monitor calibration --ICC profiles

[bain]

Is i really necessary to have your monitor calibrated properly before using the ICC profiles from your chosen online photo developer ie Photobox in this case. or am i wasting my time.....

i'm thinking of doing some large prints and some canvas prints and don't want to spend out only to find that the prints come back not as expected .
i use lightroom for my processing and don't think you can soft proof with this i maybe wrong .
Any suggestion of how i can maximise my chances of recieving my prints back relative to what i see on my monitor
thanks

 

[Pete Allen]

Calibrating your monitor is the only way or, set up your monitor manually using prints supplied by your print company of choice but, given that you should calibrate frequently, method 2 could be a pita.

 

[Chappers]

The only way to ensure accurate and constant results is to start with a calibrated monitor.

Lightroom has one major failing and that is the inability to soft proof. Hopefully the engineers are working on this, but it may not be that easy, You can soft proof in Photoshop.

Without a calibrated monitor you are really shooting in the dark. You could try sending some test prints and see how far out you are, but you won't really get real consistency, however you may just get lucky, some of the time.