Printing Suggestions

If you'd like to make some prints to share with the class for our last meeting on May 12th, you may think about ordering in the next week. Here are some tips:

General Retouching Checklist (before you print):
 -Be sure you are working from your "Master" image (the one you've retouched) that is saved as a TIFF with layers.
-Does your image look OK overall in terms of color? The best way to fix a color cast is with the color temperature slider in Camera Raw initially, but it can also be done later via the "color balance" adjustment layer. You can add a warming or cooling filter via the "photo filter" adjustment layer.
-Did you remove spots or dust using patch, healing, or stamp?
-Did you remove any unwanted objects by circling them with a lasso on a background copy layer and then filling with content aware?
-Did you add an "S-Curve" adjustment layer to slightly increase color and contrast?
-Do you need to selectively sharpen any areas? (see the previous post)
-If it's a landscape or architecture shot, do you need to straighten out any lines (lens correction)? This can be done on a background copy layer via EDIT > TRANSFORM > WARP
-Do you need to increase just one range of colors (like just the reddish hues in a flower, or just the bluish tones in the sky?). Adjustment layer "selective color" or "color balance" work well for this.
-Would you like to increase overall vibrance of colors with the Vibrance adjustment layer?

Color Management:
In Photoshop go to EDIT > COLOR SETTINGS to make sure that you have sRGB selected for your RGB working space.

 *More advanced Photoshop users who have a fancy inkjet printer at home with their calibrated monitor may choose to use Adobe RGB because it has a larger color gamut than sRGB. ProPhoto has the largest gamut of all, and includes colors that may exist in the future! This is for more advanced photographers working in 16bit.

*CMYK is only for commercial offset printing and doesn't generally apply to photographic printing we are likely to use. If you are doing work for a magazine or book and working directly with the printer, they will give you CMYK instructions specific to whatever printer they are using. As photographer, we are really just concerned with RGB settings.

Calibration:
To ensure that the images look as close as possible to your screen when they print, it's best to make sure your computer monitor is calibrated.  The ColorMunki Display (approx $175) allows you to write a custom color profile for your specific monitor. Professionals (and printing labs) often re-calibrate every week or month.

Other things to think about: your ambient light in the room, the brightness you have your monitor set to, and the color your walls are painted.


Print-Ready Checklist:
For the best results,  start with your hi-res retouched TIFF (that was shot RAW). Or the JPG that you saved from the RAW file. View Image on medium monitor brightness.

1.) Output Sharpening: It's good to give your image a bit of overall additional sharpening before printing (even if you've already done some selective sharpening on eyes, etc..)
On a merged layer on top of the stack (Select > All, Edit > Copy > Merged,  Edit > Paste)
go to FILTER > SHARPEN > SMART SHARPEN. Depending on your file, you will likely want an amount of 100 to 200, and a radius of 1-3. But use your own judgement- you want it to be just slightly sharper overall when making a print, because the printing process often blurs the image just a touch. Select "Lens Blur" from the remove menu:

 

 *Smart Sharpen is an alternative to Highpass sharpening which we did last week.

2.) Is your image 300dpi? (IMAGE > IMAGE SIZE). Be sure that this image wasn't formally web size (you cannot make a small image big again to print- it's stretches it and looks bad). Be sure this image came from a hi-res JPG or RAW file.

IMAGE > IMAGE SIZE: Your document size should match the dimensions (in inches) of your paper size for the print. If your image cannot be exactly the size of the paper offered. For example, most images coming off a DSLR would need to be cropped to become 8x10". So you can crop it, or add white borders.

*You can make the image slightly smaller than your paper size, then add borders evenly by going to IMAGE > CANVAS SIZE. Make sure you add white borders and keep your image centered.

*Another way to do it is to go to FILE > NEW. Make it the size of your paper. Then copy and paste your picture into this new document. EDIT > FREE TRANSFORM (while holding down shift and pulling from the corner) to make your image fit the "paper". This way you can control the white borders and not let the printing website arbitrarily do it for you (or accidentally crop your image!).


 3.) Save your layered TIFF or Raw file as Hi-Res JPG... then print from this Hi-Res JPG. If you have been retouching a layered TIFF, make sure you go to FILE > SAVE AS and save as a "quality 12" JPG before printing. This will make a duplicate flattened version of your file that's ready to print.

4.) ICC Color Profile: Most commercial printing services will give the best results when you leave your image in the "sRGB" color space. If your camera and Photshop are set to this, your image will probably already be sRGB. To double check, go to EDIT> CONVERT TO PROFILE. If the Source space says "sRGB...." you can just hit cancel- you're good to go.

Each paper/printer has it's own profiles. If you're using an Epson printer and paper, download the Epson profiles. To play it safe, it's best to use the same manufacturer's printer and paper. There's also the option to write your own profiles if you have a calibrator like the ColorMunki.

When downloading ICC profiles, on a PC you will need to put them in this folder to be able to apply them (EDIT > CONVERT TO PROFILE) in Photoshop:
Computer > Win (C:) > Windows > System32 > spool > drivers > color
On a Mac:
Library > ColorSync > Profiles

 A Note On Paper:
Think about the type of paper that would best suit your image. Is the subject matter better suited to something highgloss and shiny (like a shot of a race car?) or a more matte art paper (perhaps a portrait with a vintage filter applied).
Does your image have a lot of dark areas with detail? If so, you might want to choose Lustre or glossy.
*Glossy Paper shows more detail in shadows
*Matte paper is more absorbent of pigment and shows less detail in shadow areas

Print Lab Suggestions:
I suggest you avoid places like CVS and Kinkos when making digital prints and enlargements. The color quality you can get for a similar price from the places below is significant.

Adorama (based in NYC)
http://www.adoramapix.com/app/products/prints
Upload online on their website and prints are mailed to you. Fairly quick turnaround and affordable.
Color Profile: sRGB delivers fairly good results, but downloading their ICC profiles for specific paper types can produce even better results. Here's a tutorial on downloading and applying their ICC profiles. *Be sure not to check the box that lets Adorama make auto color corrections- this overrides the ICC profile.

Bay Photo (based in Santa Cruz)
http://www.bayphoto.com/bayweb/pro_standardsizes.htm
They have a wider variety of printing surfaces (including canvas) and a lot of mounting options. You have to download their ROES application to your computer to be able to order from them which is a small downside, but offers many additional options.
I suggest downloading the Economy Version of Bay ROES because it's for people (like you!) who know how to do your own color correction. 

For Photo Books:
Both Bay Photo and Adorama make books that are good quality, with the option to have the pages actual photo paper.

Blurb is more economical, and colors generally come out good, although the pages are not made from Photo Paper (they are a bit thinner). This service is perhaps more equivalent to a book you might make on Shutterfly, but the color quality is better, and there are more sizes and layout options when you download their application to your computer.
www.blurb.com