Color help and "autocolor" limits

Shane422

I'm new to smugmug, but not to dgrin. I joined smugmug to more easily make prints available to people I take portraits for. Today my first smugmug "customer" ( i.e. I don't charge) got her prints and was unhappy with the color. I have a monitor calibrated with a Pantone Huey, but I still think my pics are a bit red. But I was hoping autocolor would fix my inability to hit the color just right. I would normally think the problem was all me, but she did have a few printed at Walmart and they were fine.

So how does the color look off to you? and should the "autocolor" option have been able to correct it.




And an attempt at fixing the color using the "pleasing skintones" tutorial. Which is obviously better, but why did the Walmart print come out fine?

Andy

Shane, Auto has it's limits. Your shot is very very red. Our Auto is some of the best out there, but it can't overcome such levels of red.

http://smugmug.jot.com/WikiHome/PrintingAutoOrTrueColor

I can't speak for Walmart - they might go more agressive in correcting for this - but there's a price to pay, in other color areas.

Your edit is much better.

Shane422

Thanks Andy, I had noticed the redness of these pics on the smugmug page, but not in Photoshop, Picasa, or on the picasa webalbum that I had been using. But it seems much more obvious now. I also happened to notice that I had done this batch in Adobe RGB(1998) which may have worsened the problem. I've been reading more of the tutorials and hope to do a better job in the future. I just hope this lady didn't make too big of an order just yet. I'm assuming that the Smugmug print guarantee doesn't extend to "pilot error" such as this?

So a few more color questions: 1) Do you ever refuse to print anything because color is not correctable? 2) Since you use I2e to "autocolor", would it have helped me to use it myself, or is my best bet the "Pleasing Skintones" adjustments and "autocolor".

Andy

Shane422 wrote:

I'm assuming that the Smugmug print guarantee doesn't extend to "pilot error" such as this?

The SmugMug Guarantee does not discriminate. I will fix any problem, whether you made the mistake, the customer, or us. Fear not!

So a few more color questions: 1) Do you ever refuse to print anything because color is not correctable?

Refuse? No- but there might be cases where we simply can't do it because of the file or color or factors beyond our control

2) Since you use I2e to "autocolor", would it have helped me to use it myself, or is my best bet the "Pleasing Skintones" adjustments and "autocolor".
i2e, or Photoshop...or let us do it with i2e at the lab - your choice

Shane422

Thanks so much, this was my first customer with smugmug and she raved about the website and ease of ordering to all of her friends, so I want to make her experience perfect. I used Adoramapix before and the pcs were nice, but it was troublesome and confusing to share the galleries and complete the order. Smugmug is extremely user friendly and hassle free.

I'll gather her order information and send an email to the smugmug help. I have already reworked all of the pictures using the "skintones" tutorial and CMYK values are much better. I'll get them uploaded so we can work with the corrected files.