Inkjet print a good indicator of adequate levels for a Boots photoprint?

[Mike Halmarack]

Well, someone said it was a "Dark Art". I'm not much of an artist but I'm certainly in the dark.

[Mike Halmarack]

These are usually pictures sent from my daughter's phone as jpegs. I don't thinks I can get to RAW image from there.

I'll definitrely try to get that service.

[Mike Halmarack]

I just spent some time and money on getting back dark prints and posters, so any helpful advice is appreciated. One particular image is a perfectly composed family group to my mind but the original is fuzzy and dark and after many hours of attempted improvements it ain't much improved. I already invested in Photoshop CC and am in the process of choosing a new monitor/TV. I live in hope.

[Mike Halmarack]

What about this:

[whisky-dave]

It won't improve your print quality which is what I thought you wanted. If I watch usain bolt on this monitor will I be able to win agaisnt him in he 100m ? If I watch masterchef on it will I be a better cook ?

[Mike Halmarack]

Not directly for sure, but maybe with a monitor that's capable of better colour settings and calibration, I might get the screen image and the finished print closer in similarity.

Well yes, if he didn't turn up.

No need, I already do a superb beans on toast.

[tabbypurr]

Gimp is free and does more than you'll learn in years. Dark: I assume you've set white levels, next look at gamma. Gimp: colour, levels, as graph, and pull a spot on the line left or right. Fuzzy: if you mean out of focus, there are sharpening filters but what you can do is limited. If you mean noisy, there are noise filters too. Again they're limited, but can help noticeably. If you mean lost in darkness, tweaking gamma often resolves it.

NT

[Mike Halmarack]

Thanks for the detailed and encouraging explanation, I'm going to keep at it until I achieve an improvement.

I found that giving up smoking was much easier once I'd actually paid for anti-smoking treatment. I just had to succeed then. Looks like like photo processing is going to be affected similarly.

[tabbypurr]

Once you're familiar wit those operations, plus moving bits (select, copy, paste), filling areas of similar colour (shift b) and using the pen/brush to remove backgrounds (n or p) then you've got 99% of all photo editing covered, and it's a pretty quick process.

NT

[Martin Brown]

[Martin Brown]

It is a lot better than having the brightest pixel at mid grey.

They do come in two sorts one scales to cover map darkest onto black to lightest onto white and the other does something more like a classical enlarger of exposing to get an average mid grey density of some sort.

It is very much horses for courses. If you are getting them to print astrophotographs where most of the sky really is *black* you have to override the automatic adjustments and tell the machine to print it exactly as is. That said the brightest stars usually are 255 but some of the automatic enhance printable image defaults can be destructive.

[tabbypurr]

looks like a silly comment, was there a real point?

[polygonum_on_google]

LG might (or might not - I have not checked) be the largest IPS panel maker in the world. But they certainly ARE the largest OLED panel maker. And have recently increased production massively. Out of 38 55-inch+ TVs they currently flog in the UK, 11 are OLED and 11 are nanocell.

[Mike Halmarack]

<...>

I really apreciate the suggestions that have been made and am applying them as best I can. At the moment I have an old LG TV as a main monitor and I can't help thinking this is not a great place to be starting from.

[Andrew]

A fairly good place is your nearest JoHn Lewis. Mine has a collection of clearance items including a decent 22 inch IPS HP monitor.

[tabbypurr]

It should be sufficient colour-wise, though resolution isn't great on old big tvs. Use a testcard to set the monitor up correctly first. That solves most problems.

NT

[Martin Brown]

It should be perfectly capable of working provided that you calibrate the thing to display to a specific gamma correction to match the screen.

An IPS screen will always have more accurate colour but it isn't a show stopper if you haven't got one. Just be sure to look at it square on.

PSPro evaluation version should let you do it with a helpful wizard.

You might have to note down the settings and transplant them into whatever software you are using at present or buy a copy of PSP.

[Mike Halmarack]

Your suggestion is one of several that help me to justify such a purchase, for which I thank you.

[Mike Halmarack]

Sounds like good advice. Unless it's for someone who needs an excuse to spend money.

[Mike Halmarack]

Sounds like an interesting method, fun too. I'll do it.