colour of printed photos

[Martha]

I have been taking some photos of mostly my daughters and friends, I have a Canon550D, the problem that I'm Experiencing is that the colour on the printed photos is abnormally bright and the normal skin tone of the people look reddish when the photo is taken indoors and orange when taken outside. I take the photos on a manual setting using the lowest possible ISO usually a F5.6-7.1 and the shutter speed inside between1/30 to1/80 and outside somewhere between 125-250. I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong the pictures look fine on the laptop screen, but when printed not usable, on the camera screen it looks fine. White Balance I have been changing according to the light, but that seems not to be the problem because when I use it on auto, it didn't solve my problem. Any suggestions! Ek is al moedeloos!

[Henk Coetzee]

Welcome to the joys (and frustrations) of colour management. What printer, paper and ink are you using?

[Forgiss - Sean Nel]

...and is your computer screen calibrated?

(oh, and welcome to ODP!)

[SteveG]

Welcome! I agree with Henk - it will be useful to know how you are printing the images.

One idea: the Saturation control on the camera might be pushed up too high, causing the strong oranges and reds in skin tones.

If you like you can send me a sample image and I'll evaluate it. I use a properly calibrated monitor and I print frequently. Follow the link in my signature and you'll find my email address.

[Martha]

Hi Henk, I'm not printing my own images I took it to a Kodak store to be printed, Sean I didn't even know about calibrated my screen how does one do that? Steve I have not made any alterations on the saturation on my camera or even in editing is it possible that the default setting on the Canon is high, I tend to shoot in only Portrait style on Manual because I like taking photos of esspecially children and people. Thanks for all your comments, i do appreciate it!

[SteveG]

The canon default settings are quite punchy and saturated. Try changing all the adjustment sliders to zero (saturation, contrast etc).

Of course, it could be Kodak that's giving you trouble. Hard to know unless you have a comparison print done elsewhere.

[Forgiss - Sean Nel]

Hi Martha,

The problem comes in when your monitor isn't calibrated, you tend to make small adjustments to make it look good on screen, and when you take it to the printer, it prints dodgy (especially if their printers are calibrated)

Most LCD/LED monitors are set a bit more blue-ish, so if you get a nice skintone on it, and print, it ends up a bit porange (pink/orange) on the final product

[Martha]

Thanks guys, great advice! I've taken some shots this morning with a lower saturation and already it does look much better!

[JohannvR]

Martha, here my 2c worth of recommendation. First thing, prior to playing around with saturation, calibration issues, etc. is to make sure your picture is taken in sRGB (if not, change it with your software), as many/majority of these photo labs' printers don't like the AdobeRGB colour profile and will give you funny colours. Ask me, I've experienced it and when I changed to sRGB, all my problems were solved! (I've read a thread here on ODP long time ago on this issue .......!!??). Hope this will help!

[Martha]

Thanks Johann for the reply, my camera was on sRGB!