Using Professional Printing Services

[Karm Redland]

I just began using the services of commercial printers. Is there a checklist of things I need to do to maximize the chance of my image being printed the way I intended? I am a completely ignorant of how to manage this part of the production cycle. In particular, how does one communicate the brightness of the computer screen used when developing an image? I produce images that will hang in different rooms with different levels of lighting. I adjust the brightness of my images based on this variation. Thanks for help anyone can provide.

Karm

[Manfred M]

Karm - that depends on the printing service. While I generally do my own work, I do use a commercial service for any print wider than 17". The ones that I have used are custom printers who work hand-in-hand with me to create the print I want.

I deliver "print ready" work to the printer who then makes some test prints, that I can evaluate under suitable lighting conditions. I give my instructions on how to proceed based on what I see on the test prints. I will also consult with the printer on the individual papers being used.

If you are dealing with a high volume commercial printer, I would use a similar approach. Make test prints (I use half of an 8-1/2" x 11" sheet per print). I will do a print that is pretty well the entire scene that has been scaled down as well as a print that is a full sized segment, but only a critical part of the scene (areas of highlights and / or shadows) to ensure that these are reproducing well. I would write down the adjustments I make (I use adjustment layers in Photoshop for doing this). Once I get the print I like, I will record the settings I used and this will be the starting point for my next images (which will go through the same process. Once you have figured out how a specific paper prints, you should be able to apply your adjustments and the prints should come out pretty well bang on, so long as you do not change your computer screen settings and continue with the same printer / paper.

You need to evaluate the prints under the same lighting conditions all the time too. I have a setup at my print station where I do that, so consistency is pretty good. I evaluate with 150 lux of good quality light for "home use" and bump that up to 200 lux for prints that will be displayed in an exhibition, where the lighting tends to be brighter.

I hope that this makes sense. I do my own prints using very much the same process when I work at home. Test prints have been used to evaluate the print quality for as long as I have been printing (over 50 years).

[DanK]

karm,

I almost never use a commercial lab. I print my own unless I can't (e.g., metal prints).

I used a reasonably high level lab (Bay Photo), but my experience may not extend to the most expensive custom labs.

When I last used Bay Photo (a long time ago, so my memory may be wrong), there wasn't an option to provide much in the way of printing instructions other than a choice of paper and a binary do-or-don't-do-color-adjustments. To get prints of differing brightness would require Manfred's procedure: adjust the file until a test print matches what you want for a specific location, and then send in that version of the file.

However, their printers aren't the same as mine, and they don't use the same papers, so what I would get from them is not necessarily exactly what I would get myself.

However, I have to admit that I don't generally make adjustments for the brightness of the lighting where the print will be shown. I'm a fairly careful printer, but not nearly as careful as Manfred. Often I don't know what the lighting will be. For example, I had a print in an exhibit that was taken down literally yesterday. Until it had been hanging for two months, I didn't know what the lighting would be. As it turned out, it was darker than it would typically be in a commercial gallery. Also, except in rooms without windows, both the level of light and the color temperature of light change during the day.

BTW, I should say that in most cases, what I got back from Bay Photo was good. I did all of the color adjustments myself and chose the budget option of no color correction by them.

Dan

[Karm Redland]

Karm - that depends on the printing service. While I generally do my own work, I do use a commercial service for any print wider than 17". The ones that I have used are custom printers who work hand-in-hand with me to create the print I want.

I deliver "print ready" work to the printer who then makes some test prints, that I can evaluate under suitable lighting conditions. I give my instructions on how to proceed based on what I see on the test prints. I will also consult with the printer on the individual papers being used.

If you are dealing with a high volume commercial printer, I would use a similar approach. Make test prints (I use half of an 8-1/2" x 11" sheet per print). I will do a print that is pretty well the entire scene that has been scaled down as well as a print that is a full sized segment, but only a critical part of the scene (areas of highlights and / or shadows) to ensure that these are reproducing well. I would write down the adjustments I make (I use adjustment layers in Photoshop for doing this). Once I get the print I like, I will record the settings I used and this will be the starting point for my next images (which will go through the same process. Once you have figured out how a specific paper prints, you should be able to apply your adjustments and the prints should come out pretty well bang on, so long as you do not change your computer screen settings and continue with the same printer / paper.

You need to evaluate the prints under the same lighting conditions all the time too. I have a setup at my print station where I do that, so consistency is pretty good. I evaluate with 150 lux of good quality light for "home use" and bump that up to 200 lux for prints that will be displayed in an exhibition, where the lighting tends to be brighter.

I hope that this makes sense. I do my own prints using very much the same process when I work at home. Test prints have been used to evaluate the print quality for as long as I have been printing (over 50 years).

[Karm Redland]

Manfred, thanks for the detailed reply.

DanK, thanks for your response.