Printing and monitor calibration

[cjskyler]

Does anyone here print their own pictures using Lightroom with a Mac and if so what color gamut do you have set for your monitor in system preferences and display as I see you can choose rgb or Srgb and so on by default mine is color led. I guess what I’m looking for is which one would give the most accurate or calibrated colors

 

[luismanibarro]

For what I've learnt, this is not that easy.
I guess you should firstly calibrate your monitor (A), later your printer(B)...
And from that point, then you first must know what is the performance of your printer/papel combo in terms of color gamut. If it is wider that your monitor, you then have two choices:
1. Get the most of your prints, not bearing in mind if it match your monitor.
2. Reducing your printer/paper gamut to your monitor's to match them. You can accomplish this on LR.
(A+B) Use a calibrator to do that, I recommend you anyone of the Xrite catalog
(B) Do this as much times as many different type of papers you are intending to print, every paper/printer combo must have a profile.

 

[cjskyler]

Unless this is something you love doing, try Nation's Photo. They do a fantastic job and have regular sales. I've bought 8 x 10s for as little as $0.88 each. By the time you buy paper and pay the ridiculous price for ink or toner, it works out in your favor. In fact, they just had a 40% off sale this weekend.

Even if you decide to print your own, you can use them for large prints. Right now, an 11 x 14 is $4 and change.

Nations Photo Lab | Best Quality Photo Printing

Nations Photo Lab is a full-service photo lab specializing in innovative, high quality photo prints and decor.

www.nationsphotolab.com

thank you for the heads up i know what you mean about cost to print its just i do have a canon pro 100 and i find it convenient from time to time but i will check these guys out for sure. thank you again!

 

[pmenear]

Work in ProPhoto gamut in Lightroom and Photoshop, softproof and print in Lightroom and Lightroom will convert to CMYK maintaining the largest colour range possible in the prints. Sending your photos out to commercial printers will in most cases result in them converting to srgb and the colour range in your prints will be smaller.