on 1/4/03 7:19 pm, william.curwen wrote:

> Reminds me of a photo-pal who came to me with a CD-ROM of Kodak Photo-CD
> scans. His client after insisting that the scans be supplied uncorrected then
> claims that they are too dark with bad colour. Turns out the client's designer
> was incompetent, and did not know how to open Kodak Photo-CD scans in
> Photoshop. The client insisted that the photographer took the wrap, and
> refused to negotiate. So I loaded the scans into Photoshop, colour/contrast
> corrected, then retouched. Then I printed them out on a profiled printer -
> magic. The photographer showed the client the prints via a third party, and
> jaws dropped with cheque books opened. A lot cheaper and quicker than a
> lawyer.
> 
> Repro is not a black art. Some repro-houses seem to think that some clients
> can't tell the difference. Show the first repro-house the difference, get
> someone qualified to talk it through with them, and they will pay up to save
> face.
> 
Slightly off topic but I had a similar experience recently when I ordered 16
- 30inch Lamda prints from my own high res scans. The prints were to be
mounted on 5mm flex and Sandtex laminated, ready for mounting on the walls
of an office building. The guy at the lab told me that my prints were ready
and that they looked terrific.

I collected the well-wrapped up job from the lab, delivered them to my
client and opened the packages for him to see. What a shock! No real blacks,
weird cast and looked as though the colour had been sucked out of the
prints. The client made no comment but professional pride decreed that I
could not allow them to go up on the walls for all to see.

I noticed that one of the prints had lifted slightly from its mount and,
using that as an excuse, I persuaded the client to let me take them all back
to the lab to be "put through the mounter again"!

I returned them to the lab, told them that it looked as though my rgb scans
had been printed out in cmyk mode and demanded that they all be reprinted.
To their credit they agreed without any fuss. The difference was incredible.
A very expensive mistake for the lab - the guy responsible had apparently
"not opened up the files" whatever that means, and he got a severe
reprimand.

And the funny thing? When I delivered the set of beautiful new prints to the
client, he didn't even notice the difference! Now what does that tell you
about labs and clients?

Ron Jones 
Ron Jones Associates/Merseyside Photo Library




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