Problems with prints...

[denneyphotography]

I have done photos for my family members and some friends for the last three years and have not had a problem until this shoot. Everything turned out the way it normally does, I did a few minor edits in Lightroom like I always have, and everything looked great on screen. I gave the family their disc, and when they printed them out, they turned out very dark, and the color was really off, almost like the contrast had been messed up after I edited them. I asked if they had printed directly from the disc, or if they had done anything to the images theirselves, they printed from my disc. Could this just be because they printed from a walmart 1 hour place? What could be the cause of this?

 

[WesternGuy]

Might be because they printed from a 1 hour place and then again, it might not be. First question: are you editing on a calibrated monitor?

Next things to think about - have you tried printing them yourself, assuming you have access to a decent printer? Are you shooting in raw and then converting them to a jpg for printing? Has this happened before? Have you tried having a few of the pics printed at another shop? Did you discuss the outcome with anyone at Walmart? I could go one, but answers to these questions are a start for tracking what went wrong - unless someone has more insight than I have - which is definitely possible. Hopefully others will have some comments, particularly with regards to printing at Walmart.

Cheers,

WesternGuy

 

[Aayria]

This is part of why I hardly ever give people discs with images for printing. I gave my mother in law a disc of family pictures, and she took it into Wal-Mart to have Christmas cards made. The lady at the photo desk there told her the picture really needed "warmed up"...and low and behold my in laws sent out over a hundred Christmas cards that year with glowing, orange, people from the family reunion. Picture, credited to me. WOohoo! >< But agreed with the post above mine...are you calibrated? Since you said you've never had problems in the past, I would be more inclined to think the Wal mart printer did "auto adjusting" or a sales clerk "advised" adjustments.

 

[KmH]

Lightroom's edit work space uses the ProPhoto RGB color space and a color depth of 16-bits . Most print labs need photos that have a color depth of 8-bits and are in the sRGB color space.

What colorspace and file type do you use when you output the photos to disc?

I almost forgot. Here are some tutorials for you: Tutorials on Color Management & Printing

 

[MLeeK]

I have done photos for my family members and some friends for the last three years and have not had a problem until this shoot. Everything turned out the way it normally does, I did a few minor edits in Lightroom like I always have, and everything looked great on screen. I gave the family their disc, and when they printed them out, they turned out very dark, and the color was really off, almost like the contrast had been messed up after I edited them. I asked if they had printed directly from the disc, or if they had done anything to the images theirselves, they printed from my disc. Could this just be because they printed from a walmart 1 hour place? What could be the cause of this?

That's exactly what the problem is. It is the reason I only give a release to be printed through Mpix.com. I even upload the images to mpix for them from my computer.
Wal mart's 1 hour has NEVER given me a decent image-EVER. And it's pot luck if it really is calibrated and if it is calibrated well you are still going to get a really compromised quality with the 1 hour crap. It's not worth the paper they print it on.