I think I may have low resolution / low quality images. How can I tell?
Often when photos are put up on websites (facebook, etc.) or emailed, they are reduced in quality, creating 'lossy' jpeg 'artefacts' (messy looking pixels). When printed, these photos can look very poor. Look closely at the comparison image below. You'll see 'blocky' sections, and lots of small blurred parts too.
While the image on the left looks very sharp, the 'lossy' or 'low-quality' version on the right looks blurry and pixelated. The image on the left would look pretty good printed, provided the resolution is high enough, but the image on the right definitely wouldn't.
The Images in my Photobook look dark
It needs to be stated that PhotobooksRus cannot be held responsible for images that have been taken on a camera that has not been set up by us, and used in conditions we have no control over.
The next major consideration is screen calibration. If the screen on your computer has never been calibrated, calibrated recently (in the last 2 days before creating the book) or if the contrast and brightness controls have been boosted (as is the case with all laptops), it is worth noting that when printed, colours may appear very differently than what you see on your screen.
When a photobook is produced it is printed with 3 other books on the same sheet of paper using the same colour profile and print procedure. Our production machines are calibrated daily to an ISO/Xerox approved standard and procedure.
Basically what this means is that either all 3 photobooks would have an issue on every page with every image and are wrong, or the book has been printed correctly according to the files that have been supplied.
So what's the difference between what is displayed on my computer and what will be printed?
Imagine making an image out of 3 different coloured fairy lights in a dark room, as opposed to making the same image with just 3 coloured markers, plus a black one. That's how different these two colour systems are.
When you take a photograph on your DSLR, your camera will compose your shot using colour values on the RGB spectrum. RGB stands for Red, Green, and Blue and refers to the three primary colours that can always be mixed together in different variants to produce different colours and shades on digital monitors.
Computer monitors always display RGB, which is why DSLRs follow this format to make things easier for users. RGB is known as an additive colour system, as it relies on adding different amounts of each of the three colours to make different colours. The RGB range has 256 colours. By setting each RGB colour to a setting of "0" (so that particular pixel is effectively OFF) we can generate a kind of "black" (actually a very dark grey), while a setting of "255" generates white.
Therefore, RGB is the industry default for Digital Cameras and computer monitors, as it allows us to view colours true to life on screen. The software converts all image files to sRGB by default.
However, print operates on a different colour system, called CMYK. This stands for Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and blacK. CMYK is a subtractive colour system, as cyan, magenta, and yellow pigments are used as filters, while black is added in various patterns and amounts to provide shading. This means that they subtract various amounts of colours from white light to produce different colours. Therefore, an image displayed on a computer monitor will not completely match a CMYK print. As RGB doesn't have a dedicated black channel, shadows or blacks can often appear too rich when printed.
If you take your work to a dedicated printer, they will ask for the image in CMYK, as it's the format in which they will have always worked. CMYK dates back to the days of colour printing and processing.
The output device we produce all books on is a digital device that prints in CMYK, as opposed to digital cameras which take pictures in RGB and Computer Monitors which are RGB also. Both our RIP and Igen4 printer system, which prints the books are calibrated several times a day using ISO International Standards Organization approved methods that allows us to achieve a balance that works with all of the files we receive. What this means is all pages are printed with the same settings and parameters so any changes to the ISO setting will affect all pages within a book.
For best colour-matching to your original photo files, we suggest working in sRGB colour space. The software will strip out and replace any other colour profile information. Some digital cameras allow you to select the colour space. If possible, shoot in sRGB to save yourself time.