"After" colours are all wrong!!

[magda_s]

I'm probably not posting this in the right place but I'm guessing that the people who post here will know what I'm talking about. Forgive me, I'm SO new to all this.
Brief background: I've 'played' with Photoshop for some time now but never actually tried to do anything with it. Having just had a baby, I've been motivated to try to improve both my photography skills (which were virtually non existent) and my photoshop skills and I am both happy and shocked to see that I've turned out some pretty decent and fairly artistic keepers.
The problem is, I had a few printed last week and the colours are NOT what I see on my monitor!
What do I do???
I'm on a Mac with OS X 10.5.8 and am using Photoshop CS4
I've read about having to use one developer and asking them about the specifications of their equipment so you can calibrate your monitor to their equipment but I don't think that's what's going on here.
And I've tried playing with the brightness of my monitor and of the room but everything looks great on my screen regardless.
Any advice would be so very appreciated.
Thank you.

[caranfil]

Hello. Beside you need to calibrate the monitor... when you import/open pictures in Photoshop their color space usually is RGB. Most printers are using CMYK. You can change that in the Image Menu - Mode.

[magda_s]

Umm.. don't know if I'm doing it wrong.
I opened one of the shots where the colours are wrong and went to IMAGE > MODE > CMYK but it doesn't look any different on screen. It still looks perfect. So, clearly, I can't fix it. I'm sure I must be doing something wrong.

[RLucas]

It will not look different on your monitor. CMYK is for printing only.

[LeeR]

Here is a teaser video for a video tutorial on printing. It is only a few minutes of a 6 hour video but there is still some great information here on setting up PS to show you what your printer will produce. From there you can make the necessary adjustments to get the finished image you want.

[magda_s]

RLucas, if it's not going to look different on my monitor, what's the point? I'm not being rude ... again, I'm just saying that if it doesn't look bad (as the prints do) on my monitor then I can't fix it. Basically, I need for the image on my monitor to look the way the prints will look so that I can make them look right before sending them to print, if you see what I mean!
LeeR, thanks, the video looks interesting but then he can see on his monitor the way the image is going to look when it goes to print. He can see that it's a bit faded or what have you and knows he wants to make it look better. But what I see on my monitor looks GREAT!
I'm sorry if I'm just not getting something and I'm sure it must be something I'm doing wrong!!

[RLucas]

Originally Posted by magda_s

RLucas, if it's not going to look different on my monitor, what's the point? I'm not being rude ... again, I'm just saying that if it doesn't look bad (as the prints do) on my monitor then I can't fix it. Basically, I need for the image on my monitor to look the way the prints will look so that I can make them look right before sending them to print, if you see what I mean!
LeeR, thanks, the video looks interesting but then he can see on his monitor the way the image is going to look when it goes to print. He can see that it's a bit faded or what have you and knows he wants to make it look better. But what I see on my monitor looks GREAT!
I'm sorry if I'm just not getting something and I'm sure it must be something I'm doing wrong!!

No offense taken. I think I understand what you are you are talking about now. Check this link out. I hope this helps.

[magda_s]

Thank you Luke! I think this is it. I'm hoping anyway.
I really appreciate it and again, I apologise for my ignorance. I'm so new to this and I find it frustrating because I am otherwise pretty handy around a computer. Give me a broken spreadsheet to fix any day!! But when it comes to photos and colour and that...
I'll read through this again and see if I can get things working.
Don't suppose you happen to know of a similar article for Mac? This is windows. But no biggie. I'll figure it out. Just thought I'd ask on the off chance.
Many thanks again.

[RLucas]

Originally Posted by magda_s

Thank you Luke! I think this is it. I'm hoping anyway.
I really appreciate it and again, I apologise for my ignorance. I'm so new to this and I find it frustrating because I am otherwise pretty handy around a computer. Give me a broken spreadsheet to fix any day!! But when it comes to photos and colour and that...
I'll read through this again and see if I can get things working.
Don't suppose you happen to know of a similar article for Mac? This is windows. But no biggie. I'll figure it out. Just thought I'd ask on the off chance.
Many thanks again.

I tried to find one for Mac, but didn't see one. I am sure they are out there though. Seems the Win people like me seem to have more problems than the Mac crowd! lol! Good luck. I hope you get it fixed soon!