I’m sure many of you own a scanner of some sort, but this post is for those of you who do not. I read about this service in Southern Living. Shoe Box Reprints (click here) will scan up to 1,000 photos for you for $49.95. The photos will be converted to JPEG format (on a CD-ROM or DVD), and your original prints are returned to you.
MCP Action’s post the other day was regarding color management. This is a topic that I have just started reading up on as of two days ago. The land of calibration hardware for your monitor, color space settings, ICC profiles … it’s enough to make your head spin (and wallet empty). This post featured Color Inc Pro Labs and even offered a 50% off your first order discount code. Head on over and check out MCP’s blog to get the discount code.
As for the first issue – monitor calibration – there are many devices available for calibrating your monitor to ensure that the colors you see (and pictures you edit) print the way YOU expect them too. The Eye-one display 2 (X-Rite), recommended by WHCC which retails for $249, or Spyder 2 (ColorVision) which has three options or price levels are two frequently recommended products.
The second issue is regarding the color space that you work in Photoshop when editing and saving the photos. Each printing house recommends sRGB from what I’ve seen (select IEC61966-2.1 in photoshop). Just make sure you check the box to save the color space imbedded in the image for the print house to determine your color space. WHCC suggests
set your target Whitepoint and Gamma curve to 6500k and Gamma 2.2. These, however, are only recommendations, you may find that your viewing environment has warmer lights, in which case you could experiment with a Whitepoint of 5000k.
The last issue is regarding ICC profiles. I really don’t know anything about these and still researching this topic at the moment. For all of you graphic designers pro photogs out there, feel free to clue me in!
Based upon the post from yesterday, I have been conducting my own print-to-print comparison of the most well known print houses. I’ve been told bad things about the local drug store printers and Wal-Mart printers. Being the engineer that I am, I’ve decided to conduct my own photograph analysis.
WARNING: THE FOLLOWING INFORMATION IS BASED UPON THE FUNDING AND VIEWS OF THE BLOGGER AND NO ONE ELSE. NO MONEY WAS ACCEPTED IN THIS EVALUATION. (sorry, had to get that out of the way)
It’s an ongoing process, but I now have 8×10 prints from three print houses for side-by-side comparisons. The same .jpg was provided (no imbedded ICC profiles at this time) to each print house for printing. I’ve included variables such as paper type, finish type, my quality rating from color saturation, and pricing (including any min buy plus shipping). The results are as follows:
WHCC Kodak Endura Paper Matte highest quality $2.10 ($12min but free shipping)
Shutterfly Fuji Film Paper Glossy lowest quality $3.99 + shipping
*print was bent when arrived in the mail
Wolf Camera Fuji Film Paper Matte high quality $4.99 (in-store pickup)
Mpix Kodak Endura Paper Matte not yet rated
