Monitor Calibration????

[daddyoproductions]

We are having a problem with printed photos not looking like they did on the monitor prior to sending them to the printshop. The printed photos colour does not match and it always seems to be a little darker than on the monitor. I have read a little about monitor calibration using Spyder and also matching colour profiles with the print shop. If we did these 2 things, would this solve our problems? Also, we provide some photo retouching services and are just wondering if there are some standard settings to use so our clients will atleast get something that looks close to what we are seeing on the monitor? (we retouch and send them the digital files for them to print)

Thanks in advance.

[mipo]

Hi,
It could help using the Spyder3 calibrator or any other good monitor calibration.
But the monitor itself could also be limited in the settings you can apply using a calibration tool.
Many standard consumer LCD monitors lack the range of adjustements required to properly calibrate.

[wal]

I got a similar problem with daddyoproductions, but the photos come out brighter, when sent to print shops.

I was thinking, how do we really know if the monitor needs calibration..? can we simply take a pic, and view it in the monitor and if the colors match with the real object, than that means the monitor is ok..?.. printers too needs calibration, so i wouldnt rely on print outs to compare,..Maybe the printshop's printer needs calibration...

[natek313]

Ahh, the good old calibration issue. That's always a fun topic. I nearly ripped my hair out when trying to print at home. After doing research, I gave up and ordered prints online. They turned out really good, in my opinion.

From my understanding, which is limited since I'm still trying to wrap my head around the whole color space and monitor calibration thing, print shops are calibrated to certain color spaces, the most common being sRGB. So, if your monitor is calibrated to that color space, it should be all right. Besides, you'll never get a 100% perfect match between monitor and physical print; there's always going to be a difference, but calibration just minimizes that differential.

If I'm wrong, someone please correct me.

[BCampbell]

As mpio said, most consumer monitors are not designed to handle the color and gamma range of a printed photo. Yes, using a calibration tool will help. If you're set on a print service, you can also do a ghetto calibration by comparing a variety of prints to what you see on your screen. Even without a professional monitor you can get a decent idea of what your prints will look like, but they'll never look the same as on the screen.

[teaking]

I would suggest looking on google for colour managed workflows, and also asking your printers what colour space they print in i.e. sRGB or if they can provide you with a profile for their printer even better.

Once you know what colour space your printing to then you can make sure that when your opening pictures you are working in the correct colour space and if need be converting to the correct one.

And as for monitor calibration I have heard good things about the spyder and if your doing this as a business I would say it is a must. And softproof images if you do have the printer profile as print has less colours in CMYK than RGB so some photographs dont have the same range but this can be fixed to some degree in post.