I'm going to do some actual printing, but I'm not totally clear on how my Aperture workflow should change, the best online printing outsource or maybe just using Apertures online printing option (appears to only offer a few different sizes).
Besides adjusting the image to limit or get rid of it's cold and hot spots, which I do to most of my images anyhow. I'm not real clear which Aperture method to use the sharpen the image for printing output, or even how much to sharpen an image for different sizes.
So now I'm thinking about purchasing Nik Software's Sharpener Pro, which seems to take care of most if not all of the guess work and then find a good online printing provider.
Does any online printing provider offer a printing auto enhance option that applies correct amount of sharpening and insuring the hot/cold areas are solved and all I have to do is just send them my tiff file?
Any feedback is welcome
SesHat,
yeah most printers will do sharpening and even basic color correction for their files by default; you’ll see an option to NOT do any correction if you’re sure you’re right.
I’ve been using BayPhoto a lot recently. Great product, great customer service, but really shoddy QA. I’ve had to have prints redone a few times and that’s only because the inspection on the way out the door was shoddy or non-existant.
I haven’t used Apple’s own service in a really long time.
@PhotoJoseph
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Thanks for the feedback Joseph ~ I guess all hold off on purchasing another plugin for now, especially I’ve got a new iPhone coming next and I’m going to purchase a Mark III towards the end of October.
Quick question: So I’m I wasting time fixing hot and cold spots that are outside of minimal fixing if I’m just posting to the web and would use a service like Bayphoto?
SesHat,
NO, you’re not wasting time at all. They won’t make adjustments like that. What they will do is adjust for color balance for their printer.
You should always send the best possible quality file. Especially since you’d be recovering highlights in the RAW file, and by the time you send the image to them as a JPEG or TIF, any out-of-range data will be clipped off.
@PhotoJoseph
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Understood ~ Again Thanks!
So when Bay Photo makes color balance adjustments for their printers, this also includes sharpening right? I just want to make sure I’m understanding what I may not need vs. what I might need ~ from a plugin perspective.
I just opened a Bay Photo account and used your name as the referral
I believe they do sharpening, but I’m not 100% certain. You should dig through the file prep part of their website, and you can always chat with them live online to ask as well.
I know when ordering from SmugMug, sharpening is an option you can apply for some if not all printing services, for example.
@PhotoJoseph
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Yeah they offer it but it’s $5.50 (extra) per print ~ that seems expensive. I need to figure out a ratio of Aperture Sharpening to add to different image output sizes.
Oh never mind, because I guess no matter which one is used in Aperture (edge sharpen or sharpen) it’s lost when scaled for output.
Why would you be scaling on output? Output at 100% size for print.
How much you sharpen is very printer dependent, so if you’re printing critical work, you’ll need to do some testing.
@PhotoJoseph
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My bad, I miss used the term ~ didn’t mean to confuse you. I wouldn’t call it critical work, but I just seem to think that a sharpened image looks better than a non-sharpened image.
Again Thanks!