Re: Profile of a photo lab
Re: Profile of a photo lab
- Subject: Re: Profile of a photo lab
- From: Scott Martin <email@hidden>
- Date: Thu, 24 Sep 2009 21:45:12 -0500
On Sep 24, 2009, at 5:47 PM, Ray Maxwell wrote:
I think you are going to have several problems with profiling a
photo lab. The first is finding out if they use a laser printer
that images on silver halide photo print material or if they use a
half-tone printer to produce the prints. The next problem is that
most photo lab software has automatic color correction based on the
content and lighting that you used. The software tries to
automatically adjust to produce pleasing color. The automatic color
balance that is done will mean that the color adjustment done to a
test file may not be the same as a typical photo that you send to
them.I am told that some labs can turn off this automatic adjustment.
Any "glossy, semigloss, matte, luster or Pro-E" prints from a photo
lab will be silver halide prints. The new buzz word for toner based
products among labs is "press products" (note cards, calendars, note
pads, etc).
For decades the default policy is to take people's images and color
correct them to look good. Some labs today call this "Lab Corrected"
printing. Although everyone has looked and looked for a software
program that's a "magic bullet" for all correction needs, all attempts
have failed. None of the major photo lab workflow solutions
(Labtricity, DP2, QSS, EZ Lab, etc) have built-in automatic color
correction capabilities. The vast majority of all color correction
being done in labs is done by hand, one image at at time as it has
been done for decades. There are special apps (like Noritsu's QSS
workstation) and special keyboards just for this process and those
that are good at it can spend sometimes less than a second on each
image and move onto the next. Lab Corrected printing is a consumer
oriented product that allows people to bring in poor point and shoot
JPEGs and have the lab create good looking prints from them.
A growing percentage of work being done today at labs is just
straightforward, color managed printing from customer files without
color correction. Pros that have color managed workstations tend to
prefer this type of output and labs do too since they don't have to
manually look at each and every image. Some labs offer this product,
which is often referred to as "Customer Corrected" printing, at a
reduced rate. The advent of electric file submission via products like
Express Digital Darkroom, Labtricity, ROES, etc allow for high volume
printing, decreased turnaround times and lower costs. Everyone wants
to be in the Customer Corrected printing business. Labs go out of
their way to make sure their main customers have well calibrated
displays and decent lighting for print viewing.
So if you are working with a Pro Lab, having a conversation about how
your images will be printed is pretty important. They are probably
working with several different scenarios and want to clarify what
process they should use with your images as well.
Scott Martin
www.on-sight.com
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