burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

Do you calibrate and custom profile your monitor with a hardware and software kit from DataColor or X-Rite?

Do you use the sRGB ICC Profile for images going to a lab?

If you answer YES, to both questions, you should get prints that look like your monitor.

If you used Adobe RGB, your prints will look dull, flat, greenish gray...

If you don’t have a custom calibrated and profiled monitor, you could get any color and brightness combo...

amfoto1 Loc: San Jose, Calif. USA

It's been stated already, but...

The FIRST thing you must do, if you really want good quality prints, is CALIBRATE YOUR COMPUTER MONITOR.

Most computer monitors are way too bright for photo editing and don't render color all that accurately. This causes you to mis-adjust your images... making them too dark and tweaking the color incorrectly. Images will look fine when viewed on your monitor, but they won't look good in prints or to anyone viewing them on a properly calibrated monitor. (Folks viewing your images on uncalibrated monitors... who knows what they'll see! Only if their monitor is screwed up the same way as yours, will the images appear the same. If their monitor is skewed in ways different from yours... well it's impossible to say and there's really nothing that can be done about it.)

A calibration device such as a Datacolor Spyder or an X-Rite Huey, or similar, will first help you set the correct brightness of your monitor. After that it runs a series of color test patches, reads them and develops a "profile" that's applied to the monitor, to give you as accurate color as possible with it.

If you do much printing, a calibration device will essentially pay for itself over time, in savings of paper and inks or, if you outsource, the cost of having things reprinted. The reason is that your monitor gradually changes brightness and it's color rendition shifts, as it ages. So re-calibration needs to be done occasionally. How often is up to you. I do it monthly. Some people do it less often, others do it more often.

Basic monitor calibration devices cost between $100 and $150.... while fancier ones go up from there.

AFTER your monitor is calibrated, you can load a print profile such as Costco's and use that to "soft proof" your images in various image editing software. Not to be confused with the monitor profile that was created by monitor calibration, this "ICC" profile works with your editing software to display the image in a simulation of how it will appear when printed, as sort of an "icing on the cake" that helps you do some final tweaks to images to match the particular printer's output as best possible. There are different ICC profiles for each printer, ink and paper combination. Costco provides one or more for their particular process(es). However, if your computer monitor isn't calibrated FIRST, it's pretty much a waste of time to download and install an ICC profile.

Aside from all that, reading their guides at the above link, Costco appears to want JPEGs with 300 ppi resolution and set to maximum quality, either in Adobe RGB or sRGB color space. There's also guidance on soft proofing, once their ICC profile is installed.

coolhanduke Loc: Redondo Beach, CA

[quote=traderjohn]That's pretty good. Costco has not done anything wrong and you get a refund on your failure to understand the process.[/quote

How do you know Costco has not done anything wrong? Maybe their machine went out of calibration. Maybe the technician did not set it up right in the morning. As a previous photo lab owner for 17 years, I learned there are issues that can arise in the print process. However, with today's inkjet technology it is less likely.

coolhanduke Loc: Redondo Beach, CA

You might try another photo finishing service with a few prints just to see if you get the same results.

Jaackil Loc: Massachusetts

I think your issue is your output is adobe RGB. Change it to S RGB and your images will be fine printed. Calibrating your monitor will help but that is not the reason for flat dull prints with colors dramatically off from what you see on your monitor.

Photec

I won't say anything about Costco because we don't have one in our area. However, I will give you the same advice I gave my students who send off to Wal Mart, Walgreens, typically are set up to print JPG images that are in sRGB color space. Professional labs will take the time to see what you sent them and figure out the best way to handle each particular image to obtain the correct color.

So my question to you is, what did you send them?

GENorkus Loc: Washington Twp, Michigan

Ages ago, I had photos printed by them and they looked very worn out. That turned out because I didn't indicate for the to do color correctioning. (I had no idea why that was even a printing choice.)

At a later time, their smaller printer somehow got stuck on someone elses special printing specs. Mine and several other people had their photos screwed up. I had a few made into large prints and they worked fine. A quick check confirmed the problem.

Unless I'm in a hurry, I don't use Costco. They do good work although I now use another company.

jeep_daddy Loc: Prescott AZ

I agree with everything that burk said too.....
Make sure that the pictures are saved in the sRGB colorspace before you send or take any images to a lab.

aellman Loc: Boston MA

www.nationsphoto.com Professional lab with an unbeatable combination of quality and price.

traderjohn Loc: New York City

[quote=coolhanduke][quote=traderjohn]That's pretty good. Costco has not done anything wrong and you get a refund on your failure to understand the process.[/quote

How do you know Costco has not done anything wrong? Maybe their machine went out of calibration. Maybe the technician did not set it up right in the morning. As a previous photo lab owner for 17 years, I learned there are issues that can arise in the print process. However, with today's inkjet technology it is less likely.[/quote]

I'm going to stick with my prior statement. Most problems start with the person behind the camera. Costco can afford to cover your mistake or lack of understanding on your part.

Gene51 Loc: Yonkers, NY, now in LSD (LowerSlowerDelaware)

Computer screens are not "projected" but backlit. A screen emits light. "Projected" would be a projector putting light through a semi-transparent image and focusing it on a surface, usually a screen. When viewing a projected image you are viewing a reflected light image, but it is usually much brighter than the surrounding ambient light, so all you are really looking at is the projected image. A print reflects ambient light, and will look widely different depending on the color and intensity of the ambient light.

Profiling the editing screen will bring the colors and tonal values into line, so that if you use a printer profile to view your image prior to printing, you will get a pretty good idea of what to expect. Most un-profiled screens are used as they come from the factory - and because they are way too bright, people editing the images tend to darken the images so they look "good" on the screen. But doing that will result in an image that will look dark on every other display device or hard copy. Adjusting LR or any other editing program so that the image is more saturated or sharper won't address the underlying issue - using an un-profiled display.