Have you ever wondered why some photo printing companies are
better than others? If you have then the chances are you have come to the
conclusion that it is down to the printing equipment that they are using and
never thought any more about it, and you would be wrong!
Although the printing equipment is important, most modern
photo printers can easily achieve vibrant prints, so why are some photo labs
better than others? I’m not just talking about simple calibrations or colour
profiles either – I’m talking about two identical photo labs with identical
printers and identical files for printing.
Anybody who has regularly had photos printed from different
companies knows what I’m talking about. As does anybody who has worked in the
photo printing industry. The largest single factor for getting the best result
from your photos is not the camera or the printing equipment but the person who
operates the printer.
The simple fact is if you took the exact same digital file
and had many printing companies print this out then the result would differ
significantly with some producing a far better result than others. Why is this?
Well, some companies will manually improve the colours and others do not….
Shock, horror! “What are you doing fiddling with my photos?”
you all cry. Well the answer to that comes from traditional film developing and
processing. Transparencies were always easy – either print them as they are or
if they needed adjustment the customer could explain this to you as they could
see the colours of the positive image on the transparency. However, negatives
were quite different – you couldn’t “see” the negative colours so it was up to
the operator to decide what the colours should be. They would make decisions
constantly whether to lighten / darken, boost a particular colour or diminish
it, enhance the highlights or shadow details etc. and you, the customer, never
even knew this was going on all the time. This is why some photo laboratories
produced better results than others – the human operator.
So, now that most photographers have switched to digital do
you think that this practice still goes on or has it been consigned to the
photographic dustbin in the sky? Well, that really just depends on who is doing
the printing. If you have an experienced printer then they know what customers
like – warm, rich colours with as much detail as possible and they won’t settle
for anything less.
On the other hand, if you have never been properly trained
to print photos then these people are unable to discern the difference between a
good and bad print and just assume that the print from the machine is correct.
Oh dear! These days proper training is rarely given to people and they are just
unable to tell the difference. Similarly, do not assume that the first print
that you have done of a photo is the "correct" one - you should be
asking yourself which is the best one?
To illustrate what I am talking about, have a look at the
before and after pictures. It all becomes quite easy to see just how much
better your photos could be printed in the hands of an experienced operator.
All of these photos have been taken with digital cameras and clearly the
cameras were not on the best settings possible. Obviously these are extreme
examples but considering this is done as a matter of course with any decent
printer then you will obtain better results by using them and not another
company.
