Printing Pictures

[Shelster1973]

Not really sure where I should have put this one, so decided here.  Mods, please feel free to move toa more suitable forum if needs be.

Was just wanting to pass on a bit of advice I gathered from a recent experience.

Having finally managed to get 1st light proper on my Star Adventurer with some widefield images from my back yard and being happy with the result (which can be seen here), I decided I would take a punt and get it printed onto poster size.  Went for 20"x30" as did not want to risk it too much on 1st go at printing.

Got the print back and first thought was 'that is rather black'.  The main thing is if going for a print, take the brightness up a wee bit more than you expect for a screen view on the image.  I do have a monitor calibrator that I am going to redo on one of my screens, so will be confident that the images that I get on there are representative of a print image.

Have print sat on wall in office.....may have put it upside down 1st in my haste to put it up, but all is correct now.

Think that as I get more and more images that I am happy with, I will be getting them printed out.  Also reckon I could push the size of my DSLR wide field ones to a bigger size as they are taken at 24.1 MP so will take it before getting blotchy close up.

[SteveNickolls]

Hi, and thanks for posting this advice. I too have a Star Adventurer mount and looking to having some half decent widefield shots printed. Your advice over brightness has made me think twice as I'm sure my monitor is not 'properly calibrated' so run the risk of too light or dark prints resulting. 

Good luck with your future imaging and prints.

Cheers,
Steve

[The Admiral]

A calibrated monitor really only ensures correct colour and allows you to set a known brightness level. However, depending on the illumination level inwhich you are viewing the screen, the brighter or darker the image will appear. In other words, getting the level right is difficult to standardize. I print myself, so if it's wrong I can adjust as appropriate, but if you send off for a print then it will all be bit uncertain. Some commercial printers can send you a standardized test print, which you can compare with how a downloaded file looks on your system (Photobox, for example). I don't know if some printers measure the average brightness of the image to set their print density, but of course astro images are not standard scenes, having a much higher proportion of black.

I'm sure there are many here who've had satisfactory results, and can recommend printers.

Ian