Photo Editing Question - help

Mrs.Cooley2bee

I edit my photos with paint.net (basically a generic free photoshop),  If I edit the color/contrast on my pictures they look great on the computer screen but I have been printing some and they look too dark or too light etc.  It seems like whatever I do to the lighting shows up 10x magnified in the printed version.  Sooo annoying because it looks good on my computer screen.  I will say that I printed at Walgreens and I know they aren't great.  Should I try printing at a place like Ritz?  What am I missing here?  Thanks!

PS - I use a Canon Powershot and it has 12mega pixels so the quality of the actual shot should be fine. 

brittanyandcj

i also use paint.net for editing and i print mine through mpix because everyone i've printed from walgreens has looked horrible. like you said, they look great on the computer but when i get them back, they look awful. i've had great luck with the way they turn out from mpix. i would try printing them out somewhere else because i think its just walgreens.

JenRose05

I would start using mpix , walgreens sucks at photo printing... Ive had tons of issues with them

shawnsweetie

1) walgreens sucks..LOL

2) your computer screen is probably not calibrated. Most computer screens are really bright. You can try using a free calibration like calibrize. You will be shocked at how dark a calibrated screen is. It is really hard to edit pics on a computer that isn't calibrated.

Whitney DD

If you have your receipt you can probably have your photos reprinted for free if you tell them you think its too dark. THey will lighten it for you when they print it.  Hopefully you can get your money worth at least.

doodlebug914

I highly recommend Costco's photo lab!  I think their membership is 100% worth it.

jerseygirl81

shawnsweetie:

2) your computer screen is probably not calibrated. Most computer screens are really bright. You can try using a free calibration like calibrize. You will be shocked at how dark a calibrated screen is. It is really hard to edit pics on a computer that isn't calibrated.

This is what I was going to say. I can't edit photos at all on my laptop because the screen is too bright. I calibrated C's monitor and I use that for editing. Unfortunately, that also means that I rarely get to do any editing at all

After you've used a program to calibrate, hold a picture up next to your monitor and keep adjusting the settings until it matches.

sonjabmc

The problem is that most labs use color correction. They will correct the color even if you have already corrected in a photoshop problem.

So you can either ask them to turn the auto correction off (honestly I don't even know if a Walgreens employee would know how to do that) or you go to a better lab in the are.

 Costcos is great for photos. I have photographer friends who use Costcos!

Ritz is great too.

I actually just ordered pictures from shutterfly (I had a 100 prints free coupon) and for my personal use I think the quality was great!

Mpix is fine too.

Getting your monitor callibrated also helps, but not sure if that is worth it.

Good Luck!

jerseygirl81

sonjamom22:

Getting your monitor callibrated also helps, but not sure if that is worth it.

I absolutely think it would help. You can get the programs for free and do it yourself in a matter of minutes, so why wouldn't it be "worth it?"

I think this would be where I start. If your monitor's calibration is off and you're editing with a weird color/brightness setting, it's not going to matter where you print them because it's always going to be matched to what you saw on your monitor.