How does this look on your monitor?

[Alison]

More often than not, when I get my prints back, they look too contrasty. So I have tried to tone that down on this picture and now, on my monitor, it looks a little milky.
I dunno I just can't seem to get things right!

How does this look on your monitor?

[trog100]

it looks like it should on my monitor.. muted colours and nice skin tones with a nice soft but not too soft focus..

the model looks rather spiffy as well.. he he

over all.. perfect..

trog

ps.. some wth not so much taste might call it "milky" thow. i certainly wouldnt.. he he he

[SmartWombat]

The background looks a rich, deep black, but her dress has a slightly lighter look - about 10% lighter according to lightroom.
The whites of her eyes have a distinctly blue cat.
Skin colours look believable, comparing the lack of makeup on shoulders and upper back to her face.
Face skin tones are all midtones except her shoulder looks much brighter.
Gloss highlights on her lips and eye catchlights look to be the only white.

The contrast looks even less on my laptop, the LCD shows that lightening of her top even more and it looks overall flat with not much definition in her face, her nose almost blending in with the cheek behind, only the colour separates them

Have you run a smoothing filter on this?


When you get your prints made, where do you go?
At our local CostCo I can talk to the technicians and specify what, if any, adjustments I want.
When they had a new person on the job, they did exposure adjustments without me knowing and so I reprinted without adjustments and got a totally different result !
The advantage with their 1-hour lab is that the printer profile for their machine is on the web so when I get my monitor profiled I'll be able to send them images for direct print.
Not just that but from my PC direct to their machine !
Bu the time I've driven from Oxford to the store my photos should be ready.

[livin4lax09]

alison, is this fully edited? Can I take a shot at it? I think it looks decent, but some more selective sharpening and curves can help it a bit.

[Alison]

Smartwombat - Sounds cool. Do they deliver? Yes I used a soft dreamy filter in VP.

Brent - You just want my gorgeous daughter as your screen saver dont ya Brent? lol
Nah, I'm just kidding.
But be my guest. Edit it as you wish.
I'd love to see what you can do. :thumbsup:

Yes, to me it is fully edited to send to kodak. This is where my prints keep ending up contrasty.
I did another with a little more contrast but I am so afraid that this will cause my prints to continue having a contrasty look when I want as close to normality as I can get.

[drg]

It is a little underexposed according to the histogram, and I'd try as Brent suggested some curve tweaking and sharpening.

Are you profiling or matching the images to the printer in any way? How are you saving your files for printing? Quality, profile, etc.?

It is another one of your fine portraits anyway!

[Alison]

It is a little underexposed according to the histogram, and I'd try as Brent suggested some curve tweaking and sharpening.

Are you profiling or matching the images to the printer in any way? How are you saving your files for printing? Quality, profile, etc.?

It is another one of your fine portraits anyway!

I send my pics to kodak easyshare gallery. Most of the time I am happy with my prints. The images at fault are the ones I have used a flash on.

[payn817]

Try to see if there's anyway to have any auto-correction turned off for your prints. That's exactly why it's so different. No matter what you do, it's going to do this crazy adjustment to make it oversharpened, saturated, and contrasty because that's what the general consumer typically wants. As Paul said about costco, most one hour places will do any adjustments they can if you ask, so perhaps you can find one you like nerby.

We have a list at my lab, when we receive orders (online or otherwise) with a name from that list, we turn off image correction, and leave them exactly as submitted. The clients are always happy with the results. However, not all the labs in the area do this, so it may take a while to find one.

[SmartWombat]

Smartwombat - Sounds cool. Do they deliver?

No, unfortunately not, but they are only 30 minutes from work.

I can ask for no enhancements at all, then I get exactly what I send them.
They also do 12" wide paper prints any length up to 2m for panoramics.
It needs an override on the printer but they're keen to experiment

[livin4lax09]

Alison, does the kodak easyshare gallery edit? I know a lot of labs will tweak the photo without you asking, and I have gotten horrible color on some prints because of it. as payn said, this may be the cause of your problem.

[livin4lax09]

my personal edit....




maybe a bit too saturated though, I wasn't sure about the last saturation boost in the face.

[trog100]

yes.. a little over done i think.. but some people might prefer it.. but i only see it on my monitor which is quite bright..

trog..

[Ronnoco]

my personal edit....




maybe a bit too saturated though, I wasn't sure about the last saturation boost in the face.

Why do they look different from each other, Brent?

Ronnoco

[livin4lax09]

what do you mean? they look different because one is alison's original shot and the second one is my edit.

[readingr]

Alison,

I always had problem with Kodak and now I use Photobox who deliver and never had a problem with the photos. Give them a try.

http://www.photobox.co.uk/

Roger

[Alison]

Thank you so much Roger

[Ronnoco]

what do you mean? they look different because one is alison's original shot and the second one is my edit.

OK, so why is the hair soft-focused in both? The hair is an important part of any portrait and needs to be in sharp focus.

Ronnoco