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Question from Melanie: “I recently had some pictures printed (mind you, only at Costco) and they look horrible. Worse than with a cheap camera horrible. The quality isn’t anything near what I see on my computer screen (which keeps telling me that the resolution is lower than required for my Digital Photo Professional software even though it’s as good as it gets). I shoot RAW and Jpeg and didn’t do much processing other than cropping, fixing white balance and (in some) increasing the saturation. How do I fix it?!”
David: 300dpi
Kimberlea: Try a monitor calibrater like spider
Jen: make sure that when you are ordering them that you tell them not to do color correction on your prints- sometimes that will make them look HORRIBLE if you have edited them already and they re-do color corrections.
Bridget: Trying sending your files to a pro printer and see if that’s the issue. If they look good on your monitor, they should look good printed. Is your monitor calibrated for color and brightness? Sometimes monitors display more brightly than the files actually are, causing your prints to look dark.
Melanie: What kind of camera are you using? See David’s comment above. Also, I print at Costco all the time and I don’t feel the need to use anyone else. The prices are right and if there’s an issue I can go right to the counter and discuss the problem with them. Very happy w/Costco printing. It ain’t Walmart.
Shannon: Tell them to not auto correct the photo.
Melanie: I would love to see an example of your print. Is there any way to do that?
Hannah: I agree with Shannon above. We use Sam’s Club for printing, and prints came back terrible until we determined that their machine automatically auto color corrects images that we had already corrected ourselves (or it didn’t need correcting). Once we learned we could uncheck the auto correct on the computer screen when were ordering, everything came back fine. Not sure if that’s the answer or not, but it could be the problem.
Bridget: pro printers will always be better but if its telling you your resolution is low, then thats what the problem i
Amy: I have not personally ever ordered prints of my own images, but several of my clients have from mpix, and they said that they were gorgeous. So, is it safe to say that they are 300 dpi? Is that something that you confirm with the printing company, or do you set your camera to that?
Amy: not to steal Melanie’s question… sorry…
Brandi: I would strongly recommend MPIXPRO or smugmug but like several above said, don’t select color correction.
Amanda: Are you getting usual sized prints, or are you enlarging past an 8×10 size? Can you elaborate on “horrible”? Were they out of focus, noisy, over sharpened, dark or light?
Melanie: Thanks everyone. More information: I have a Canon T3i, shoot RAW and Jpeg, I did change my settings to not have them auto correct when I ordered, pics were 4×6 (just using them as proofs), they are grainy and darker than on my screen. File size is 3456 x 5184. Pixel dimensions: 51.3M. 72 pixels/inch. I have NO idea how all that relates to 300dpi
Brandi: Aaaahhhh, 72 pixels per inch is WEB resolution. 300 dpi is optimum.
Bridget: When you save your file to jpeg for printing, set the resolution to 300 dpi, preferably without resampling (should be an option for that). What software are you using?
Christina: MPIXPRO is amazing! I highly recommend using them more than Costco. You want your customers to say WOW when they open their photos and they will with MPIXPRO. You can receive free sample prints from them. Go online and check it out. www.mpix.com in addition I would recommend to have your screen calibrated as well.
Melanie: I mainly use the Digital Photo Professional (That’s what I used for the pics in question) and am trying the CS6 trial while I decide which software to buy. (Leaning toward lightroom and Elements.) I assumed that shooting in RAW would automatically have my settings maxed out for quality. I’ll figure that out and pay attention to that, thanks. I do max out the quality when I convert and save though, so now I’m confused again…
Tabitha: www.millerslab.com
Christy: Is your monitor calibrated? For years I got by using Adobe Gamma, now I use a Spyder. I never order prints with color correction. What I see is what I get. I have a big CRT monitor because I can’t afford a flat panel that can be properly calibrated.
Christy: I have ordered prints from CVS of my corrected files and they look good.
Ashley: I have cs5 and when I print, I always make the dpi 300. I think in cs6 you can adjust it in image size. 72 dpi is what I set my images for when posting sneak peaks on my face book page. Anything less that 300 will be grainy and or blurry when printed.
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