I've got what seems to be a problem with the prints I receive from WalMart. I process the images in Photoshop CS2 and on my LCD monitor they look fabulous. I use the sRGB color space only because I'm not sure how their printer might handle a wider color space. Anyway the problem is the prints I receive look considerably darker than what I think I am sending them. Even after uploading to their server, the preview pic they give you to edit looks dark all of a sudden. I shoot in RAW and use the histogram to expose to the right as much as possible without blowing out the highlights so these dark images are making me MAD. The way their printer works I'd need to overexpose 2 stops just to make them bright enough for viewing.

Any tips, tricks or advice would be greatly appreciated.

Mike

Mike,

In all honesty, I've never had good prints from Wal-Mart. I don't know what it is, but the printers are very dark and the colors always turn out muddy for me. I think also when you send pics in they fiddle with the colors again. I am not sure if you could tell them not to apply any further processes.

I stopped using them and now do all my prints through Costco. You can actually get printer profiles from Dry Creek Photo for most Costco stores nationwide and in Canada.

Are you using Adobe Gamma to calibrate your monitor? I just got a Spyder and it's great.

I'd really look into a different option for printing your images. Ritz is pretty good and I've used them a few times, but no one beats Costco's process or prices so far. Also most techs at Costco are more than willing to take your printing 'notes' when you run a job.

Good luck!

I've used Kodak's online printing service and can definitely recommend them. So far what I've had printed has matched my work in CS2 VERY closely.

http://www.kodakgallery.com/OrderOverview.jsp?