photopaque wrote:
I was just curious but with all the emphasis on the fuji 'colours' and this is one of the reasons i am with the system, when it comes to printing the pictures out which online services can you recommend. It seems a shame if i have nice looking pictures but when i print them they are totally different. What i mean is that i have seen a fuji print shop near where i live so i presume their photos would be a better for maintaining the colours rather than using say photobox?
I dont really print pictures in the past so now i have my fuji i would like to start printing and making albums so just wondered which is the best for fuji colours. Many thanks.
I don't know about the UK, but there are some general thoughts here.
There are many printing services that use Fuji equipment. But I do not think that they would be better suited for printing images from Fuji cameras than any other printer. That depends entirely on the gamut the printers are capable of printing. Regular, run-of-the mill printing services generally accept (or convert to) sRGB color space. The printers themselves (whether Fuji or Noritsu or something else) can print a very restricted sRGB color space only. A reasonable to ascertain that the images come out the way you see them on your monitor is to
1. calibrate your monitor and viewing environment
2. soft proof your images in the color space that the printer is capable of printing. Better printing services usually have ICC profiles available for that purpose
3. adjust the colors so that they look good on the monitor in the printer's color space
4. hope and pray that the image comes back ok.
That is quite a bit of work and also involves some investment into a good monitor and calibration system.
Alternatively, just leave the images as they are ooc, send them to a prospective print service and carefully compare the results with what you see on the monitor. You may be able to get an idea for how to adjust your monitor (and/or image processing) to somewhat match the printed picture. Once that is done, you'll be better off than at the beginning.
Alternatively, find a printing service that does color corrections for you. Stay away from those that do it automatically in a general way. Pick one where there actually is a knowledgeable technician doing the work. Send in some reference images to see if you like the results. Many of them give you several free evaluation prints for you to establish a workflow (because there are many people with requests similar to yours).
Finally, you could try to find a local print service that is willing to work with you. They may even have printers available with a wider gamut that could potentially print somewhat what the camera is able to capture. You would then still need a good monitor.
