Jeff wrote:
What brightness is your monitor set to, and how bright is your editing environment? If the problem started when the monitor arrived...
If not, put it on them. Tell them to look at the JPEG submitted, and print the file so it looks the same, it shouldn't be that hard. Ask them why it's happening; it really shouldn't be happening, so there must be some technical reason (possibly on their side).
IIRC, the current calibration profile has the monitor brightness set at 100cd, down from 120.
Brightness of the editing environment is set per the ambient light calibration function of the tool I use for the monitor calibration, so it is consistent for each editing session.
When I discussed with Bay Photo they said something to the effect of there being "natural variation" whether one is printing on paper, canvas, metal and one just has to "allow" for it.
tm255 wrote:
I have a question for you Bay Photo users. Short version: in Bayroes, do you specify "no correction" or do you "allow" correction?
Long version: After a lot of frustration of not having prints look right, I invested in a high end NEC monitor, calibrated it faithfully, calibrated the room light and kept it consistent, used the Bay Photo proof profile ...... and still got prints back that were "off" (with me specifying "no correction" because I had it set exactly right). What works for me now is to have Bay Photo do a small test print, adjust, another, adjust, etc. until it looks right and then print large. But with all that, I wonder why I need the NEC monitor. Last time just for the heck of it I did the test print specifying "correction allowed" and it looked pretty good so I'm wondering if that should just be my default.
I use "no correction" with Bay Photo - after processing / prepping files with a color corrected monitor - and most of the time the prints have fairly consistent exposure, but there are times when image exposures are a bit off and I suspect they are automating processes even with the request for no color correction. The bigger issue for me in recent years is that their printing seems inconsistent - specks where color has not printed correctly, edges of metal prints that are rough / scuffed, and loose photo prints that were not cut precisely, with white border edges showing. And loose prints often have washed out reds, compared to prints from other labs.
I've always had good customer service interactions with Bay Photo - they reprint images no questions asked - but their lack of consistent results is a hassle.
