William, (or anyone else for that matter)... What does 'RTFM' mean?
William Robb said: > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Joseph Tainter" > Subject: Question: Minilab processing of digital files > > >> Sometime soon, perhaps at Christmas, I will get my wife a digital >> point-and-shoot. She would not want to do image editing or > printing, >> just take the SD card to a minilab. >> >> With most of my *ist D images, I have to use Photoshop's Auto > Levels to >> get the image to the full light-level gamut. Otherwise the images > are a >> bit muddy. >> >> My wife is not going to do this with her images. So I wonder: If > you >> take unprocessed jpeg images on a CF or SD card to a minilab, does > the >> machine perform something like Auto Levels? Or do the images just > come >> out muddy? > > The joys of digital. > It was so easy when people shot film. The cameras, were easy, the > technology was easy, and image processing was easy. > Not so anymore. > Point and Shoot digital is quite the oxymoron, I do believe. > Anyway, I really like the customers who take the time to learn what > the various settings do, and then set their cameras up to give a > result that pleases them with as little input from me as possible. > Image massaging on a minilab is much the same as what we get to do > with film, except we can do less before the image goes to shit. > If it is underexposed, we can't fix it as much as with film (digital > printing of film really shines here), if it is overexposed, we can't > do anything to fix it. > If it is shot under the wrong white balance, we can't fix it as well > as we can with film. > It really is a more demanding medium than colour print film. > > So, my advice is to RTFM, and then try a few different settings and > get them printed at your lab of choice. > Set the white balance to sRGB if the option is available, and leave > it there. > It's where we work, and you should work there too. > After that, if you don't like the results, see if a camera setting > can fix it. > If it can, set your camera there and treat it as your default > setting. > If you can't, and the lab can't help you, take the files you have > shot and try another lab. > If they give you results you like, stay with them. > > William Robb > > > >
