Telling true color vs. auto color from the print

jondru

Howdy!

Being rather pleased with some of my recent shots, I thought I'd get some nice big prints of them. But, since I do use a calibrated monitor, I wasn't sure whether to go with true or auto color.

So I ordered a test print in each flavor for some of the candidates. They came today! And there is a definite difference between them.

But, doofus that I am, I don't know which one is "true" and which is "auto"!

Is there any way to tell from the prints themselves or the contact sheets?

thanks,
vv
J.O.

Andy

jondru wrote:

Howdy!

Being rather pleased with some of my recent shots, I thought I'd get some nice big prints of them. But, since I do use a calibrated monitor, I wasn't sure whether to go with true or auto color.

So I ordered a test print in each flavor for some of the candidates. They came today! And there is a definite difference between them.

But, doofus that I am, I don't know which one is "true" and which is "auto"!

Is there any way to tell from the prints themselves or the contact sheets?

thanks,
vv
J.O.

Perhaps I can assist. What's the order #?

jondru

Andy wrote:

Perhaps I can assist. What's the order #?

Looks like it's 194684.

thanks!
vv
J.O.

Andy

jondru wrote:

Looks like it's 194684.

thanks!
vv
J.O.

Hi, the shots of the airplane, the auto color should be noticeably brighter.

The jellyfish, in the deep blue water, should be a tiny bit brigher, sharper, and more even blue tones.

Does this help?

jondru

Andy wrote:

Hi, the shots of the airplane, the auto color should be noticeably brighter.

The jellyfish, in the deep blue water, should be a tiny bit brigher, sharper, and more even blue tones.

Does this help?

Let's see....

Jellyfish: the principal difference I see between them in the test prints is in the jellyfish itself. One is notably lighter and yellower...is that "auto"?

In the plane shots, it's harder to tell, but I do think I see the lightness difference you're referring to. It's pretty subtle in that 4x6 size. I hope that means I got the calibration pretty close!

How can I avoid this confusion in the future? Would I have to make duplicate images with different names in the gallery, then print them? Or could I tweak the filename at order time to flag true vs. auto? Even cooler would be some way to include that info on the contact sheets....

thanks again,
vv
J.O.

Andy

jondru wrote:

Let's see....

Jellyfish: the principal difference I see between them in the test prints is in the jellyfish itself. One is notably lighter and yellower...is that "auto"?

In the plane shots, it's harder to tell, but I do think I see the lightness difference you're referring to. It's pretty subtle in that 4x6 size. I hope that means I got the calibration pretty close!

How can I avoid this confusion in the future? Would I have to make duplicate images with different names in the gallery, then print them? Or could I tweak the filename at order time to flag true vs. auto? Even cooler would be some way to include that info on the contact sheets....

thanks again,
vv
J.O.

Dupe the files in your gallery. Order one at True, one at Auto.

jondru

Andy wrote:

Dupe the files in your gallery. Order one at True, one at Auto.

Um...that's what I did. But print package that arrives doesn't indicate the filenames anywhere, so there's still no way to tell which is which from the prints.

vv
J.O.

mkress65

AFAIK the only way to achieve this would be to order them on different days or to create a duplicate in photoshop and put an A for autocolor somewhere inconspicuous, then upload both and make sure that the picture you order w/ auto color is the one w/ the A -- that is, of course, if all you are trying to do is see the difference and determine which you like better. If you're just testing, then I'm assuming you aren't worrying too much about ruining the photo.

Or, maybe if you order them separately (don't include them in the same order) and write down which order # has which picture in it, when they arrive they should have a unique order for each one (I think... been awhile since I ordered pics from SmugMug.)

Andy

jondru wrote:

Um...that's what I did. But print package that arrives doesn't indicate the filenames anywhere, so there's still no way to tell which is which from the prints.

vv
J.O.

Oops- sorry Oh - well, the printing on the back would help me - but - I think we've nailed it.

The biggest thing Auto will do for you is bring up exposure in shots like the airplane shots. The #1 reason why prints are returned, is due to "too-dark" - and that can normally be fixed by proper calibration.

http://www.smugmug.com/help/too-red
http://www.smugmug.com/help/too-dark

jondru

Andy wrote:

Oops- sorry Oh - well, the printing on the back would help me - but - I think we've nailed it.

The biggest thing Auto will do for you is bring up exposure in shots like the airplane shots. The #1 reason why prints are returned, is due to "too-dark" - and that can normally be fixed by proper calibration.

http://www.smugmug.com/help/too-red
http://www.smugmug.com/help/too-dark

Yah. I actually like images a bit darker than most folks, so that's not a huge issue for me. Mainly I want to be sure the colors are right, though in these particular images there isn't a heck of a lot of color.

Great suggestion to just do separate orders...probably the smoothest way to differentiate.

Now that I'm staring at the prints, the tilted horizontals are really getting to me (sigh), so I guess I'll have to do some rotation and try again anyway.

thanks for all the help,
vv
J.O.

jondru

Sorry, one more quick question:

Are those images of adequate size and resolution to try a 20x30 print?

thanks,
vv
J.O.

Andy

jondru wrote:

Sorry, one more quick question:

Are those images of adequate size and resolution to try a 20x30 print?

thanks,
vv
J.O.

They sure are
http://www.smugmug.com/help/print-quality

jondru

Andy wrote:

They sure are
http://www.smugmug.com/help/print-quality

Ordered! We'll see how they come out.

Thanks again for all the help. Talk about customer service!

vv
J.O.