Printing Photos Online: Your Go-to Guide For Picture Perfect Prints!

In this video, I'll cover all the different things I do before I get my photos printed from a lab or 3rd party. I cover a whole range of important topics such as settings, colour spaces, visual perception, ICC profiles, creative decisions such as framing and finishes and paper types.
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0:00 - Introduction
0:41 - Benefit of printing from a lab
1:08 - Near perfect!
1:38 - The screen
2:46 - Calibration
3:24 - Screen brightness
4:29 - White background
5:39 - Up the exposure
5:57 - Pro printer!
6:15 - Get 50% OFF at Saal
6:51 - Colour spaces and bit depth, what you need to know
9:17 - Comparison between colour spaces
12:46 - Final file settings
14:55 - Aspect ratios
16:05 - Glas or not?
16:25 - Paper or metal
16:55 - Framing
17:57 - Still in doubt?
18:21 - ICC profiles
20:28 - Example prints, paper type and proofing
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[@c.augustin]

It is mostly older Notebooks and Laptops having screens with a smaller color space than sRGB (notably the first generations of MacBook Air and old MacBooks - they all should no longer be in serious use; or very cheap Windows Laptops). Nearly everything sold in the last 10 years or should be fine. Edit: For screen brightness I bring up an empty document with white background on the screen and compare the brightness to a piece of paper on my desk. This way the screen mimics the actual physical paper as best as possible (as long as room brightness is similar to the later viewing conditions).

[@williampetersen2899]

The perfect follow-up to Nigel Danson's new video on doing your own printing. Both yours and Nigel's are filled with great info. I no longer have a printer, so your video is just what I need. Thanks! PS...you and Nigel make a great team, whether intentional or not!

[@MadsPeterIversen]

Glad to hear that, William and thanks a lot!

[@louisburley1597]

I’m happy I’m not the only one who absolutely detests canvas. It makes any photo look like you bought it at Target for 49.99

[@MikePageKaltenberg]

This is one of the things I love about you Mads, your no-nonsense pragmatism. Damn what the purists say, what works in the real world? Thanks for keeping it real.

[@JonasHholt]

Really nice video, Mads. Diving into understanding how the different color spaces translates into prints and various screens etc. has made my head spin lately. Thank you for these great explanations and examples!

[@garryhughes3837]

Mads, this has answered so many questions. Thank you so much for spending the time to put this together,

[@TCizauskas]

Comprehensive tutorial. Thank you, Mads.

[@vinashvinisingh]

Thank you Mads! Another great video 💫💫💫

[@davehigton]

A fantastic and comprehensive guide to printing, it answered all the questions I have currently. Thanks so much

[@lesladbrook4508]

This has to be the best video on printing I have watched that covers all the aspects of printing from edit to screen then print that is clear and easy for most people to understand. I have a reasonably good understanding of colour spaces and printing, I have my Canon Pro-1000 printer. I calibrate my BenQ monitor. Excellent video Mads.

[@LeeAllen337]

You've cleared some things up for me. Thanks.

[@gallivantingwithtomshirley2261]

Great info…thank you!

[@benjamingrunwald3882]

Great video. It helps me a lot for my next print order. Thank you so much.

[@jremi]

Extremely interesting and useful! You answered many questions I had before watching. Thanks!

[@M31glow]

Well done! Great tips.

[@chrismassa5891]

Good one. A lot of very useful info.

[@rolsonn]

Excellent video; Thank you!

[@paulseymour7485]

Great information and tips. Thank you.

[@jimwlouavl]

Some really good detail on here. I’m thinking particularly about future proofing color space. Thanks for doing this.

[@billingalls1940]

Thank you so much for this video! My den/office walls have mainly prints that I have done myself on US letter size paper and I'm pretty happy with the results. But for larger prints, I use an online service that does not offer as many options as I might want to explore. I'll be taking a more in-depth look at Saal for my next larger print. Thanks again for all the very interesting information (and opinions!).

[@SueFerreira75]

Excellent video - thank you. I learned a lot.

[@AnVoPhotography]

Thank you so much. This was very helpful. 😊👍

[@davidtaranzaphotography3324]

Mads, thanks for the great tips for printing at Saal. Hahnemühle papers are awesome, my personal favorite is Museum Etching for portraits as well as landscapes. Few days ago I put 3 framed BW landscapes in silver frames on the wall and the prints look ABSOLUTELY EPIC! Actually, it was your recommendation that pushed me to try Saal and I'm really glad I did, super happy with their products👌. Thanks again and take care!

[@sejalgpatelphoto]

What a great video Mads! Very thorough! If you ever get some time a video on framing and matting your prints would be great. I always struggle trying to figure out if the mat should be even or if it is ok to be different from side vs top/bottom. Especiall, when trying to fit stock frames from stores.

[@Jagrajagra]

One of my favourite papers is the Fuji fine art photo rag. It’s a matt paper with a surprising amount of brightness and a beautiful rich colour. When I used it in one of my photos in an exhibition, it quickly became the focus of conversation. It was a good photo anyway, but those colours on that velvety surface just exploded.

[@MadsPeterIversen]

Yeah, that fine art paper is so good. I once printed a bit on Canon's version of it, it was fantastic too!

[@TheSannaeriksson]

Happy birthday! 🎂🎈🎉

[@timrosenburgh8597]

A very informative video Mads got it right this time lol. Some really good advice and very helpful. Look forward to the next one.

[@TimvanderLeeuw]

I print only rarely, so I hope that by the time I will do my next prints I still remember enough from this video! Or at least remember to look it up! Interesting that both you and Nigel Danson published a video on printing this week, but you discuss totally different sides of the printing process and how to prepare images for print. Both videos are very useful!

[@sh8736]

And now Simon D’entremont too!

[@Martingj56]

Coincidence or complot?

[@albert25hoo]

hello Mads. Excellent tips for printing, especially when not having a big photoprinter. I quite like the SAAL prints I order for discussion in my photoclub. If using a service like this, standardisation of the print formats is highly recommended, because self cutting my passepartouts and ordering different sizes of presentation glass I do not like. Then I end with an enormous collection of different sizes picture frames. So I also found standard formats the most pleasing. For short-time presentation I also let my prints printed by a private lab, customisable size, but always with a white margin. Then just cutting out the print and fixing it on a cardboard is a fine solution. Thanks for sharing your experience in printing, Bert.

[@oneandonlyjaybee]

Good stuff as ever mads. lf an image is one I'm going to print I always put it on a white background first and hold a piece of white paper against it. Then adjust the screen brightness to match the white paper. When that's done I edit as normal on a grey background and turn up the brightness of the image (not the screen) to where it looks right. If I'm in doubt I'll just bump it up another 0.3 to 0.5 of a stop and never had a problem with this when getting printed products from Saal. I've tested identical images with and without their 'image enhance' feature and haven't seen it to make a difference

[@MadsPeterIversen]

Awesome, that's a great approach! 😃

[@sh8736]

For the last 10 years I’ve made a calendar for friends and family. I like to try different printers I used Saal digital last year, I got in early with a reasonable discount. However the final product was poor compared to other printers I’ve used in the past. I won’t be using saal again

[@LauraF4848]

Thanks, Mads! Between you and Nigel, a lot of good info on printing this week. Very informative--I have been curious about how to step up from my $45 Pixma from my local Walmart ;) Cheers from the USA

[@timrosenburgh8597]

A very informative video Nigel. You explained everything really well and i think it will help a lot of people. Absolutely stunning image's. Look forward to the next one.

[@MadsPeterIversen]

Thanks Tim, my name is Mads though ;D

[@TimvanderLeeuw]

@@MadsPeterIversen I'm sure it is just coincidence that you and Nigel both made a video on printing this week! 😂

[@MadsPeterIversen]

@@TimvanderLeeuw We usually do not coordinate our video releases, but I did find out when I had agreed to sponsorship, video and release date that Nigel was working on one. It's actually a bit unfortunate because our audience overlap quite a lot, so with a similar video we're probably ending up getting less views both.

[@enricozetti]

​@@MadsPeterIversen I follow both of you and since, at the moment, i'm going through my first serious attempts at printing i felt somewhat blessed by this coincidence :3 I've enjoyed every bit of it and still find both very informative and especially liked your section on framing. It's a topic that I have not seen discussed much elsewhere and where i still have very little experience and many doubts. I also find a certain degree of repetition of the procedures and concepts is good for learning.

[@TimvanderLeeuw]

@@MadsPeterIversen I understand that might be the case for some people but since you both had a very different approach to the topic, I found both to have valuable information that the other video didn't have! Especially since your video is about online printing, and his is about using your own printer.

[@wilbignal]

I agree very strongly that canvas printing cheapens a photographic print. Traditionally canvas was introduced for hand painted scenes or subjects which show a combination of canvas texture and brush technique. A photograph has a completely different set of qualities and the method by which it is generated also completely different. There are very good paper types and metals as well as the acrylic formulations that have gone through years of development and refinement to show off well crafted photographic images in the best way. It's worth it to make a canvas print a last resort if indeed it should be an option at all.

[@ruthvey-herdalot9842]

Thank you very mch for all your input, I wasn't even aware of such big differences intbetween tha farious flavors of colour settings and bit debth. I know RGB and SRGB, a bit on ICC, but that's it. I don't have lightroom and photoshop, when I started photprgraphy, I got Capture one express with my first cam and than stuck to it. I know SAAL Digital already and go all my photobooks from them. Thank you anyhow for your 50% off link, have a photobook to prepare from my Swedish Lapland trip from this year February, and I also want to get a wall print from one of my most liked landscapte photos. 🙂 Greetings from the Rhine Valley in Germany.

[@robertwhitemoto]

always learning from you Mads. thank you my friend. When printing at home, what printer do you use ?

[@andreaflygirl]

Thanks for this video Mads, gives me a lot of helpful tips! Would it be possible though in future videos to leave explaining texts a little longer on screen, I had to stop, play back and pause some of the text to get the complete information.

[@scotty4418]

Enjoyed this Mads and liked the tip about editing an unprofiled and profiled image side by side. As it happens I'm attending a Canon print workshop in May and looking forward to it. I know you discussed increasing the image brightness by about one third of a stop for printing but was wondering do you increase the sharpness for your prints as well?

[@MadsPeterIversen]

Thanks a lot, Jim. Yes and no, I always add sharpening in PP, so I don't do it specifically for the print.

[@freundderbergeat]

Thx 4 that very in-depth content! My head is spinning. Concerning the color profile: i still didn´t get it, what benefit it would be expanding adobe RGB - the maximum color space my Sony camera can deal with - to whatever Rec2020. Doesn´t that mean you are on some edges artificially "adding" colors?

[@MadsPeterIversen]

If you're shooting RAW you go beyond aRGB, the colour profile settings in the camera are only for jpegs. I should probably have covered that. So no, you're not artificially adding colours. The question is, if you can even see the Prophoto or rec.2020 colours. In 99,99% of circumstances you probably can't.

[@suecongram752]

Really helpful Mads. You are excellent at explaining things that are complicated. I am sure that I will return to this video to take more in. What was the last framed photo of the boat printed on, it looked like no glass?

[@combatwombat71]

My wife has said 'NO' to me getting a printer, so it'll be overpriced printing services only for me. A useful video!

[@georgemason2472]

Very informative. I hesitated to watch it as I am unlikely to print any of my pictures. It's a bit like a tattoo, I'm unlikely to view it as favorably after looking at it for 6 months or more. I keep my pictures that I really like on a rotating screensaver that gives me a minute for each shot and enjoy seeing them in this way. Nonetheless, You made a very informative video full of helpful suggestions if my opinions ever change. (Like all things, they are likely to)

[@douglashaag1127]

Mads ... A question for you. You mention that an image destined for print may need to be brightened to look the same in print as it does on a monitor that is backlit. The non-Adobe software I use permits an adjustment in gamma. I have sometimes introduced this brightening with a slight downward adjustment in gamma, It seems to me that other methods of changing brightness introduce a slight change in contrast that a gamma adjustment does not. Do you have any thoughts about this? Doug

[@robertstonephoto]

Recently saw an Alex Nail video where he 'confessed' to editing exclusively in sRGB!

[@MadsPeterIversen]

There you go :)

[@cina9218]

Printing 4000x6000px and trying to fit that in a standard US frame is a real pain, the aspect doesn't match and I have to do a lot of thinking about how to make it work without getting a custom frame. Could also crop, but if I composed the full sensor I want to use the full sensor. What tools could I use besides PS to pad out borders to end up with standard size?

[@jimsmith556]

The 6000x4000 ratio is the 3:2 size he discussed. Although uncommon a few years ago, that frame ratio is now in many stores such as Michael's in Ontario, Canada and most camera/photo stores. Examples would be 8x12", 12x18", 16x24", and 20x30". This way you get the image the way you wanted. Why compromise with adjusting borders or cropping? Not necessary if you get a 3:2 ratio frame.

[@Yi1080]

I want to do print online, but for online shop, what they gonna do about my file photo.

[@maartenkos98]

So working in Photoshop with RGB or CMYK doesn't make any difference? Because I always heard that printing companies (and printers) can only produce CMYK colors.

[@stevehayward1854]

You can see an image on your phone or lap top but it pails into insignificance until you hold your print in your hands and especially as a display cannot show all the details like a print

[@Professor_Internet_PhD]

So a monitor that does sRGB 99,8% can go in the trashbin for editing?

[@MadsPeterIversen]

No no, that's fine, it's like 100% anyway

[@Professor_Internet_PhD]

@@MadsPeterIversen Thank you for answering, and for the printing advice.

[@kore996]

All I do is refill my Nalgene and Yeti with water and a separate Yeti for 2 teas per day (1 tea bag)….i like weak tea 😂.

[@tjsinva]

My head hurts. 🤕 Not a new experience. Carry on. 👍🥂

[@timrosenburgh8597]

Sorry Mads i haven't watched yours yet. Must be losing my mind lol.