Colour calibration?

[sjt269]

I've just signed up with Photobox to get some of my pics printed properly (aside from the fact that my printer doesn't work, I'm assuming they'll print the pics at a higher quality?) and I see that with your first lot of pics, they send a colour calibration sheet to check that the colours I'm seeing on screen are the same as the ones that get printed.


How important/necessary is calibrating my monitor? It seems like a bit too much hassle to ask for a calibration sheet before I place an order, and equally I don't want to just order a few prints to get the calibration sheet, since then I'll still be paying the £1.50 postage that I'd be paying if I ordered lots of pictures. Then again, I don't want to order lots of pictures and then find out my screen was showing them too bright, or too dark. I'm not sure if my PC is showing the pictures correctly or not, since they appear a lot darker on my laptop, and I don't know which screen is 'right'.


So my question is, is it worth getting the calibration sheet beforehand, or should I just order the prints and hope they come out okay?



Thanks
tTz

 

[nomore]

You can only calibrate your monitor to get the white point to be as white as possible (e.g. no colour casts), and the same goes for black and grey tones.

When sending images to a different output device such as a printer, you will need the colour profile for that equipment so that you can get an accurate idea of what the output will be.

Each printer will output with a different tone, so it's not possible to get a so called 'calibrated' monitor with reference to all output. Photoshop supports ICC profiles so that you can preview a representation of what an image will look like when printed on the deivce the ICC profile is for.

The calibration sheet is for their small format printers, and you would need another sheet or ICC profile for their large format printers.

Just try to get your white point as pure as possible, then you can try to match output deivises later.

They use Fujifilm printers, and you can download Photoshop ICC profiles from Fujifilm's website.

 

[sjt269]

*whoosh*

That went right over my head.




Basically, you're saying 'don't worry too much about it, wait and see' then? I'm having a poke around Fuji's website for ICC profiles just now.

 

[nomore]

Yeah I went on a bit lol.

Basically, you cannot calibrate your monitor for more than one printer. You should calibrate your monitor to make black, grey and white a pure as possible.

Then download the ICC profile for the printer, and in Photoshop you can use the 'Proof' setup to load the ICC profile and get an aproximation of how the image will look when printed on the printer.

You will need a different ICC profile for each type of printer that you output to.

Photobox use a different large format printer than they use for smaller prints, and thus you would need the apropriate ICC profile for the large printer if you were to order a poster sized print.

 

[Shimmyhill]

Can i add a question

What colourspace do photobox use ? Seeing as my camera, screen, software is all set to adobe rgb i hope they offer the option. My canon selphy only does srgb and i cant see to get profiles to work with it (on mac)

 

[nomore]

Can i add a question

What colourspace do photobox use ? Seeing as my camera, screen, software is all set to adobe rgb i hope they offer the option. My canon selphy only does srgb and i cant see to get profiles to work with it (on mac)

If you have Photoshop, you can convert an SRGB image to AdobeRGB. Edit menu > Convert To Profile.

In the dropdown list, you can select various colour spaces.

 

[Shimmyhill]

If you have Photoshop, you can convert an SRGB image to AdobeRGB. Edit menu > Convert To Profile.

In the dropdown list, you can select various colour spaces.

Cheers, i know this but what profile do photobox use ? My selphy prints miles off my onscreen so im sure its not just adobe rgb - srgb thats the issue, i need a profile for the printer but cant get it to use them in the colour sync panel. I assume it uses its own profile and srgb as a colour space - hence the drastically darker less saturated pics i get !

 

[sjt269]

Then download the ICC profile for the printer, and in Photoshop you can use the 'Proof' setup to load the ICC profile and get an aproximation of how the image will look when printed on the printer.

Can I do this in Photoshop Elements? It's the only version I've got, and a lot of the content from 'proper' PS has been stripped out. I can't see a 'Proof' setup anywhere. I can't find the ICC profiles on the Fuji website either. I feel like a noob.



Meh, I might just leave it and order some prints anyway, see how they come out. I suppose the best way to learn is by doing, so I might as well give it a go and see. I think I get 30 free prints anyway, so at worst I'm going to waste £1.50 on postage for slightly imperfect pics. I'm just too much of a perfectionist sometimes.

 

[nomore]

Here's more indepth info on calibration and profiles: http://www.drycreekphoto.com/Learn/profiles.htm