Tips For Submitting Digital Files

Going digital creates new and exciting possibilities for you and your customer. It opens new creative avenues and profitability if done properly. The information provided on this sheet explains how we except and print your files. Our aim is to deliver a finished product that you have come to expect from a professional lab and not available from a super-center. Calibration is done for the sole purpose of making sure that your are white balancing, and exposing your files properly. Always leave the color correction to us. It's what you pay us for. So let's talk about how to shoot, view, and send your digital files.

1. Always, without question, shoot, view, and save digital files in SRGB.

SRGB is the common color space that photographic printers use. By using Abobe98 or another color space is setting you and your lab up for failure. Viewing and saving your digital files in a color space other than SRGB means that you are viewing and expecting a print back that cannot be made. Any Pro Lab using photographic paper receiving a color space other than SRGB will convert the file automatically to SRGB and you will receive a print that looks nothing like your monitor. So shooting, viewing, saving and finally printing in SRGB will get you the best results.

2. TIFF or JPG

To us it does not matter. Both will print just fine on our system. There has been much talk lately about the quality of JPG. We have run our own test and found that yes if you re-save a JPG many times you may see a slight loss in highlight on a strand of hair. In other words not enough to make a big deal over. What we suggest is that if you shoot in JPG send us the JPG file, if you shoot in TIFF then send us the TIFF file. We do not convert RAW files and only recommend that you shoot in RAW if you are having exposure problems or working a special job that will require changes in color temp. Properly white balanced and exposed digital files in either JPG or TIFF will render you great results without having to convert and color manage a bunch of RAW files.

3. Balance your monitor

A properly balanced monitor is needed no matter what lab you use. We hope that you will see the value in using NC TriColor Imaging, and that is why we will provide every studio with a free uncorrected 8x10 for the purpose of calibrating your monitor. We recommend a CRT (tube) monitor vs. LCD. There are some very expensive LCD's out there that can be calibrated, although any lab you go into, you will find color correction operators on CRT monitors. For this reason we believe that using a CRT gets you more in line with what the lab sees. First make sure that your monitor is set to 6500K not 5500K. Save a camera file that you believe is properly exposed, color balanced and overall just looks good on your monitor. Burn this file to a CD or upload to us and ask for a ''Free Balance 8x10'' in the ''special instructions'' area. We will print the file with no corrections and return it to you. Bring the file up on your monitor. Adjust the brightness, contrast, and color to match the 8x10. Once you have done this you are balanced to the lab. You will want to keep the CD and print, for later use. We calibrate our monitors once a month. We also find that monitors have about a 1 to 2 year life span when it comes to calibration. A newer monitor should be rotated into the studio where color is viewed most.

4. Other tidbits about our printing

We print on Fuji Crystal Archive Professional Paper. We do not print with Ink jet, or on consumer paper like the super-centers. Consumer papers are for making contrasty, vibrant sky, grass and colors. Professional paper is designed for professional photographers looking to reproduce accurate skin tones. Photographic paper and our system needs only a 300dpi image. Giving us any more makes for a larger file but not a better print. So save your disk space. Always submit your files in 8 bit color only. A 16 bit file cannot be viewed on our system and has to be converted by an artist in Photoshop before printing. This adds time and expense to your order. Do not send unflattened PSD (Photoshop) files or LZW compressed files.

5. Let us do the color and density corrections.

The idea of balancing all your equipment is not so that you will be able or even want to correct all your own files. This is what we do. This is what you pay us for. This is what we're good at. Always let the lab do the correction. The reason for all this calibration is so that you can see if your files are properly exposed. Everyone knows that digital has a very little exposure latitude similar to E-6 (slides). For this reason it is more necessary than ever to expose your digital files properly. Now with properly balanced equipment you will know if your nailing your exposures or if your exposure and/or white balance needs a little tweak.

We hope the above information will help you partner with us to make the highest in professional quality images possible. We look forward to serving you in the digital transition.