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How do you know a photo will print well?


4 years 1 month ago #679848 by Tsoto
Now a days I have a ton of extra time at home, but my funds are kind of lean, and I need to make things stretch.  Which means when I print photos, I want to make sure I don't waist ink and paper.  I printed a couple yesterday and honestly they didn't turn out a nice as they looked on the computer screen. 

Any tips you can share?
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4 years 1 month ago #679888 by garyrhook
1) You need to acquire and use a colorimeter to ensure that what you see (on the monitor) is accurate. A modest ColorMunki or iDisplay, or Spyder, is perfectly suitable.

Next, you make the effort to figure out how to print properly with your printer. That's going to include having the appropriate ICC profiles on your system, turning off anything in the printer driver that will muck with the image (including color management) and using soft proofing in Lightroom (or whatever) to find out if you're in gamut, and if your print has any hope of turning out.

IOW, it's a process, and takes time and effort to learn. But a calibrated display is pretty much non-negotiable.
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4 years 1 month ago #679897 by Stefan-Olsson
I dont know anything about printing, but I did print about 4 images 20x30 a few months ago. I quickly learned that they did not look neccesarily the same printed as on screen. My screen is not calibrated, im sure that would help a lot. The people at fine art gallery here in town also mentioned that you tend to edit differently for print. Just something i vary lately try to get in to. Furthermore...How will it be viewed? up close? 10 feet away? What color wall is it hangin on? Lighting? like I said I know nothing, but I quickly learned one thing, it's a whole different art to printing.....An art that probably takes time effort and money to perfect im sure:)
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4 years 1 month ago #679907 by Shadowfixer1
The biggest issue I have seen with printing isn't color calibration, it has been image brightness. Most people without experience printing, edit on a monitor that is way too bright. When they print the image it will come out too dark. I do calibrate my monitor but I'm not religious about it. Take note that the cheaper calibration tools do not calibrate monitor brightness. They have tests that help you set the brightness but that's all. The more expensive calibration tools will calibrate the brightness and if you get the really expensive pro grade stuff, it will include calibration tools for your printer. It creates an ICC profile for each paper you calibrate.
The best way is to print a small snippet of the image if printing at home to see how it looks. 
www.betterphoto.com/?ramshots
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4 years 1 month ago #679915 by Tsoto
WOW, turns out there is a lot to this.  So what if you use two computers?  Would both have to have their displays matching each other?  Would that program you mentioned to calibrate work (Spyder)?
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4 years 1 month ago - 4 years 1 month ago #679922 by Shadowfixer1
All computers used should be calibrated. That is one of the purposes of doing it. Everything matches no matter which one you use. I personally use a Spyder. 
www.betterphoto.com/?ramshots
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