I have run into a nasty problem the past few weeks: printing my digital photos. They just do not look the same as they did on my computer. Usually, they go from vibrant to dull. It is always some problem with color.
I recently took a couple photos of my newborn son—I have taken much more than a couple, obviously—which I wanted to print out for the grandparents. I had already spent a good amount of time on my computer adjusting the color and contrast to get the photos just were I wanted them, especially for the supple skin tones on my little boy’s face.
Off I go to Lab A. When I picked up my photos, the skin looked like my son had a rash or something. It had red blotches all over his cheeks. Now, I could use the original on the computer and play with the color to bring about the same effect, but definitely did not make it that way before taking it to the lab.
Forget that! Off to Lab B. Ten minutes later (they were not exactly busy that day), I found an all new color problem. My son’s very kissable little cheeks now looked lifeless. The bluish tint made me think of a dead body made up to look life-like. And the dead giveaway to what they were doing (I think) came in colors from the background.
The photos were of my son taking a bath in a blue, plastic tub. In my originals (that is, the JPG files I turned in to the lab), the blue of the tub was not really too blue, but rather more gray. The tub was in the shadows and the light was not lighting up the blue much.
In Lab A’s prints, the tub looked purple. In Lab B’s prints, the tub was bright blue. If two labs used the same JPG files to create two totally different products, there is only one conclusion: post processing. They were adjusting the color on my prints.
They want to help the customers have better looking photos and thus adjust the color (and who knows what else) to improve the photo. Problem is: they do not realize they have no idea what they are doing. They also have no idea that I have already played with the colors to make them just what want. They just want to help, but really, apply a very unprofessional job to my photos and ruin them. Which is more important, a plastic tub or a baby’s face?
What am I thinking, though. As if they are actually manually adjusting the color! They are probably pressing some “auto color” button on some software and letting a computer tell them the way the photo should look. For shame! Lab A’s software probably recognized the skin in the photo and made it more red, but babies’ skin tones are unique. Lab B’s software probably saw that nice blue in the background and just knew it needed to be more blue.
With one lab where I processed frequently, I told them very clearly when I turned in photos that I did not want them to alter my photos in any way at all. At times, they still did, but at least it lowered the chances of having a problem.
Then, though, you pass beyond photographic problems and pass into cross cultural communication!
Welcome to Thailand!! On our children’s photos, all of them had nearly white faces, because the processing labs here are all set to lighten the skin of people in the pics, since the ideal is to have light skin!
It took us a while but we finally found a lab which accepted the fact that “farang” faces don’t need any more lightening! Ironically, most Western tourists prefer to have their skins darkened; that’s why they come to the tropical beaches anyway! So, who’s the craziest here?
China is the same. There seems to always be a default step of processing around here. What a pain! If you tell them to not alter it any, do they do it?
A Western friend in Vietnam was recently given a gift by a colleague. A lacquered wedding photo of her and her husband. She could clearly see that her face had been “tampered” with. Not just making her already white skin even whiter, but lengthening the eyelashes, and removing wrinkles and other small but recognisable facial characteristics. When she asked what had happened to her face, the colleague said “We’ve made you look more beautiful.” My friend is not the kind of person to say “Oh, Thank you!”
Wow! They went far beyond “color management” to even lengthening the eyelashes! Wrinkles?
You know, these stories only strengthen my desire to buy a high quality photo printer. I would love to detour this foolishness and print on my own.
The problem with a nice printer is the “specially designed for China” ink. Which basically means it will fade even if it looks pretty good when it comes out. One idea I had was to get a laminator to seal in the color. Oh, calibrating a screen is also a very important idea if you want to match your colors on the screen to paper.
I have thought about calibrating my screen many times. I have heard about it, thought about it, but have never done anything about it. The main reason I have not is that I am fairly sure most of the problem lies with the printer. One day, I printed out the same photo at two places, and the color was very different in the two photos. Still, I would like to calibrate…there are just a billion ways to do it, from free to expensive.
As for laminating, would that help? Are the photos good when they come out and deteriorate, or are they bad when they first come out? All inks and papers are affected over time (which is why the world was yellow when I was born), but I just have to wonder what the main problem really is.