costco prints (help with problem)

[robo]

Slight problem.
I bring my RAW files into pscs2 via capture one as tagged Adobe RGB, I do my tweaks and save it out as a jpg for printing at Costco.

Problem is that the prints look flat and slightly less color saturation THAN on the monitor (my monitor is calibrated with spyder).

Now when I take my jpg and assign it a profile of sRGB (in PS) it matches my print from Costco almost identically. Which leads me to believe that the printer color space at Costco is sRGB and is not able to print all the colors of my file. Am I correct in this logic?

So should I bring my RAW files in as sRGB from capture one, and work in this color space? Any solutions out there? The whole idea of using the Adobe color space was that it had a fuller color gamut.

thanks Rob

[floppypaws]

While working in the widest color spaces is good, in that there is less errors introduced in editing transforms. While editing the editing for the primary colorspace will show you the most you can see on your monitor, if that is not the final usage destination, typically one does final adjustments for the output in th context of the targeted printer and media which PS handles with View>Proof Setup. This will enable you to better view how the image will look on the output media.

[xrdbear]

Slight problem.
I bring my RAW files into pscs2 via capture one as tagged Adobe RGB, I do my tweaks and save it out as a jpg for printing at Costco.

Problem is that the prints look flat and slightly less color saturation THAN on the monitor (my monitor is calibrated with spyder).

Now when I take my jpg and assign it a profile of sRGB (in PS) it matches my print from Costco almost identically. Which leads me to believe that the printer color space at Costco is sRGB and is not able to print all the colors of my file. Am I correct in this logic?

So should I bring my RAW files in as sRGB from capture one, and work in this color space? Any solutions out there? The whole idea of using the Adobe color space was that it had a fuller color gamut.

thanks Rob

It's just fine to work in AdobeRGB in photoshop. When you saved to jpg it was still in Adobe RGB but the Costco machine didn't read or couldn't interpret the tag in the file and assumed that the colour information was in the sRGB colourspace and printed it with lower saturation etc.

All you have to do is, after working on the file in PS, just do Edit>Convert to Profile and choose sRGB and save as jpg. The files colours will look almost identical to how they looked in AdobeRGB on the screen, unless you have some pretty extreme colours, and the resultant file will print perfectly at Costco. Same if you need the picture for a web page BTW.

Brian

[robo]

All you have to do is, after working on the file in PS, just do Edit>Convert to Profile and choose sRGB and save as jpg. The files colours will look almost identical to how they looked in AdobeRGB on the screen, unless you have some pretty extreme colours, and the resultant file will print perfectly at Costco. Same if you need the picture for a web page BTW.

Brian

Thanks Brian.

I'll give it a try.
Not sure I totally understand(aren't I now giving it the same "sRGB" tag that the Costco printer originally assigned the file.
OR is it that you're giving it a phony sRGB tag(the only tag there printer seems to understand) that contains the Adobe RGB color space.
Seems like a step backwards. Sorry for being so thick.

[Bill C]

Thanks Brian.

I'll give it a try.
Not sure I totally understand(aren't I now giving it the same "sRGB" tag that the Costco printer originally assigned the file.
OR is it that you're giving it a phony sRGB tag(the only tag there printer seems to understand) that contains the Adobe RGB color space.
Seems like a step backwards. Sorry for being so thick.
It's not a matter of being 'thick' - color spaces can be very confusing!
I just had 350 4by6's printed .... I did not want to print them myself (although the prints I get on my Epson 2200 are better than most places I've tried).....I had good luck with Walmart Online .... and Shutterfly - although I had to have the Shutterfly order reprinted as they automatically use 'VividPic' enhancement which tends to add too much red/orange to the prints. For Walmart, I left the prints in Adobe RGB.
Bill

[Linda G]

Adobe RGB is a larger color space and many printers can print in that space but none can print all the color range of adobe RGB, just not possible. I do not know what equipment Costco works with but our Fuji Frontier works in an sRGB space and will clip the colors if a file is in Adobe RGB, causing a flat image.

My advice would be, if you're shooting raw and keeping the original files, to convert your image into the space you are going to have it printed in. If there's a question of quality, changing from one profile to another is not the best way to go.

[xrdbear]

Thanks Brian.

I'll give it a try.
Not sure I totally understand(aren't I now giving it the same "sRGB" tag that the Costco printer originally assigned the file.
OR is it that you're giving it a phony sRGB tag(the only tag there printer seems to understand) that contains the Adobe RGB color space.
Seems like a step backwards. Sorry for being so thick.

The Costco printer didn't assign a tag it merely assumed that any file that it was given had data comtained in the sRGB colour space. Therefore that's what you have to give it. When you use convert to profile PS actually alters the data values as well as changing the tag on the file. It changes the data so that, to the best of its ability, the colours you get from the new file (sRGB) are the same as you get from the old file (AdobeRGB). There will only be a difference if there were colours in your image that could be contained in the AdobeRGB colour space but not in the smaller sRGB colour space. In those cases PS will assign colours in the sRGB space which will look similar but not the same as those in the original file. This is often seen in images with very strong colours like flowers and sunsets. Sunset oranges can become salmon pink for example.

Does this help?

[robo]

Just found this site, I'm guessing my problems are over.

http://www.drycreekphoto.com/Frontier/Profiles/Canada_frontier_profiles.htm#CA

http://www.drycreekphoto.com/Frontier/using_printer_profiles.htm

I'm looking forward to getting a print that looks exactly like what I see on my monitor. I know its possible. :)

[robo]

Thought I'd let you know that the icc Costco profile was the ticket.
What I see on the screen is what comes back to me from the Costco printer ( a dream come true).
Theres probably an easier workflow than this. But here goes.

Tweak picture as per normal (comes in from raw as Adobe 1998 rgb)
Softproof to costco icc profile (either glossy or matte)
Apply one of 3 possible "pre-set curves adjustments" (This is really the missing step that adds the contrast to my previously "flat" pics as previously printed). There is the option of adjusting the opacity of the curves layer to give very subtle changes)
Change to 8 bit
Sharpen
Convert to Costco icc profile
Save as jpg (but remove embedded profile) The Costco info file says their printers ignore embedded profiles

Need to work on a suitable "action" now.

[Bruce Lorenz]

not to sound like a smart a--, but for a truley professional grade print, don't go to Costco, go to a pro lab. Costco uses a less expensive contrastier consumer grade version of the Crystal Archieve paper. A Fuji rep explained this to me some ago. Plus, you can feel the weight difference in the Costco/Sams/Walmart Fuji paper as compared to Fuji paper from from a pro lab like WHCC or others.
bl

[robo]

Hey Bruce, I don't doubt you're right. I've previously made enquiries as to icc profile (downloaded it) for professional lab (just haven't had time to follow up on it). Working gets in the way of my hobby :) . I'll still use Costco for my quick down and dirty prints (I still think the quality is acceptable).

[Bruce Lorenz]

I did the orig Dry Creek profile for the Fuji Frontier at my local Sams. Works ok, but not truely professional, nor not near as good as prints I make at home using profiles from Cathys Profiles.

[Mystie]

I use them also, for quicky stuff.. upload them, and then pick them up in a hour. paper is thinner, feels cheap.