Not getting the right prints

[arian29]

I have the Epson L110 printer. I am not getting the right prints, i.e. my prints don't match what i see on my monitor. It seems a possible calibration issue of my monitor but that was not true. To check, i sent the prints to snapfish and zoomin and the outcome was very accurate. The prints very much what i was seeing on my monitor. So now i looked for ICC profiles but in vein. I download a few but no change what so ever.

What i see on the monitor:

What Epson printed:

What snapfish/zoomin sent:

Comparison:

What can i do to get that output similar to snapfish.. that matched my monitor?
Thanks

 

[Scatterbrained]

Personally, I prefer the print your Epson gave you. Is your monitor calibrated? That's always the first place to start. Beyond that bear in mind that consumer oriented places like Snapfish likely have some sort of "corrections" algorithm running behind the scenes, similar to what your average consumer 1 hour kiosk (think Wal Mart/Sams, etc) will use.
There could be a multitude of other issues at play of course. . . .

 

[ann]

if you post this in the digital section you may get more help, as this is basically a section on film use

 

[arian29]

Umm ok.. MODS please move it to the digital section..

 

[gsgary]

Poor some Rodinal on your printer that should fix it

 

[KmH]

Get these books:
Real World Image Sharpening with Adobe Photoshop, Camera Raw, and Lightroom (2nd Edition)
The Digital Negative: Raw Image Processing in Lightroom, Camera Raw, and Photoshop
The Digital Print: Preparing Images in Lightroom and Photoshop for Printing
Fine Art Printing for Photographers: Exhibition Quality Prints with Inkjet Printers

 

[Light Guru]

If you want to do your own printing then you need to calibrate your monitor and calibrate your printer. When calibrating the printer you must calibrate it with each different paper type you use.

 

[KmH]

And - you need to soft-proof .

You can calibrate your display with a colorimeter - X-Rite ColorMunki Display

To profile your printer you need a spectrophotmeter. A spectrophotomete rcan also calibrate a computer display, but a colorimeter cannot profile a printer..
X-Rite ColorMunki Photo

 

[ruben_c]

That were also my first steps when I was confronted to the color management workflow. :mrgreen:

First thing I did was starting to calibrate my monitor with a Spyder. To get the right colors on my own prints, I started using the standard printer-paper profiles from the paper manufacturers site. Here an example of Hahnemühle: ICC Profiles - Hahnemühle FineArt

These are already quite good. Later I got myself a spyderprint to create my own profiles.

Anyway if this issue is new for you I recommend you this eBook: Color Management All About
And this page: Cambridge in Colour - Photography Tutorials & Learning Community

Would have make my life easier to know these info when I started. I would have saved a lot of time and money for trial and error.