DSCL Prints

Y15HAL

Y15HAL

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Vishal
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After having a vote on here, i decided to get some prints done at DSCL.

First time i've had prints done at a "proper" lab, normally i've used jessops or supermarkets.....:cautious:

Ordered the prints on wednesday afternoon, and they arrived this morning - no problem with the service/turnaround time (y)

Opened the package up to find i was a little disappointed. I had around 12 prints done of various sizes, and all but one of them seem very dark.......Has anyone else experienced this before?

I thought it could have been the brightness of my monitor, but even when turning the brightness down to the minimum, the pictures still seem darker than on screen in comparison.... :puke:

Anyone else had the same? :shrug:
 
They're bang on to my monitor, calibrated to 110 cd/m2, when viewing the prints under a viewing lamp.
 
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When you order the prints there is a Pro option, no processing applied of another option (I can't rember what it is) where they adjust the colour contrast etc. Which did you select?
 
I had an order for some 20x 16 prints this week and I decided to compare them to photobox. When they arrived I found that there was quite a crop and to be honest I prefered the photobox print.
I normally use onevision but the turnaround takes about 10 days and I needed these in a hurry.
 
I've had a few batches done through DSCL and have always been happy, they're always a spot on match for my calibrated monitor.
 
I received my order today with various pics i intend to use as samples. Ordered various sizes, matt, gloss and pearl and also a few corrected to see what they were like.

In the main, corrected ones looked poor. The rest, spot on. I have learnt that on my laptop if prints look fine, they will be a little dark when printed, so generally have them a little brighter or more exposed and they then are fine.
 
It is (although not for a couple of months so need to do it again), but obviously depends on how bright the screen is.
 
I also have the same issue with DSCL, especially on black and white prints, and that's with a calibrated monitor.


Trappe said:
I had an order for some 20x 16 prints this week and I decided to compare them to photobox. When they arrived I found that there was quite a crop and to be honest I prefered the photobox print.
I normally use onevision but the turnaround takes about 10 days and I needed these in a hurry.
Click to expand...

Did you resize them before uploading? If not, then you will find some cropping.
 
Not sure if this would make any difference or not, but can the people with calibrated screens check the following pic to see if it looks dark or not.

2-2.jpg


Thanks
 
Yep, the histogram is showing a big gap on the RHS
 
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It shouldn't depend how bright your screen is, that's the whole point of calibrating it so that it looks the same as the porints, your screen should darken significantly if properly calibrated for print

cambsno said:
It is (although not for a couple of months so need to do it again), but obviously depends on how bright the screen is.
Click to expand...
 
i know this is going to sound a bit elementary but there is a light source behind your screen and not on a piece of paper, as some have said i'd pop the exposure a bit more imho and you'er definately going to need a calibrated screen with their profiles to ensure it's spot on

there will always be a bit of variance but the above needs taking into consideration :)

oh and looking at your pic i'd agree it could do with brightening up a wee bit
 
Hairyduck said:
It shouldn't depend how bright your screen is, that's the whole point of calibrating it so that it looks the same as the porints, your screen should darken significantly if properly calibrated for print
Click to expand...

to a certain extent, most people won't be using industry grade monitors for a start and as i've said theres not a lot you can do about the difference of having a lightsource behind your images on screen and not on print :)
 
Hi
I had this problem with DSCL prints.
There is a solution.
When photos are printed the paper that they are printed on may darken the finished print.
With DSCL you need to download the DS Colour Frontier DP2 colour space (at the moment your colour space is probably sRGB).
This matches the finished print to their paper.
Sounds complicated. It isn't. Just give the technical helpline at DSCL a ring on 0161-474-8680.
They are really helpfull and will talk you through all of it.
You may need Lightroom to do the colour space changes. I know you can't do this in Elements 10 or 11.
Good luck.
Bella
 
Y15HAL said:
But the prints look darker than the dimmest brightness setting on my screen.....will a calibration still work?
Click to expand...
Y15HAL said:
Not sure if this would make any difference or not, but can the people with calibrated screens check the following pic to see if it looks dark or not.

2-2.jpg


Thanks
Click to expand...

First and foremost you should check and work with the histogram. It looks like it is 1 stop underexposed, so no surprises there. Bare in mind that your previous prints were exposure adjusted and colour corrected by the lab; not so this time. You could either let them do it for you or step up your processing. It is quite a nice and quick way to realise what your work really looks like. I've been there and done exactly that and it improved my images.
 
Bella55 said:
Hi
I had this problem with DSCL prints.
There is a solution.
When photos are printed the paper that they are printed on may darken the finished print.
With DSCL you need to download the DS Colour Frontier DP2 colour space (at the moment your colour space is probably sRGB).
This matches the finished print to their paper.
Sounds complicated. It isn't. Just give the technical helpline at DSCL a ring on 0161-474-8680.
They are really helpfull and will talk you through all of it.
You may need Lightroom to do the colour space changes. I know you can't do this in Elements 10 or 11.
Good luck.
Bella
Click to expand...

This is the correct way, I have done this, DSCL are experts.
 
I've used DSCL for literally hundreds of prints and only had a problem once, which was to do with heavy cropping rather than colour/brightness issues. It's definitely important to ensure you have a calibrated monitor... having said this even a calibrated monitor is unlikely to 100% represent the print you receive, they're different mediums. What can also affect things is when you edit, I always edit mine in a darkened room trying to have the same strength light source, editing at different times of day under different lighting can have a significant effect.

Simon
 
cambsno said:
It is (although not for a couple of months so need to do it again), but obviously depends on how bright the screen is.
Click to expand...


Something there worries me. Once calibrated... you should NOT be adjusting brightness. This is the whole point of calibrating... to ensure a set standard.

between 100 and 120cd luminance, D65 (6500K white point) and 2.2 gamma. Once calibrated, do not adjust brightness, and if your calibration software has a means of adjusting your brightness in response to ambient light... turn it off!.. if you are using a laptop that varies brightness with ambient light... turn that feature off!

Edit.....

I've just soft-proofed with DSCL's profiles, and nothing is going darker. If your prints are dark it's possibly a monitor calibration issue, or misuse of colour profiles.
 
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