Colour calibration?

[sjt269]

I've just signed up with Photobox to get some of my pics printed properly (aside from the fact that my printer doesn't work, I'm assuming they'll print the pics at a higher quality?) and I see that with your first lot of pics, they send a colour calibration sheet to check that the colours I'm seeing on screen are the same as the ones that get printed.


How important/necessary is calibrating my monitor? It seems like a bit too much hassle to ask for a calibration sheet before I place an order, and equally I don't want to just order a few prints to get the calibration sheet, since then I'll still be paying the £1.50 postage that I'd be paying if I ordered lots of pictures. Then again, I don't want to order lots of pictures and then find out my screen was showing them too bright, or too dark. I'm not sure if my PC is showing the pictures correctly or not, since they appear a lot darker on my laptop, and I don't know which screen is 'right'.


So my question is, is it worth getting the calibration sheet beforehand, or should I just order the prints and hope they come out okay?



Thanks
tTz

 

[sjt269]

*whoosh*

That went right over my head.




Basically, you're saying 'don't worry too much about it, wait and see' then? I'm having a poke around Fuji's website for ICC profiles just now.

 

[sjt269]

Then download the ICC profile for the printer, and in Photoshop you can use the 'Proof' setup to load the ICC profile and get an aproximation of how the image will look when printed on the printer.

Can I do this in Photoshop Elements? It's the only version I've got, and a lot of the content from 'proper' PS has been stripped out. I can't see a 'Proof' setup anywhere. I can't find the ICC profiles on the Fuji website either. I feel like a noob.



Meh, I might just leave it and order some prints anyway, see how they come out. I suppose the best way to learn is by doing, so I might as well give it a go and see. I think I get 30 free prints anyway, so at worst I'm going to waste £1.50 on postage for slightly imperfect pics. I'm just too much of a perfectionist sometimes.