Please help me with printing from my local big box store!

Hi,
This is my first time to post so I hope that I do this right! Anyways, I have a Canon Digital Rebel XT, my first digital SLR. I am what you might call green, very green! I have enjoyed learning how to use my camera and I just can' t wait to learn more. A few weeks ago I took several shots, loaded them onto my computer, cleaned them up, then burned them to a CD. This would be my first time to actually get some prints done, usually I just enjoy them from my computer. So, I brought them to Target, popped the CD into the kiosk at the photo counter, told it to print all and it gave me a receipt that the photos would be ready in less than an hour. So I excitedly waited while the machine printed away. I then paid and rushed home since I bought a small album for the pictures already. And when I actually took a look at the pictures I was a little upset. The photos were grainy and dark, nothing like what they looked like on the computer screen. But since this was a last minute gift I sent them along. I am guessing it is a few things that played a role in my disappointing prints but I was seeing if I could get your professional opinions!? Just some details: Burned to a Memorex 52X, 700mb, 80min CD-R; burned from an Apple iMac (iPhoto). Thanks for your help!
~Cortney

Do you have one of those photos you printed on your computer you could post? That would allow us to take a look at your photo to see if anything is wrong with it.

Did you remember to set the color space to sRGB or is it RGBs? The MAC color space is not the same as the PC so the Big Box stores have there printers set to PC color space. The other thing was format did you save you edited photos in? If they where not saved as JPG you also could have problems. You don't want to resize the photos as during printing they could be resized to higher dpi again giving problems. You always want to take your photos at the highest resolution possible and at the lowest compression if using JPG but RAW if possible.

Honestly, I have no idea what RGB's are and how to change them. This will give me something else learn! I did save them as JPG, so I I don't think that made a difference. I do have my camera set on the small format resolution, which is I'm guessing a big part of the problem. Also, I do not have any copies left over, although, I am tempted to go back to Target with the disc and print one off so that I can share it. Thank you for info! ~Cortney

Well since you have the disc, you could upload one or two here.
It could be settings on the Mac software you use need tweaking.

The colour system that the Mac is using matters a lot.
If you use Adobe RGB instead of sRGB, then the colours will be off when they're printed.
Even when you save to JPG, the colours that are saved in the JPG may appear right on your Mac, but will be wrong for the printer.

Most people use PCs, so the printers expect sRGB and 2.2 Gamma. I think that modern Macs will now use the same Gamma by default, but older Macs didn't and it caused a lot of problems, that's one reason for "Save for Web" options in software I think.

I see you have 4 shots in your user gallery how did they compare to the ones you were disappointed with? (because the ones in the gallery look fine on PC)

I'm asking because your monitor's calibration may also come into play.

I have placed 3 of the shots that turned out badly into my user gallery; I took them first from my photo library then posted the same shots from the CD. Both types look very good from my iMac, so I would be interested to know if they look differently in a PC!? My iMac is only about 6 months old, so I would hope that it would be fully compatible with RGBs and 2.2 Gamma, but I really have no idea, I am going to try to make time to look into those things! Thanks for your help and input!

I just looked at your Gallery. The image from Burned CD is 1251 x 1036 which should give you great 4x5, 4x6, and 5x7 inch prints and depending on the printer, poor to good 8 by 10 inch (150 dpi) prints. Please note: for great prints you do need 300 dpi and that works out to a full 6 mega pixel image for an 8 by 10 inch print. For larger images the dpi requirements are different due to the viewing distance, but you don't what to drop below 150 dpi for 11 x 14 and never below 72 dpi for poster or larger.

try a local lab or camera store that has better equipment that is calibrated. I used to print my photo of the month contest photos for my club at walmart and realized that they were screwing up the print job. They would crop the photo / correct the photo - colors were washed out and grainy. I was able to get a better print from home.

Go somewhere that has better equipment and takes pride in their service .... big box stores do not ...

Cortney, when you say you cleaned the photos up some, am I to understand that you used iPhoto to do the editing? Just trying to figure it out.

Macs and PCs do use different gammas, but that's rarely a problem. Have you adjusted the brightness of your monitor at all since setting it up? Most monitors are calibrated pretty well straight out of the box, but fiddling with the controls can throw that calibration off instantly.

I'll have to brush up on my iPhoto skills (I use Photoshop) and see if I can give you any specific advice there. I use a 17" Macbook Pro.

One more thing. If you could tell me which version of OSX you're using, and which version of iPhoto, that could help eliminate confusion.

- Joe U.

The print size I ordered were only 4x6, so I am pretty sure that the automatic settings on the kiosk attempted to correct the images, but really just made them worse. So, I will most likely take Ben's advice and go some place that actually specializes in photography and perhaps might be able to let me preview what the photo will print like, rather than looking at the 1x1 preview screen at Target. I have not adjusted the setting on my monitor at all, Mac is still very new to me, I do know that I have version Mac OSX 10.5.5 and iPhoto is version 7.1.4. Thank you again for your continued help! ~Cortney

Cortney, I just looked at the three pictures on my PC - Dell with a 19 inch, flat-panel, calibrated monitor and they look okay. I would agree with the suggestion to take them to some place that takes a little more pride in their work. It is also possible that the automated kiosk that you used needs to be calibrated (my $0.02).

Cheers,

WesternGuy