Digital Prints

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Mastering Digital Printing
what you get back, either adjust your monitor settings or your image file to the print. Yes,
this is a backwards way to do color management, but it can work if you are pleased with
the test prints, and the lab stays consistent.
Kiosks to the Rescue
You can also custom profile your lab. Take, or e-mail, one of the RGB profiling target files
that comes with your profiling software to the lab and have them make a normal print
with no color management (this is the key point). Specify the size print that you need, or
you may get a target print too small to work with. Back at your workstation, use your scanner-
or spectro-based profiling package to build a custom printer profile for that lab printer.
Convert to this ICC profile (in Photoshop: Image > Mode > Convert to Profile) and
instruct the lab not to make any automated corrections, but to print the file just as it is.
It may take a couple of trial runs and some back-and-forth communication, but the lab
should eventually understand what you’re trying to accomplish.
Another way of working with digital lab printers is now available through Oregon photographer
Ethan Hansen of Dry Creek Photo. Hansen has created an online database
(www.drycreekphoto.com) of ICC printer profiles for local Fuji Frontier, Noritsu, Agfa
If you’re desperate to have a while-you-wait print made, you
can always run over to your nearest drugstore, consumer electronic
store, Kinko’s, or discount retailer to use a self-service
photo kiosk. These kiosks are all the rage (in the U.S.) and are
made by manufacturers such as Kodak (Picture Maker), Fuji
(Aladdin), Sony (PictureStation), and Olympus (TruePrint).
They offer a touch screen interface for basic image editing
including cropping, red-eye removal, brightness adjustment,
etc. The Olympus TruePrint kiosks come in two models with
dye-sublimation printers that sit behind the counter and that
can output 4 × 6 or 8 × 10 prints.
Kiosks accept CompactFlash, SmartMedia, and PCMCIA
memory cards and Photo CDs, and some have optional scanners
for inputting hard copy. Some now include interfaces for
printing from camera cell phones. The Kodak Picture Maker
Film Processing Station even lets you quickly develop and print
pictures from 35mm, without ever having to “turn in” your
film to a lab. (See Figure 10.7.)
You’re not going to get a lot of expert advice or hand-holding in
this situation, but for a $2.99 print at your local Sam’s Club in
three minutes, what do you expect?
Figure 10.7 The Kodak Picture Maker Film Processing Station is
the first self-service, film-processing kiosk for consumers. It
functions as a low-cost, self-contained minilab when connected to a
retailer’s Kodak Picture Maker G3 kiosk, allowing users to print
both film images and digital images themselves.
Courtesy of Eastman Kodak Company