Allen,
toneyw wrote in post #4268050
In terms of throwing away your post processing for online printing, you don't. After you PP your photos, you need to upload a jpg for printing.
Ditto that, you'll want to fully PP for the size of print you want. I'd also suggest you check with your lab about color space -- some want a CMYK color profile for their printers, but most popular labs will use sRGB. Some may allow for Adobe RGB or even ProPhoto RGB. These are good things to find out because:
When you output a jpeg or a tiff for printing, that file either has the generic sRGB profile by default or it may have an embedded profile. This is done by cameras for jpegs or by software such as Adobe PS and Lightroom and by the latest version of Canon's DPP. The profile could be sRGB, or it could be Adobe RGB, or, in the case of Lightroom, it could be ProPhoto RGB.
You should ensure that the color profile for your output file matches that required by your printer lab. Most will be fine with sRGB, in which case for your files you should either use sRGB as your "working color space" or explicitely convert them to sRGB. If the labs accept Adobe RGB or ProPhotoRGB or CMYK, as some upscale labs may, knowing this and acting accordingly will keep the colors of your prints in line with what you see at your computer. With printing, surprises are not a good thing.
I'd sugest that you pick a place and send it two or three pics that contain a broad range of tones and colors to print at 8x10 to test things out before you decide to jump in with both feet.
One other issue with digital is sharpening. This comes into play with printing because various print sizes will alter the approach to sharpening. If I'm preparing a picture to display at 800x600 on a Web page, or if I'm just printing a 4x6, I just do quick sharpening in my RAW converter. Even 8x10 is OK with modern cameras. But if you are thinking of larger formats, sharpening and noise reduction become critical issues. The same applies to significantly cropped pics. These cameras produce great pics at 13x19 and higher, just take some time to read up a little on strategies for maximizing your sharpening skills for large prints, and strategies for resizing then sharpening for enlarged prints. It'll be worth it!
Coming from film, the emphasis on sharpening might seem a bit strange, but the nature of digital capture/sensor design calls at least for initial sharpening in your RAW processor -- to make edges "real edges" -- and when you're talking enlarging for printing a careful approach to resizing and sharpening can make a big difference.
Hope this helps some!
