Settings for printing at whcc

[ccarlson]

As recommended by some of you on this site, I've checked out whcc photo printing site and am ready to set up an account and get some of my daughters senior pictures printed. I'm a little unsure about the sRGB settings though since their site says to make sure each file has a valid ICC profile embedded and that most photographers use sRGB or adobe RGB (1998). It gives pretty detailed directions for those people using photoshop but I'm pretty much just using Lightroom 3 for my editing and photoshop elements 10 for some further editing only on a couple of pictures.

I'm shooting in RAW and then editing in lightroom. When I'm exporting my work from lightroom 3 into my "my pictures" folders, I'm saving them in jpeg at the maximum settings and I see that I have selected "color space sRGB" so I'm wondering if this is sufficient for uploading to the whcc site?

Here are a few of the shots I would like to get printed (these have been reduced for the web). Any other tips on printing or editing etc., have at it. I think we took around 900 pics over 2 different days of shooting covering everything from head and shoulder shots to some like these with her horse.

Thanks.

ccarlson

This one we've done in both color and B/W. I tried the flash for a couple and liked the results more than I thought I would.

This shot was edited in photoshop elements. It is a combination of two pictures: One with a better photo of my daughter and the other with a better photo of the horse's ear position (always the challenge when photographing horses) while shooting in continuous high speed.

This one I took advantage of the horse trying to scratch his head. Luckily my daughter went along with it too.

[Dbl]

WHCC will accept either sRGB or Adobe color space. It sounds like you have saved them in a color space, you mention that you have selected sRGB. Their is no EXIF data in these shots so I couldn't check to see if it shows or not. Make sure you DO NOT save your JPEG's at the maximum setting. JPEG 10 is all you need. As their site mentions a 12 JPEG is three times larger and will not show in print. When I print 20" x 30" prints I only save them a JPEG 10! Other than that submit a few shots and see how they look. If there is a problem they will let you know.

The other thing to remember is to make sure you are using a calibrated monitor and you have the ICC profile WHCC provides to download into your software. I don't use Lightroom so I don't know how you put an ICC profile and use it for soft proofing. But this is a very important step that should not be overlooked! What you get back from WHCC will likely not look like what you are seeing on your screen without calibration.

Hope they print out well!

[finnbay]

+1

[ccarlson]

Thank you for the information. After reading it I went back into the WHCC HSOforum and found more pieces of information based on your suggestions and I think I'm getting closer to understanding it.

What I do understand now:

Lightroom 3 can include the color data simply by selecting sRGB when exporting as we thought.

Your guidance with the jpeg levels was helpful. I found out that if I save each photo at 84% in lightroom, that this is equivalent to a level 10 jpeg in PS. I had been saving at 100%.

Regarding monitor Calibration: What I still don't understand completely is if there is any way to calibrate the monitor correctly without getting the suggested software that whcc recommends (i1 Display pro or Colormunki by xrite). One tech person where I work said to go into my computer preferences, choose displays, color, calibrate and follow the steps from there to obtain true colors. I'm hoping this will suffice for now. I can understand purchasing the software if I was going to do this more regularly but I might just see how the test prints come back before dropping money on calibrating equipment/software.

Also, I don't know what I'm doing wrong when I post pictures to this site. I'm reducing the image size to the recommended 800 max on the long side but they are very low quality compared to the original as well as to what other people post on this site. Also, I don't know why sometimes my exif data is viewable and sometimes it isn't. I didn't think I was changing anything. I know last winter I posted some pics that DBL was able to give me helpful tips from when he saw my exif data.??? Any ideas?

Thanks for the help so far. There is way more to a quality printing process than I imagined.

ccarlson

[Dbl]

ccarlson,

Glad to hear things are moving in the right direction! As far as monitor calibration the simple answer is this...There is no way to get accurate color whether for print OR just viewing on your screen without an external device. I personally think it is just another tool you need to go along with your camera equipment. At around $250 it is a bargain considering what it does. I am on my second calibration system since I switched to digital back in 2004. I do use the i1 Display Pro currently and it is spot on! If I did my own printing at home and needed to make a print profile I would go with the Color Munki. You can get the i1 Display 2 for around $150. This is just my opinion but I don't see any way that you can't know what you are looking at either on your screen or just taking a shot in the dark printing.

There is windows calibration (I use Windows 7) but it leaves much to be desired. In fact I just had to re-install Windows on a week long trip on my laptop and used the Windows calibration until I got home and could actually calibrate it. Yikes, it wasn't even close!

All photos on this site get reduced to 800 max so I don't believe there is much you can do except make sure you post a shot that is at least that size or larger and let the site reduce to the proper size. Again I don't use Lightroom but I did a quick search on exporting EXIF in Lightroom and this is what I found in another discussion on the interweb.

Quote:

When you hit 'Export' (or go to File...Export). It brings up the Export Dialog box. In that dialog, the 7th topic/area from the top is 'Metadata'.

You can choose to include 'All', 'All Except Camera & Raw info', Copyright & contact info only, or 'Copyright only'.

So if you want the metadata to remain with the JPEGs when you export, choose the option that suits your needs.

[MuleShack]

Regarding monitor Calibration: What I still don't understand completely is if there is any way to calibrate the monitor correctly without getting the suggested software that whcc recommends (i1 Display pro or Colormunki by xrite). One tech person where I work said to go into my computer preferences, choose displays, color, calibrate and follow the steps from there to obtain true colors. I'm hoping this will suffice for now. I can understand purchasing the software if I was going to do this more regularly but I might just see how the test prints come back before dropping money on calibrating equipment/software.

Just putting a public service out there. While on NewEgg shopping for the i1 Display Pro I noticed that they have a $50 rebate going on but it is only valid until 12/31/12 so anyone interested in this monitor calibration tool, check it out now and save a few bucks.

[Paul]

I will second the part about whcc calling you if something is amiss. Last month I made 6 or 7 different orders from whcc, and a couple I made in a hurry with out double checking my work. they saw problems, and contacted me about it before printing them. I apreciated that.

Thumbs up to WHCC, good luck.

[Dbl]

Thats a good deal on the i1. For the money might be the best thing out there for calibrating your system.