Parenting

Do your photos look the same on your computer and when you get them printed?

Lately, I love how something looks on my computer, but then I am just not impressed when I get them printed.  Should I try a new printing company?  Or is the shot that is printed more accurate than the one on my computer and no matter where it is printed, it will come out the same?

Re: Do your photos look the same on your computer and when you get them printed?

  • Computer screens only display 72dpi, whereas any printer will have much higher resolutions printers. So that could be part of the problem.

    I know Shutterfly will tell you what size you can print up to for best results. Have you tried that? Not that you have to get them printed through Shutterfly, but you could at least upload one picture there and see what their recommendation is.

    imageimage
    Alex (11/14/06) and Nate (5/25/10)
    "Want what you have, do what you can, be who you are." - Rev. Forrest Church
  • In addition, your monitor might not be calibrated exactly (there's software out there to help you set the colors so they're "true"), and likely isn't an exact match to the calibration of where you're having things printed.

    Mpix.com is a great website for having prints made (a consumer-version of a professional printer) - you might try there to see if the prints come out better, and if not, then check your monitor's color settings :)

  • Loading the player...
  • How are you viewing your photographs?  Photoshop?  Are you shotting in RAW?  The color spectrum in RAW is much greater than any printer on the market- one day the printing cabilities will (hopefully) catch up to the spectrum in RAW.

    Sometimes my edited photos- the colors come out much more harsh than I intended esp with glossy prints...i don't like glossy so I rarely print them that way.  

    I've heard that Sam's club as the same printer as White House Custom Color (WHCC) Printing (which is pretty well know in the photog world) but I didn't really like Sam's.   I perfer Mpix too


    Baby Birthday Ticker Ticker Baby Birthday Ticker Ticker Baby Birthday Ticker Ticker
  • You need to calibrate your monitor.  There are expenisive systems and cheaper systems.  I have this one, but I have heard good things about a cheaper one, I think the brand is Spyder.

    https://www.amazon.com/X-Rite-EODIS2-Eye-One-Display-2/dp/B000JLO31M/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=software&qid=1232335016&sr=8-1 

    Then, if you get them printed from a good quality printer, you shouldn't have any problems.

    I have my monitor calibrated, and print at my pro lab and sometimes mpix, and they come out just as I have them on my screen.  I printed something at Walmart because it was last minute, and it looked AWFUL!

  • Thank you, ladies!  I truly wish I had the time to devote to researching and studying all of this photography stuff, but somehow that just hasn't happened yet!  Go figure!  I really appreciate it!

     

    Shopgirl78, love the new sig!

  • Absolutely not!

    My mom has been keeping a daily blog w/photos of DD since she was born. DH and I go to read it and go "Wow! Cute pics!"

    So, we ask her to get us come copies. We fast learned that she enhances them for pc screens! So our pics usually look different (good, but still different).

  • Femme, both my Mom and I have high end graphics on our pcs (they also have blu-ray players). Our screens do not display at 72dpi.
This discussion has been closed.
Choose Another Board
Search Boards
"
"