I don't know if I'm crazy or what. Every time I get pictures printed they never look as good as they do on my computer or iPad or iPhone. I edit on my Asus Laptop which is calibrated by a Spyder 3 Pro. When I review the photos on the computer they look great. Yesterday I dropped off my photos at Sam's to be printed(just my vacation copies for my albums). When I got them back today they just seem a little underexposed and dull. Do you think my problem is my laptop monitor or the printing? I want to blow up a couple but I'm worried that they won't look good. Where do you order prints? Any recommendations on paper type? I haven't printed many photos since I started being serious in photography.
Sam's might be part of the problem. ; Each machine is calibrated to a certain level and some will even try to automatically fix your processing for you! ; This has been a problem for a very long time - even before digital with print film coming from consumer print machines having this problem. Do you have a local photo store? ; They may have their machines calibrated and you can adjust your workflow with their calibration, then it would be WYSIWYG.
I had similar problems printing locally because the machines auto correct the images. ; The assumption the printing places make is that the photographer didn't do any processing so they set up the machines to correct the images in a way that will make most of them "look better". ; The problem of course is that if you did process your images, the auto correction will make the images look bad. As Roger suggested, you might try finding a local photo store that does prints to see if they'll print them for you without correcting them. ; Another alternative is to use some of the online printers as several of them allow you to turn off the auto correction when you place the order. ; I use Mpix Pro which doesn't offer auto correction at all. ; The regular Mpix site allows you to turn off the correction, as does Bay Photo and Adoramapix.
Thanks for replying. I thought about Mpix or Adoramapix. I think I'll try one of them for my 16 X 20.
As Michael stated, Mpix & Adorama both do a Great job. I have been using Adorama exclusively for about 4 or 5 years now and absolutely love their quality. They do offer you the OPTION of correcting your photos which I NEVER accept. When I receive my prints, they typically look as good or better than they do on my monitor.
I've used an assortment of printers - MPix for my large prints that I sell, Shutterfly for my medium and small prints, some of the 8x10 sizes I have sold as well, and even Costco, which has done a surprisingly good job, mostly for smaller prints I share with family. ; The main thing for me was to test print a few at home on my photo printer with no printer corrections applied, to make sure my monitor and printer were able to deliver the same thing - once those were calibrated, I could send my photos to be printed with a request to not apply any corrections, and I get back just what I wanted to see.
MPIX Pro will print a couple of 8x10's for free as part of a welcome packet when you open an account, allowing you to test both the print quality and color match to your monitor.
