Photography help

[viking]

Rite, Iv got a little Panasonic TZ3 point and shoot camera at the moment, Iv had all sorts of decent cameras in my time, question is when I print some photos off either at home on my selphy photo printer or even at a proper camera/ photo printing shop, sometimes it chops bits of the top or bottom off. It's not to bad some themes but if it's a close up or full frame shot then it's a problem.

Does anyone know why this happens?

And the colour when looking on my iPad to how they actually come out is 2 different things,

Where am I going wrong.

 

Thanks.

 

Lee

[FalconFN]

You will get cropping if you are printing them at a different aspect ratio than they were taken. For example, a common 'shape' for photos to be taken is the 3:2 ratio (35 mm negatives were 24 x 36 mm, so 3:2) and standard 4"x6" prints are also 3:2 but if you print them at 5"x7" there will be cropping on either side as the shape is squarer than the original.

 

There are lots of reasons why the colours are different on screen and in prints; screens are backlit, they could have software to enhance colours to make them more appealing, the printer will use a different colour profile etc etc. When I get stuff printed I send them to a lab that lets me download their colour profiles so I get them looking good on screen then convert them to their profiles - which invariably makes them look rubbish on my screen but gets me a perfect colour match when printed.

[Longchalk]

You will get cropping if you are printing them at a different aspect ratio than they were taken. For example, a common 'shape' for photos to be taken is the 3:2 ratio (35 mm negatives were 24 x 36 mm, so 3:2) and standard 4"x6" prints are also 3:2 but if you print them at 5"x7" there will be cropping on either side as the shape is squarer than the original.

 

There are lots of reasons why the colours are different on screen and in prints; screens are backlit, they could have software to enhance colours to make them more appealing, the printer will use a different colour profile etc etc. When I get stuff printed I send them to a lab that lets me download their colour profiles so I get them looking good on screen then convert them to their profiles - which invariably makes them look rubbish on my screen but gets me a perfect colour match when printed.

Falcon has nailed it on both counts.

 

I used to be a professional dark room technician in a top London lab, for many years, and you would not believe the number of times a week you used to have to explain to people why a 35mm neg would not give you a 5x4 print without cropping something.

 

And as far as digital colour rendition goes, most online print labs will send you an image file, and a print produced from it. You then look at the image on screen, and adjust your monitor until it looks as close as possible to the printed version. Your own images when sent off to them will then be reasonably close to how you saw them on screen, allowing for some minor density issues inherent with backlit screens. If you email the same images to someone else however, or put them on a website, don't be surprised if they look utter carp. Printer profile settings are often quite different to how most people have their computer screens set, which is primarily for viewing the tinterweb.

 

Incidentally, in the old days, these kinds of reference prints were also used for balancing new batches of photographIic printing paper, to an ideal standard, by adjusting the filters in your enlarger. They looked a hit like the old BBc test card, and were always known as 'Shirleys' after th e first girl Kodak used for the image...... A piece of useless trivia I never thought I'd use again.

Edited September 7, 2014 by Longchalk

[viking]

You will get cropping if you are printing them at a different aspect ratio than they were taken. For example, a common 'shape' for photos to be taken is the 3:2 ratio (35 mm negatives were 24 x 36 mm, so 3:2) and standard 4"x6" prints are also 3:2 but if you print them at 5"x7" there will be cropping on either side as the shape is squarer than the original.

 

There are lots of reasons why the colours are different on screen and in prints; screens are backlit, they could have software to enhance colours to make them more appealing, the printer will use a different colour profile etc etc. When I get stuff printed I send them to a lab that lets me download their colour profiles so I get them looking good on screen then convert them to their profiles - which invariably makes them look rubbish on my screen but gets me a perfect colour match when printed.

I just print them out as 6" X 4". Might it have something to do with using the zoom on my digital camera.

The colour thing I understand and can deal with.

I took some pictures today of my son with his new school uniform on. It was a lovely sunshiny day and I thought the photos would look good. They looked good on the iPad,

I'm thinking it might be the selphy printer, as my old printer didn't seem so bad when I had a good sunny photo, I only stopped using it as it is a 6 colour printer and inks gone from £25 to £58 in the last few years..

[FalconFN]

Falcon has nailed it on both counts.

 

I used to be a professional dark room technician in a top London lab, for many years, and you would not believe the number of times a week you used to have to explain to people why a 35mm neg would not give you a 5x4 print without cropping something.

 

And as far as digital colour rendition goes, most online print labs will send you an image file, and a print produced from it. You then look at the image on screen, and adjust your monitor until it looks as close as possible to the printed version. Your own images when sent off to them will then be reasonably close to how you saw them on screen, allowing for some minor density issues inherent with backlit screens. If you email the same images to someone else however, or put them on a website, don't be surprised if they look utter carp. Printer profile settings are often quite different to how most people have their computer screens set, which is primarily for viewing the tinterweb.

 

Incidentally, in the old days, these kinds of reference prints were also used for balancing new batches of photographIic printing paper, to an ideal standard, by adjusting the filters in your enlarger. They looked a hit like the old BBc test card, and were always known as 'Shirleys' after th e first girl Kodak used for the image...... A piece of useless trivia I never thought I'd use again.

I've still got a book of shirley negatives somewhere in the loft, the reference print is on the inside and there are a dozen or so negs from the different film types. I used it to set up mini labs and the old agfa printing machines. How times have changed.

[viking]

Wow.

Iv just put the pictures onto my laptop. And they are well different to looking at them on the iPad.

Damm you back lighting.

 

That's the colour thing sorted out..

[FalconFN]

I just print them out as 6" X 4". Might it have something to do with using the zoom on my digital camera.

The colour thing I understand and can deal with.

I took some pictures today of my son with his new school uniform on. It was a lovely sunshiny day and I thought the photos would look good. They looked good on the iPad,

I'm thinking it might be the selphy printer, as my old printer didn't seem so bad when I had a good sunny photo, I only stopped using it as it is a 6 colour printer and inks gone from £25 to £58 in the last few years..

The zoom will have nothing to do with the print size if you see the whole saved image on the screen. I don't know how you print them but could it be something like an option in a dialogue box that says center and crop image, which should be unchecked, or resize to fit etc? Or your camera's sensor is a slightly unconventional shape?

 

If it happens at a lab then take them back and ask, they should re-do them or, if it is something else, tell you what is happening.

[viking]

The zoom will have nothing to do with the print size if you see the whole saved image on the screen. I don't know how you print them but could it be something like an option in a dialogue box that says center and crop image, which should be unchecked, or resize to fit etc? Or your camera's sensor is a slightly unconventional shape?

 

If it happens at a lab then take them back and ask, they should re-do them or, if it is something else, tell you what is happening.

Thinking about it, at the shop once it happened and I di ask, and I think he said something about the camera, or the censor..

It's quite annoying at times when I think Iv taken a good photo. And it ends up taking 4" of someone's head off.

Maybe time for a new camera. I used to have a good DSLR, and then decent bridge cameras, but there to much to carry around for me really.

Do you have any advise on a decent compact point and shoot?

 

Thanks.

 

Lee

[FalconFN]

Do you have any advise on a decent compact point and shoot?

 

Thanks.

 

Lee

Not a clue I'm afraid, they change so often.

[viking]

Well thank you very much for your help..

 

Lee

[Longchalk]

I've still got a book of shirley negatives somewhere in the loft, the reference print is on the inside and there are a dozen or so negs from the different film types. I used it to set up mini labs and the old agfa printing machines. How times have changed.

We are dinosuars sir! Hear us roar!!

 

(Thank god I gave up drinking the dev system cleaner years ago....)

[vmaxphil]

if your after a compact camera look at the canon g series IE; g9 - g10 I have a g9 and it will do almost the same as a dslr with the added bonus of a viewfinder not found on most compact cameras