Best Paper for a Photoalbum

dylansdigitalsdylansdigitals Registered Users Posts: 39 Big grins
edited October 19, 2008 in Finishing School
We just took some pictures for a friends Senior pictures. We would like to give him a professional looking album. Is there a paper that is better to print on for this purpose than another? We have HP high gloss and are printing from an HP Photojet 7280. We were going to print the proofs and then have the final product professionally done.

Any advise will be greatly appreciated.
Dylan's Digitals :click
Photography by: Denise Rowe
www.dylansdigitals.smugmug.com

Comments

  • ifocusifocus Registered Users Posts: 161 Major grins
    edited October 17, 2008
    The more you are willing to spend, the better the quality. You do have many choices but the bare minimum is 100# Coated stock is you send it to a company like Blurb.

    Photographic paper is the absolute best for an album but the mounting is very expensive ($10-$15 per pages and more); that is if you want a book.

    Anyway, this is what I have experienced so far.

    JY
  • dylansdigitalsdylansdigitals Registered Users Posts: 39 Big grins
    edited October 17, 2008
    Photo Printing
    We are obviously just starting out and we took some sports shots. We cropped them and sent them to for printing and had to return the button three times before we received one that was acceptable. They reprinted the buttons free of charge, but the season was over before I was able to get the parent a button to wear. I don't want to experience the same with the proof album. We are not wanting to print a photograph book like for a wedding we are only looking to get a small group of proofs for them to pick a couple of poses for their year book pages. How do you know how much editing to do before sending in pictures for proof printing? It seems to me that when I call a picture up and adjust as needed then when I print it out it usually don't look the same. If I send pictures off for printing how do I know how much to adjust? Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
    headscratch.gifbowdown.gif
    Dylan's Digitals :click
    Photography by: Denise Rowe
    www.dylansdigitals.smugmug.com
  • ifocusifocus Registered Users Posts: 161 Major grins
    edited October 18, 2008
    dylansdigitals wrote:
    ... It seems to me that when I call a picture up and adjust as needed then when I print it out it usually don't look the same. If I send pictures off for printing how do I know how much to adjust?
    headscratch.gifbowdown.gif

    This is a different story. I will try to make it simple but what you are really asking about "Color Management".

    1. Your screen display the colors of your images as per a mathematical model called "icc color profile". Most likely, your screen uses a color profile from the sRGB color space. Also, your screen must be calibrated to display accurate colors. Are you sure that the blue, white or other colors displayed by your monitor are really the same than real life?

    2. The printer and paper also display the colors as per a specific icc color profile. Guess what? They are not the same!

    Photoshop, Capture NX2 or similar have the capability to soft proof the images on your screen by applying the icc profile from the printer/paper. You could then perform a slight adjustment (usually!) to make the images as close as possible. They will never match exactly but pretty close. This way, your images shall print fine.

    I realize that I may have generate lots more questions! Here are a link explaining the theory a lot better.

    http://www.normankoren.com/color_management.html

    I hope it helps a little

    JY
  • dylansdigitalsdylansdigitals Registered Users Posts: 39 Big grins
    edited October 19, 2008
    Photoshop and Screen Settings
    We use Adobe Photoshop Elements for picture editing. Is there a setting in this that we should look for to ensure the closest representation? Is there something that we should look for on our computer to see what colors it is actually displaying and get them as close to real as possible?

    Thanks for all the help.
    Dylan's Digitals :click
    Photography by: Denise Rowe
    www.dylansdigitals.smugmug.com
  • ifocusifocus Registered Users Posts: 161 Major grins
    edited October 19, 2008
    dylansdigitals wrote:
    We use Adobe Photoshop Elements for picture editing. Is there a setting in this that we should look for to ensure the closest representation? Is there something that we should look for on our computer to see what colors it is actually displaying and get them as close to real as possible?

    Thanks for all the help.

    Photoshop Element does not support Soft Proofing, you will need to a image editing software supporting it like GIMP (free), Qimage, Capture NX2 (Nikon Only), Paint Shop Pro XI, Picture Window Pro 4, Bibble 4, etc.

    Feel free to read this article about soft proofing at http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/soft-proofing.shtml

    Also, as I mentioned before;

    1. Calibrate your screen
    2. Get icc profile from your printer
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