Hello

I've got two cameras - Pentax Optio 30 and Sony DSC-W7. When I load the
images from these on to my computer and look at them with a photo editor they look fine and quite comparable in terms of colour and brightness. I then copy them to CD and take them into a digital print shop and the Pentax ones come out quite dark whereas the Sony ones come out looking great. Any body
got any ideas why this is? Its bugging me a) Cos' I like to understand things and b) I've got a lot of Photos taken on the Pentax that I'd like to get printed but they come out too dark. I can't edit on the screen cos' they look fine.

Bit of a conundrum! Any comments would be welcomed.

Thanks in advance

Chris

[Astaroth]

Would be interested in the response to this one too.... if it was occuring with both cameras then it would be the typical problem that the screen is backlite which is why it looks brighter on the screen than in print. With one coming out fine and the other not you have me stumped too.

[Peakoverload]

Is one camera set to sRGB and the other Adobe 1998?

It might be that the printer you are using can read one colour space but ignores the other.

Hiya Peak

How would I work out if one is using one colour space and the other another?

I've printed at a number of different outlets and the result is near enough the same.

Cheers

C

[Peakoverload]

There are a few ways to check this,

1. Look in the setup menu of each camera - should be under something like Colour Space

2. View the EXIF information of each photo

3. Open the photos in Photoshop and have it read the colour space or preset your colour space to Adobe 1998 and open up your photo, if you dont receive a warning on opening then the photos are Adobe 1998 as well (assuming you havent turned off notification of colour space mismatch)

I'm not entirely suprised that you've experienced this with most printers as most high street printers only read sRGB. Therefore if, and it's still very much an if, one of your cameras is set to Adobe 1998 then its to be expected that this could happen.

I'm not saying for certain that it is a colour space issue, it's just that at the moment its the only thing I can think of that might cause a problem like this.

[EDIT] Just thought of another way of finding out the colour space.

4. Find an original (un-tweaked in Photoshop or other such program) jpeg from each camera and (in Windows XP) right click on it and select Properties. Then go to the Summary Tab and click on Advanced. You should now see the colour space although Windows calls it Colour Representation

HTH

[bibamus]

Have you tried taking the storage cards out of the camera and taken them in to a print shop for printing? When you save the pics to a disc after viewing them, you start to lose information in the image, especially as jpegs. If you need to copy to a disc, plug the card ( or camera) into a card reader then when the folder opens and you see the picture icons, burn them to a disc straight away without opening them. That way you will keep all the original information about the picture, consider these as your digital negatives.
Then, as far as I can see, you have two options.
1. Take your discs /cards to a specialist photo processing shop ( not a high street store type) and tell them the results you get from both cameras. They may know what the cause is and be able to compensate, or
2. Buy a photo printer and do the adjustments yourself after calibrating the printer to your monitor so the colours you see will be the ones printed. You will probably need a good photo editor ( you dont say which one you used, but Photoshop or Photoshop Elements are ideal) and a book to learn how to use it. ( The Photoshop book for Digital Photographers is excellent)
If you take the second option, you will be amazed at what sort of results you can obtain by tweaking mediocre shots, and you get a real sense of acheivement. Of course this option is the most expensive, but, can you put a value on all those photos, especially if the shop processing results are disappointing.
Allan

[Johndm]

Originally Posted by bibamus

When you save the pics to a disc after viewing them, you start to lose information in the image, especially as jpegs. If you need to copy to a disc, plug the card ( or camera) into a card reader then when the folder opens and you see the picture icons, burn them to a disc straight away without opening them. That way you will keep all the original information about the picture, consider these as your digital negatives.
Allan

Copying jpegs from the camera or card is just the same as moving a file around on your drive......you won't lose any information or quality. Nor will you lose information simply by viewing them.
They will only degrade when you re-save the image after editing, or 'save as' after manipulation.

A jpeg from the camera can be considered as your original master file, but its been heavily processed in your camera already.

Only a RAW image file can be called a digital negative, as these are completly un-processed in camera, and are a exact copy of what the image sensor has captured.