Question regarding prints for a photographer

[peavey123]

Hey All, So I've been doing foamcore prints for a wedding photographer the last few months. Recently I've been having issues with his files.

The issue is a posterization (photoshop effect in the image adjustment settings) look on skin tones but only on certain files. Mainly the shadow skin tones have a hard line and it looks really bad! He's sure that it's my printer not his photo editing. I'm thinking it's his photo editing not the printer. hehe

I have a few thoughts on why this is happening, I just wanted to get some thoughts. Maybe you've run into something similar before?

As an amatuer photographer the first thing that struck me is that this guy shoots strictly in JPG not RAW. He has very limited computer skills as he says he from the film days. (Nevermind his camera skills haha A lot of times the horizons in his pictures are at 20+ degree angles, horrible lighting, bad composition etc. but whatever he obviously gets lots of work) I also was thinking his color settings in photoshop or whatever he uses may be off? Although adjusting profile settings in ONYX doesn't seem to fix the issue.

I'm running onyx postershop 7 with an HP L25500.

 

[genericname]

Right there is more than likely your answer, with the JPG setting. Any pro worth his salt works in RAW. Quick way to tell is simply zoom in on the image on screen. Posterized? It's his file. Nope? You need to re-profile, or he needs to adjust his expectations.

 

[peavey123]

Okay, It's definitely his files. I just did a couple tests of past photos from other clients and the skin is beautiful. No posterization effects goin on at all. Now just to figure out what to suggest to my customer?....hmm

 

[Davidford7]

Right there is more than likely your answer, with the JPG setting. Any pro worth his salt works in RAW. Quick way to tell is simply zoom in on the image on screen. Posterized? It's his file. Nope? You need to re-profile, or he needs to adjust his expectations.

Shooting jpg or Raw is not going to show up on the as posterzation.
Having owned several photography studios I can tell you there is very little difference between the two. Raw will allow to make some corrective adj a little easier.
We shot Canon 1DS MarkII (23mg) and easily print a 36x48 with a Epson 44, maybe not with a sign printer like a Roland.
What may be the problem is the size of the jpg or the lighting. It's not the file type.Low rez in small pic out.
David

 

[Ragin Cajun]

Hey All, So I've been doing foamcore prints for a wedding photographer the last few months. Recently I've been having issues with his files.

The issue is a posterization (photoshop effect in the image adjustment settings) look on skin tones but only on certain files. Mainly the shadow skin tones have a hard line and it looks really bad! He's sure that it's my printer not his photo editing. I'm thinking it's his photo editing not the printer. hehe

I have a few thoughts on why this is happening, I just wanted to get some thoughts. Maybe you've run into something similar before?

As an amatuer photographer the first thing that struck me is that this guy shoots strictly in JPG not RAW. He has very limited computer skills as he says he from the film days. (Nevermind his camera skills haha A lot of times the horizons in his pictures are at 20+ degree angles, horrible lighting, bad composition etc. but whatever he obviously gets lots of work) I also was thinking his color settings in photoshop or whatever he uses may be off? Although adjusting profile settings in ONYX doesn't seem to fix the issue.

I'm running onyx postershop 7 with an HP L25500.

Can you post a photo of what you are talking about?

Would it happen to be when he is using a light on a white background and blowing it out?

David is right..it is not shooting raw or jpg.

 

[mark in tx]

See if the photographer can provide the files as tif instead of jpg, also find out what colorspace he is using, "Adobe Rgb", sRgb, etc...

But if the photographer can't take a good picture to start with, you're always going to have issues.

 

[genericname]

Shooting jpg or Raw is not going to show up on the as posterzation.
Having owned several photography studios I can tell you there is very little difference between the two. Raw will allow to make some corrective adj a little easier.
We shot Canon 1DS MarkII (23mg) and easily print a 36x48 with a Epson 44, maybe not with a sign printer like a Roland.
What may be the problem is the size of the jpg or the lighting. It's not the file type.Low rez in small pic out.
David

I didn't mean to insinuate that JPEG is garbage as a format, but that, if the guy really is that clueless, chances are he's using a low quality JPEG, instead of the high-rez alternative. That would definitely create posterization.

I shoot in high quality JPEG too, because I have an itchy trigger finger, and need to shoot a lot, and fast. Were I a pro, who did a lot of post though, I'd refuse to use anything but RAW.

 

[peavey123]

Ok so the problem is the editing of JPGs and the fact he was using JPG as his working files. Not the fact he shoots in JPG format.

Since he uses photoshop. I have him now saving his edits as .PSD files. This way he can make multiple edits without ruining the integrity of the image. It seems that he would edit a JPG, then save as JPG then edit some more, then save as JPG again. So his working files were JPGs. It all makes sense now. We all know that's a no-no. haha

 

[d fleming]

Every time you edit and resave a jpeg it loses pixels.

 

[John Butto]

Also when you posterize in Photoshop you will get hard edges if you use a low level like 4 compared to 24. Ask him what he sets his level on and if he is low tell him to add film grain, or whatever other effect to tone down the edges.

 

[peavey123]

Also when you posterize in Photoshop you will get hard edges if you use a low level like 4 compared to 24. Ask him what he sets his level on and if he is low tell him to add film grain, or whatever other effect to tone down the edges.

Oh, He wasn't posterizing his images. Just lightening, using curves etc....His prints look posterized when I printed them. That's all.