ICC/Photoshop HELL - NYC pics ruined... HELP!

[thatsright]

Just got back my pics from NYC. I spend about 20 hours (literally) getting them ready, from NEF file to tiff and then uploaded to Adorama pix site. Well got them today and every single one of them were dark and reduced contrast.

I edited them on a IBM T61 laptop with Adobe Photoshop CS2. My camera took the pics with sRGB color profile, and Photoshop's color space was sRGB as well. So I save them all, upload to their site and they even look great on the adorama site. But they all come back looking dark/washed out. My laptop is not color calibrated as such. Uses the default.

Can I save these pics I already worked on? I downloaded the Adorama ICC profiles (4 of them..?). Is it as simple as calibrating my T61 with the adorama profile and then opening each pic and resaving it? Or opening them up and adjust the brightness/contrast in each pic and then saving? Man I'm screwed. Its most likely the T61 as I took same exact pics to another shop and they were printed just the same.
HELP. All that work down the drain...?

 

[smitbret]

Most monitors have the brightness set too high unless it has been properly calibrated. Also there may be a problem matching up the color gamuts between the sRGB that the photos were taken in and the color gamut of the printing process they use to print.You may just have photos that don't fit the printing gamut. Did you soft proof with the Adorama profiles while you were editing in Photoshop. That'll give you some inication of what is going on.

 

[thatsright]

Soft proof, no. I do not have a good color printer here...and there are 4 separate Adorama ICC profiles depending on which paper you want to print on. If this is the case, do I have to switch back and forth between profiles if I'm going to print the same printer using 3 different papers?

 

[GoingUp]

When I printed my stuff from Adorama, they gave me the option of having them touch up the photos or not doing anything. I chose not doing anything.

Also look at your pics on a different computer to see how they look.

 

[dugweb]

I'm not sure what you spent 20 hours doing to get them ready, but if it's just a little touching up (brightness, contrast, color) you can automate the process by making a batch file and that way Photoshop does it all.

 

[fuzzybabybunny]

Adorama's ICC profiles are only there for soft proofing. Their only purpose is to give you an idea of what your final print will look like.

You should:
Convert all your shots into sRGB (not Adobe RGB or anything else) - you've already done this
Tell Adorama NOT to do any of their photo enhancement stuff.
Color calibrate your monitor somehow. There are monitors out there that are very bright and product very vivid, saturated colors. Unfortunately, this doesn't mean that the colors are actually faithful to what the final print will look like.

 

[RossMAN]

Originally posted by: fuzzybabybunny
Color calibrate your monitor somehow. There are monitors out there that are very bright and product very vivid, saturated colors. Unfortunately, this doesn't mean that the colors are actually faithful to what the final print will look like.

Are there any free or cheap tools to calibrate my laptop's LCD?

 

[mugs]

Originally posted by: RossMAN

Originally posted by: fuzzybabybunny
Color calibrate your monitor somehow. There are monitors out there that are very bright and product very vivid, saturated colors. Unfortunately, this doesn't mean that the colors are actually faithful to what the final print will look like.

Are there any free or cheap tools to calibrate my laptop's LCD?

(I think) you need a piece of hardware that you use with calibration software - the hardware can detect your brightness and contrast and color levels and whatnot and the software tells you what to adjust. At least that's the way my wife does hers. Can't imagine how you'd do it with just software.

Edit: I guess a "poor man's" way to calibrate a monitor would be to make an image with some solid blocks of colors (and levels of black), have it professionally printed, then try to get your monitor to match the output... but I have no idea what I'm talking about.

Edit 2:
Example: http://www.northlight-images.c..._pages/spyder2pro.html

 

[thatsright]

Well I'm ready to buy Spyder2Express calibrator, but another problem.... I sent my pics to Adorama in nyc to be printed. On their site they can do color correction by their techs, or I would use a Adorama ICC profile of up to 4 different papers they print on.

If I buy the spyder2express do I calibrate my monitor just for the Adorama ICC profiles? Or when in PhotoshopCS2 do I select the adorama profile before saving, or using it as a working space......?

Damn, there are so many tentacles on this Color Calibration octopus!

FYI: My Nikon and Photoshop ICC working space are all the same sRGB-IEC965........ or something like that.