Shutterfly color management

[quade 4]

This from the Yahoo Groups Shutterfly discussion group.

Quote

Hello:

I am an imaging scientist here at Shutterfly and am writing to
provide some hints on how to use Shutterfly as part of your color
managed workflow.

There are three things that happen to images printed through
Shutterfly:

1. We interpret the RGB pixels as sRGB
2. We do automatic color enhancement and adjustment (we call this
VividPics processing)
3. Finally, we print the images on color managed sRGB printers

For people interested in getting accurate colors on prints from
Shutterfly, you will need to do the following:

1. Either calibrate your monitor to be sRGB or use monitor profiles
for soft proofing your images.
2. Save the images as sRGB
3. After uploading to Shutterfly, turn off step #2 above, i.e. turn
off VividPics. Here are the steps for doing this to a group of images
in a single album:

a. Select all pictures in your album
b. Go to the "View & Enhance" tab (top left after "Add Pictures")
c. Select any one of your pictures
d. Select the "Effects" tab on the right hand side
e. You should come to a screen which has a check box w/ "Don't apply
automatic correction to picture" on the left bottom. check that box.
f. then click on "Apply this effect to other pictures" right above it.

This will turn off VividPics on all your pictures in that album and
you will therefore get accurate sRGB colors on the final prints.

Hope this helps.

-Dhiraj

So, while I'd be REALLY tempted to take advantage of the Adobe color gamut in the 10D, the default sRGB looks like it might actually be a better choice if you're uploading to Shutterfly.

The D30 and D60 are ONLY sRGB so it makes no real difference to -me-, but it might to the guys with the new toy -- specifically Deuce since he's already using Shutterfly.

quade -
The World's Most Boring Skydiver

[newshooter12 0]

Quade and other still photo gurus -
Sort of on a tangent, but how have you or have you calibrated your screens. I know I've used Adobe Photo Shop's Gamma Correction/Calibration tool that just uses your eye and a few questions/guides when prompted. While working at my college's newspaper our printer came by and calibrated our monitors similarly, but I've seen Calibration sensors that stick to your screen and plug into your PC/Mac via USB or firewire and use software to calibrate automatically.
The latter seems more expensive, but more accurate. Any opinions? Experience?

I know from experience that I need my Sony Trinitron monitor at 65% brightness and 100% contrast for online video/still content to look right, but at 25%brightness and 100% contrast with my windows shut and incandescent lighting to match what's on the screen to what comes out of my printer.
The potential differences in output drive me nuts, call me a control freak over my work, but I don't think I do as much still printing as I'd like to b/c I think I'd F#$% up more then I'd get right with all the variables.
matt

[quade 4]

I have a Pantone color correction "Spyder" & software and have used it with pretty good results, however, the majority of the time I do NOT do any color correction for my skydiving stuff.

If I just trust the Color Sync in Mac OS X to work correctly, it does for my local printing on my Epson 1280.

I don't think I have a problem with Shutterfly, but since I cheaped out on the mailing of the test files, I haven't seen those at my house yet.

The magazines want the original files and they want to do their own corrections.

quade -
The World's Most Boring Skydiver

[Deuce 1]

Quote

The D30 and D60 are ONLY sRGB so it makes no real difference to -me-, but it might to the guys with the new toy -- specifically Deuce since he's already using Shutterfly.

Thank you Q. Done and done.

JP

[ltdiver 3]

Somehow I see the development of the male 'toy tinkering' psyche going from under a car's hood, with grease up to their elbows, to swatches and color corrections of art.

ltdiver

Don't tell me the sky's the limit when there are footprints on the moon

[Deuce 1]

Gosh, I wish, LT. I'm just a bureaucrat family man with friends like Quade that clue me in to the shortcuts that make me look good.

"Hey, JP, don't step in that"

"Step in what?...Oh, thanks"

It's a whole lot like that.

[ltdiver 3]

Yes, I agree that those who go before you can be helpful in avoiding the pitfalls. I've taught that before myself to students.

However, I think you missed the point to my post...

ltdiver

Don't tell me the sky's the limit when there are footprints on the moon

[jdhill 0]

Have you seen any of your prints from Shutterfly? Was wondering how they compared...

Josh

All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing. - Edmund Burke

[quade 4]

Yes, I was going to show them to Deuce at the Perris Memorial Day Boogie for his unbiased opinion, but the guy broke his foot and I never got a chance.

I took two images, one an objective resolution and color image I made up and another a portrait of Jack Gramley as a subjective measure of how it "feels".

Objectively and subjectively, there are differences between printing at home on my Epson 1280 and through Shutterfly.

Objectively, the colors from my Espon are a bit wider in gamut and the resolution is about the same. The Shutterfly proccessing of the 8x10 did NOT print the exact same size as my Epson 1280, but I may have simply made a mistake in ordering so I'm going to redo that particular test at some point. Just to clarify, they both come out at 8x10, but the "magnification" of each image is slightly different.

Subjectively, the Shutterfly print seemed to come out a bit darker but well within acceptable limits for me. The colors seemed a slight bit more rich, which was actually a surprise to me based on the objective test. In particular the flesh tones came out very, very nice. This print also didn't come out to be the exact same size as the print I personally made, but again well within acceptable limits to me. As you're probably aware, whenever you do edge to edge printing (full bleed) there is going to be a slightly different amount of cutoff along the edges depending on how you have the prints processed and by whom.

IF I really wanted to show off my work in a museum, I'd probably opt to do the printing myself on my Epson 1280 since I could tweek it until I thought it was "perfect" and obviously for on-site printing the 1280 is the way to go, but for an on-line order process, the Shutterfly system really is very, very good and I'm pretty darn happy with the results. So far, I've had zero complaints, but a LOT of compliments on the quality of work.

quade -
The World's Most Boring Skydiver

[PhreeZone 20]

>So far, I've had zero complaints, but a LOT of compliments on the quality of work.

Mark me down as one of those that is happy with the pictures that Shutterfly made for me.

Yesterday is history
And tomorrow is a mystery

Parachutemanuals.com

[jdhill 0]

Thanks for the info... I've been kicking the idea around a little more seriously since the last event I shot... several folks wanted to use CC's and the like... maybe as I run out of my paper stocks...

Josh

All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing. - Edmund Burke