I wasn't very successful at calibrating to their prints either. However, I
still ordered two 11x14 shots. Their upload program took care of correctly
identifying and allowing me to choose the cropping that took place. The
prints I got back were slightly off, but I have been able to use them to
calibrate my monitor. I expected some errors in color. My lack of
experience didn't prepare me for the difference in dynamic range. What does
and doesn't show up in shadows and how bright the photo resulting picture
will be is going to be my biggest challenge. Overall, I'm happy. The
quality is much better than I can hope to achieve with the under $1000US
printers.
I was also disappointed with their lack of technical information, but I
haven't found anybody better.
Jim
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-filmscanners@halftone.co.uk
[mailto:owner-filmscanners@halftone.co.uk]On Behalf Of Collin Ong
Sent: Tuesday, February 06, 2001 2:08 PM
To: filmscanners@halftone.co.uk
Subject: filmscanners: EZ Prints monitor calibration
After looking at several of the online print makers, ezprints.com seems to
cater most to photo enthusiasts by providing large print sizes (wallet to
20x30), matte paper, unlimited file sizes, etc.
However, they are lacking in the technical data they provide so that us
customers can prepare their files properly and have the control we
nitpickers require. They should provide more data on: ColorSync Profile
(ideal), colorspace format (e.g. BruceRGB, sRGB, AdobeRGB, etc), gamma
(e.g. 1.8, 2.2, etc), red, green, blue x,y calibration, exact pixel
dimensions and/or aspect ratios for each print size to prevent
scaling/distortion/empty space. I've sent them an email requesting that
they post this data. I urge others on this list interested in using their
service to do so as well, so that our squeaking wheel gets greased.
I recently sent in an order for wallet size prints which were processed
with a few problems: 1) The image was skewed on the page, leaving a blank
wedge on one side and cutting off the image on the other. 2) Blank image
area between the 4-per-page wallet prints due to incorrect aspect ratio on
my uploaded files (due to their not providing exact info). 3) Image
rather dark and colors were off.
Ezprints provides calibration prints that you are supposed to adjust your
monitor to. There are two prints, one color and one B&W. The color one
is an image of a bunch of houses with lots of different colors on it. The
B&W is an image of a couple kissing, and a grayscale gradient on one side.
I played around last night trying to get my monitor to look like the
prints, but could not achieve it to my satisfaction. However, I'm not
sure what the best way to do it is: via the ColorSync software on my Mac,
or the monitor RGB, brightness, and contrast controls.
1) ColorSync: the calibration assistant takes you through these steps:
- Set contrast to Max
- Adjust brightness down til Light/Dark halves of box merge, and grey oval
is barely visible
- Adjust individual R, G, B sliders
- Set whitepoint kelvin
- Set gamma
Using this method, I was able to get many portions of the image to match,
but I could not match several sections. Some colors seemed too bright, and
other colors I could not get to match, like the purple house. My feeling
is that I may be able to get closer if I could set the gamma or whitepoint
first, but ColorSync doesn't seem to allow this.
Also, when the screen image was close to the print, everything else on the
GUI was really off in color. The grey background in Photoshop was
brownish.
2) Monitor: I can adjust brightness, contrast, and R, G, B via the
monitor. Again, I could get somewhat close to the print, but not in all
areas, and 'normal' apps are totally off color once this is done.
I recall somebody on this list mentioning using the EZprints calibration
prints successfully. I would like suggestions from the list on the best
method of doing this. I would prefer the ColorSync or a software method
since it is more easily switchable for use between normal apps and
Ezprints image prep.
Thanks for any help.
Collin Ong
