color managing", where BOTH the editing application and your printer are trying to manage the color. This usually results in poor prints.

For example, I use an entry level printer (HP B8350) and when printing from DPP I get better and brighter print results by letting the printer manage the colors. In the DPP printing dialog window, I select "none" for a printing profile choice.

Also... viewing your image file at about 25% size on your monitor screen will give you a more accurate idea of what it will look like when printed. The final output sharpening you applied while viewing at 100% may not look so sharp at 25%.

[René Damkot]

Printing in aRGB will almost always give you a washed out print.
No it won't.

When you embed the profile into the image then they know what color space to print with. If you monitor is not calibrated then they will print to sRGB but it still won't match what you see on the screen.
I sure hope you are not referring to the monitor profile here...
The only place to use your monitors profile is in the OS. And you tell DPP where to find it. You don't use it anywhere in PS!

Have a read in the link from my sig about printing with ICC profiles, and softproofing...

[bohdank]

Monitor needs to be profiled also the printer needs to be profiled for the paper you are using or use the profiles that come with the printer. Often, they are pretty close.

What you see is never what you get, simply because a monitor displays using transmitted light, a print we look at with reflected light. They will never appear to have the same contrast or "brightness" but you can get them close.

[eddarr]

No it won't.


I sure hope you are not referring to the monitor profile here...

Of course not. I could have written it better. Embed correct color profile in file. Calibrate monitor to get accurate colors.

[c-bass]

thanks. i bought a hp d 7360 yesterday that has each individual ink cartridge and i am never going to walgreens, wolf photo, or any other printer again for smaller than 8x10. i don't care if i do spend a little more money it is worth it. i am still playing with the profile and do neet to figure out how to make photos a little brighter in print with out appearing too bright on screen. seriously though i may have to get one of those 5 or 7 hundred dollar ones for christmas if they are better than this. blown away.