The built-in access to online print services in Apple’s Aperture seems like a time-saver – but my most recent prints from them were so bad they refunded my money.
It had been a while since I’d had any of my pictures printed (save for a few enlargements for presents), and having had no problems with Apple’s online service in the past (admittedly for just a handful of prints), I sent 400 or so photos to them for the treatment.
And got back hundreds that were way too yellow and way too dark.
I checked the electronic files against the prints, using my screen (with a gamma set to 2.2, and whitepoint of D65), and a number of other monitors, on both Macs and PCs (checking against exported JPG files, as well as the Aperture versions).
The prints were just plain bad.
What went wrong?
I complained to Apple, who to their credit replied promptly, but slightly confusingly:
Upon inspection, it does appear that your images are darker than recommended. Prints are printed using a four-color process. Different shades of four colors are combined to make the full spectrum of colors, including black. Because of this, images in your prints may appear slightly darker than what appears on your computer’s display.
I’m not sure exactly what this means – the images I sent were darker than recommended, or the images they printed were darker? They gave me a full refund, so I’m guessing the latter, but the rest of the explanation doesn’t actually explain anything.
So I’m not sure what went wrong – some of the prints were fine, suggesting there wasn’t some blanket error I’d made (like setting my monitor too blue, so my color corrections actually made everything too yellow).
Sometimes simple is too simple
Being able to select some images in Aperture and instantly send them off for online printing from within the app is very simple.
But what you lose here is any sense of exactly what happens to those files – presumably they’re compressed into JPG format (in the sRGB color space), and uploaded to Kodak, who do the printing.
Apple assure me there’s not automatic color correction or any other adjustments done on the files, so it looks like some kind of mistake was made (rather than deliberate – but bad – adjustments).
But not being exactly sure what’s even being uploaded from Aperture doesn’t help. (They do have some more general information on color and gamma settings for print and web in Aperture.)
Shutterfly – switch off the VividPics option
I’ll be giving the Apple online print service a miss next time, so I checked with Shutterfly to see what their approach was (I’ve used them a lot in the past and found them fast and reliable).
Like Apple, they don’t make the ICC profiles for their printers available (which would allow you to soft proof your pictures – in other words look at an approximation of how their printers will interpret your files), but they do have some helpful information about switching off the automatic color and exposure adjustment they carry out by default.
MPix – taking it up a notch
Of course, you get out of printing what you put into it, so I also looked at MPix, which have a good reputation online for offering more commitment to quality printing for pro and serious amateur photographers than the mass market printers.
They offer a choice of professional papers, for a start, and also gladly sent me the ICC profiles for their printers when I requested them. I’ve sent jobs to both Shutterfly and MPix, and will let you know how they both turn out.
The upshot – I need a calibrated monitor
Even though I checked my images on a friend’s calibrated monitor when I got the prints back (which showed me that it was the prints that were dodgy, not my monitor), the whole story has raised some issues for me.
It would be very reassuring to know for sure that all my time processing my images wasn’t actually taking them further away from what I had in mind – in other words, that what I was seeing was as accurate as it could be.
Which means a good (and well-calibrated) monitor. Some of the wide-gamut Dells look good (and good value), I’ll always have a soft spot for the Apple Cinema Displays, and I know that Eizos have a stellar reputation (and price tags to match). Deciding on one is another day’s work, however.
A final point (that’s probably obvious to some, but clearly wasn’t to me) is that if we spend lots of time getting a good image, and tweaking it on the computer, we should extend the same care to the final stage – the printing.
Accepting some compromise might be OK when you’re printing 400 photos (many of them of more sentimental than artistic value), but it’s definitely something I’ll be looking at very closely for client work, and for those shots I’ll be framing.