Bay Photo color correction or do it yourself?

CynthiaM

Those of you who use BayPhoto, are you pleased with their color correction or do you prefer to turn it off and do your own soft proof and color correction?

If you use their color correction, is their any reason to use a print delay, assuming you have uploaded a full resolution image to smugmug?

What do you do about output sharpening? If you are not doing a giclee print, then the images are not printed on inkjet, right? So what kind of printing process is this? Contone?

Oscarc

CynthiaM wrote:

Those of you who use BayPhoto, are you pleased with their color correction or do you prefer to turn it off and do your own soft proof and color correction?

I am very happy with their color correction. I generally do some correction myself to get it in the ballpark, but will let them fine tune it when printing. I think it's well worth the slight increase in cost.

CynthiaM wrote:

If you use their color correction, is their any reason to use a print delay, assuming you have uploaded a full resolution image to smugmug?

Proof delay is useful to catch & correct cropping issues, especially when customers print my 3:2 photos on 8x10 paper. I've found that some people have a hard time understanding why photos that look good as 4x6s have the edges missing as 8x10s.

justus

Color Correction
I definitely feel the extra cost is worth it to let Bay Photo color correct. I edit my images myself, but their "extra set of eyes" have always produced a stunning product. As one of my customers just wrote to tell me..." These photos look alive..they look like they belong in a coffee table photo book."

That sounded good to me...

CynthiaM

justus wrote:

I definitely feel the extra cost is worth it to let Bay Photo color correct. I edit my images myself, but their "extra set of eyes" have always produced a stunning product. As one of my customers just wrote to tell me..." These photos look alive..they look like they belong in a coffee table photo book."

That sounded good to me...

So if I understand you correctly, you don't soft proof these images with their printer profiles and make corrections to compensate for what gets lost in printing, but rather, you do whatever it takes to get something you like on screen and that is what you send off to Bay Photo?

Traces of Texas

CynthiaM wrote:

So if I understand you correctly, you don't soft proof these images with their printer profiles and make corrections to compensate for what gets lost in printing, but rather, you do whatever it takes to get something you like on screen and that is what you send off to Bay Photo?

I'm kind of wondering the same thing.

Some of my photos are heavily post-processed/surreal and don't look anything like what you'd encounter in the real world.

Skin tones, for example. If they color correct to make them look "real," they've defeated the purpose of some of my post processing.

thaKing

the way i do it is do a test run...do all my processing and soft proof using bay's profile...then, i turned off color correction in my private gallery...lastly i ordered some prints to see how closely they resembled what i saw on my screen...if all was well, then i could leave color correction off...if it looks bad, adjust and test again...

does this take some time and a little up front cost on your part? yes...but, you only have to do it once...then every time you process you'll know how they'll look once printed...

GCEx

thaKing wrote: »

the way i do it is do a test run...do all my processing and soft proof using bay's profile...then, i turned off color correction in my private gallery...lastly i ordered some prints to see how closely they resembled what i saw on my screen...if all was well, then i could leave color correction off...if it looks bad, adjust and test again...

does this take some time and a little up front cost on your part? yes...but, you only have to do it once...then every time you process you'll know how they'll look once printed...

Best advise right here.... thanks....also to add : if you dont like the color correction to much... but its probably still a good image, soooo BRIGHT Side hang your art around. Take it to the local shops and ask if possible to let you display it. If you're ambitious mark it up to what it cost you and basically just enjoy giving your work away.

Retired UPSer

I have a calibrated monitor and I process images to look exactly the way I want them. I have color correction turned on and I was a bit apprehensive the first time I ordered a few images from Bay Photo. They came out perfectly, exactly as they appeared on my monitor.

I have print delay turned off... cropping isn't offered for any of my images because of the way I have my price lists set up...

My price lists are according to the image crop, 2x3, 4x5, 1x2, 3x4, etc. When setting up the price list, only the photo sizes that correspond with the crop are chosen, therefore cropping isn't availble to my customers.

LiveAwake

If they color correct to make them look "real," they've defeated the purpose of some of my post processing.

This brings up a great point - when the lab does color correction, I *believe* their intention is simply to make the print match the digital image, NOT to make the digital image look any particular way. But I'm not actually sure of this, and I would love some confirmation.

For example, if I send them a picture with an "off" white balance so the whole image has a blue cast, will they correct the blue cast, or will they simply soft-proof and adjust the file so that what prints will look as close as possible to the original digital image (blue cast and all)?

My price lists are according to the image crop, 2x3, 4x5, 1x2, 3x4, etc. When setting up the price list, only the photo sizes that correspond with the crop are chosen, therefore cropping isn't availble to my customers.

This is really smart, though also a big pain and I wish SM would just let us disallow cropping for specified galleries so this wasn't necessary.

LiveAwake

when the lab does color correction, I *believe* their intention is simply to make the print match the digital image, NOT to make the digital image look any particular way. But I'm not actually sure of this, and I would love some confirmation.
For example, if I send them a picture with an "off" white balance so the whole image has a blue cast, will they correct the blue cast, or will they simply soft-proof and adjust the file so that what prints will look as close as possible to the original digital image (blue cast and all)?

Can anyone who knows for sure comment on this?

ziggy53

LiveAwake wrote: »

Can anyone who knows for sure comment on this?

Each color lab has their own policy on when they will and will not do custom and/or automated correction. Contact the printer/lab in question to know "their" policy. (There is no industry standard.)

LiveAwake

I emailed Bay Photo to ask about this. Their answer was less than totally clear . . . see the exchange below:

Hello,


I'm writing to inquire about your color correction options. Essentially, what I would like to know is whether your color correction is intended to correct the image itself, or simply to best prepare it for print on your printers. For example, if I send you a picture with an "off" white balance so the whole image has a blue cast, will you correct the blue cast, or will you simply soft-proof and adjust the file so that what prints will look as close as possible to what is seen on the screen in the original file (blue cast and all)?


Thank you!

<tt>Hi Peter!

Each file will be looked at individually and adjusted as needed for print quality.

Our technicians are very experiences and work with many types of image files. Our color correction is guaranteed. Their monitors are calibrated to our printers.

</tt><tt><tt>We do have an ICC profile on our website you can download and soft proof your images. It will be found under Downloadable Bay ROES Resources.</tt></tt>

<tt><tt></tt>

</tt>

Hi,

Thanks for your reply, however I think you didn't fully understand my question. I'm interested to know whether images are corrected specifically and solely to make the print match what is displayed on the screen, or whether images are corrected to make their color look "true," as well.

Thus, if I send an image that is very warm or very cool, will it be corrected so that it looks neutral (neither warm nor cool, with true skin tones, etc.), or will it simply be prepared for print in order to make the print look as close as possible to what is on the screen, even if what is on the screen looks unnatural or "wrong"?


Thanks.

<tt>H</tt><tt>ello Peter!</tt><tt>
</tt><tt>
</tt><tt>We would not be able to correct an image to match your screen because we do not know what your screen looks like. The image will be corrected to be as true to the tones represent</tt><tt>ed as possible. </tt><tt>
</tt><tt>
</tt><tt>If you have a specific look for a print, we recommend color correcting your screen to match ours first. This way, we will not receive an item that looks very neutral on our screen but is supposed to be cool. You may want to consider controlling the color instead of our color technicians. We will correct is neutral in some cases. Perhaps submitting test prints would be the best option.</tt><tt>
</tt><tt>
</tt><tt>Please let us know if we can be of any further assistance.</tt>