Costco printing - a question.......

Costco's ICC profiles instructions tells you to do all your editing first then soft proof in their profile.

This seems confusing to me, shouldn't I assign the Costco profile to my image first before editing (I've got CS2) and then edit?? I tried it their way and the image was very close to monitor results but a tad too light in the final printed result, and I feel that because I had already edited the image first before assigning the profile.

Thanks for any help, I have to edit and upload a little league shot for another parent on my sons' team - I've been promising this parent a print for weeks (not a paid job - this is a parent to parent non-pro courtesy). Since I have no printer at the moment (the lens' purchases are taking all the money), I need to print via Costco and I would like to get finished because I always keep my promises.

As I'm sure you're aware, the editing capability with COSTCO's online resource is quite basic. I also do all my editing in either LR or PS then upload to my COSTCO folder, confirm size and crop and make sure they look the how I want them. I also put a little note on them to tell the person at the other end not to adjust them in any way.

Never edit using a device specific profile, otherwise if you want to print on another device the colors will be wrong. If you edit in a common known profile like sRgb or Adobe RGB either you, the lab, or the machine can easily do profile conversion.

There's a book on color management in the book thread linked from my sig. Either use sRgb 100% of the time (which is a valid solution), or get the book.

csm328 wrote in post #3585279
As I'm sure you're aware, the editing capability with COSTCO's online resource is quite basic. I also do all my editing in either LR or PS then upload to my COSTCO folder, confirm size and crop and make sure they look the how I want them. I also put a little note on them to tell the person at the othet end not to adjust them in any way.

Yes, but do you apply their profile FIRST before editing? Their instructions tell you to look at their profile at the END of the editing process for soft-proof purposes. I think this is sort of backwards, and I wanted to double check here before starting to see what others' experiences are.

Thanks!

tim wrote in post #3585349
Never edit using a device specific profile, otherwise if you want to print on another device the colors will be wrong. If you edit in a common known profile like sRgb or Adobe RGB either you, the lab, or the machine can easily do profile conversion.

There's a book on color management in the book thread linked from my sig. Either use sRgb 100% of the time (which is a valid solution), or get the book.

The image was shot in Adobe RGB, OK should I should not attempt to soft proof using their profile, and instruct the lab to do the profile conversion?

I had to print a poster size this week 20x30 from Costco with their on-line processing. I processed as normal, but was prompted that the image was too small for that large printing. So, I reprocessed and saved on JPEG a very large file. I didn't think it would download. It took a little longer, but all was accepted and the result was amazing. The clarity for a $10 print is nothing I could do at home, unless I had one of those insanely expensive Canon printers. They will accept anything you send them if it is in JPEG form, so their profile or not, process yourself and save in a form they can accept. You tell the tech or on the site, do not process or touch the settings. They are pretty decent.

pigtailpat wrote in post #3585353
Yes, but do you apply their profile FIRST before editing? Their instructions tell you to look at their profile at the END of the editing process for soft-proof purposes. I think this is sort of backwards, and I wanted to double check here before starting to see what others' experiences are.

Thanks!

Take a look here http://www.drycreekpho​to.com/Learn/profiles.​htm if you haven't already. You don't want to use the device profile (i.e. COSTCO's profile) until the very end for soft proofing and final conversion.

This way if you want to print on a different printer you don't have to worry about the destructive nature of the conversion to the printer profile.

That being said, if you haven't calibrated your monitor and aren't familiar with a colour managed workflow then you are probably best just to do sRGB all the way like suggested above given that you are trying to get this done as soon as possible.

e-k

Yes, calibrating the monitor is must. WB will all be off, as well.

A list of points for people who don't know much about color.

• If you don't understand profiles, always work in sRgb, not in Adobe RGB, CMYK, or any other colorspace.
  
• Always work in a standard profile, like sRgb or Adobe RGB. Never work in a device specific color profile
  
• Always soft proof against a device specific profile, if available, before sending a files to be printed.
  
• If you really want to you can convert (NOT assign) an image to a device specific profile as the final step before saving a copy of an image. This is unnecessary as the output devices or RIP will do the conversion from sRgb/Adobe RGB to the device profile for you.
  
• NEVER assign a profile, always convert. The only time you ever assign a profile is if someone who doesn't know anything about color has messed around with profiles and gotten it wrong.
  

Thanks all. I tried again with this parent photo and will see how it goes. There's a chance that with my initial try, I might have imbedded the ICC profile in the image before sending it to the lab which dry creek says is a no-no (i.e., I might have forgotten to uncheck that).

I'll post again on the results.........

I hope I can swing for my own printer soon..much easier............

Hey guys -

Got my 2d try back from Costco's very nice! Still a wee, wee bit too light, but I think this is my error, I think I am overcompensating for printing, because in the past with my epson, I really had to (prints on the epson really came out dark). Any other normal person might think the print is fine, but I'm hypercritical about my own work.

When I have more money available, I'll see about hardware profiling for the monitor, because I am in a basement situation with ample fleurscent lighting, but still - it's not like daylight ambient light. I think this is contributing also.

I really appreciate the time to help me.

I find my prints come back brighter/lighter than my calibrated monitor, so I always make things look slightly dark on my screen. I actually processed two images with the exposure and white balance bracketed by two stops and I compare the prints to my monitor so I know how to make things look on the screen. This is always using the same lab so the results are consistent.

tim wrote in post #3587817
I find my prints come back brighter/lighter than my calibrated monitor, so I always make things look slightly dark on my screen. I actually processed two images with the exposure and white balance bracketed by two stops and I compare the prints to my monitor so I know how to make things look on the screen. This is always using the same lab so the results are consistent.

Tim -

THANK YOU! Now I know I'm not nuts. So I'll go for a wee bit darker next time, and hopefully I can lick this problem and use costco for awhile until I can afford the next thing - the printer. The print I got today is entirely useable, and I think the parent won't notice any difference (but I do).

Do you really want to get into printing yourself? The Epson 2800/3800/etc range are meant to be great, but then you have to worry about calibration, paper stocks, and the time it takes to produce the images. I think cost is about the same, but with an up-front investment in the gear. Unless you want the control or the speed of printing yourself i'd suggest you give it some thought. It'd be interesting to hear from some people who print their own.

I thought about getting a big expensive printer, but why? You can get huge prints from Mpix or Costco or even Ritz:o for around $11. Saves so much ink and frustration.