Help with printing my images...

[splproductions]

I am very new to the actual process of printing my images. I printed some at Costco, and they all had a yellow hue, even if I selected "no color correction". The only way I could fix it was by changing my Macbook Pro screen calibration to that "D50" setting that gives the screen that yellow tint. Then I went back into Lightroom and adjusted the WB until it looked right.

Also, the rich, vibrant reds in my photo went very flat and boring, and nothing I did would get the reds to print correctly.

I go through the calibration under the Displays panel in MacOS, but my screen ends up looking the exact same.

1) Does my screen need further calibration than MacOS provides? If so, is there software you'd recommend, or do I need to buy an X-Rite?
2) Do I need to find out what printer the print company is using, and tell Lightroom this information?
3) What printing company do people here suggest?

 

[Ysarex]

The calibration routine provided in Preference in the MacOS is typically either worthless and/or, in inexperienced hands, makes things worse.

You also need the display profiled which the above routine does not do.

So yes, buy an xRite.

You need an ICC profile for the printer/paper combination supplied by the printer. You can use that profile to soft-proof your output, but only if your display is calibrated and profiled first.

Joe

 

[WesternGuy]

Just so you know, what you see on your screen has very limited bearing on what you get on paper when you print. Calibrating your screen will help give you truer colours in your editing process, but as Ysarex has said, you need to know the ICC profile for the printer/paper/ink combination that you are using, or going to use. I would talk to your "lab" folks and find out what they require. Some labs want a jpg file in an sRGB colour space so that they can match their process to what you supply - check it out. What also matters is what paper and ink combination they are using on their printer.

Viewing on the screen will be in one of a number of colour spaces - sRGB, Adobe RGB, ProPhoto RGB, etc., but printing is a different matter and uses a different colour space - CMYK I believe - which is why you need to know the ICC profile of the media you will be using. Also, a display is transmitted light and a print is reflected light, so there will be a difference. HTH.

Cheers,

WesternGuy

 

[Big Mike]

Yes...there is a whole world to proper color workflow. Your display needs to be properly calibrated, which requires a calibration device. That should help quite a bit, but there is also process of soft proofing, which is using the profile of the printer & paper to estimate what the print will look like.

Tutorials on Color Management & Printing