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Saving as TIF deadened an image once printed to metal

Jonathan Anderson
in PixInsight
I tried to print an image of m31 to metal at my local pro camera shop. When I picked it up, the color wasn't there and it looked duller than what I had anticipated. I cannot print from FITS or XISF, so they suggested saving to TIF, which I did. . . I also had to resample to get it to 8x10--I did that and saved as xisf, then saved that resampled image as a tif.

They said something about HDR data seeming to have been lost? I cannot find an option to preserve that, but since this is my first time trying to print something, I believe there is a learning curve on how to prepare an image for that.

This is for a gift (one of several going to a family member who loves the stars). Any tips on how to save an image for printing without losing sharpness of color and detail? The tif images look fine on my computer, just not once printed.

Comments

  • BlockHeadBlockHead
    I do not know what you were told.
    Printing to metal is a difficult challenge. My approach has been to figure out a compensation adjustment you need to make in both brightness and color that will make the image look *horrible* on your monitor...but it will print out in way that matches your original. 

    This usually takes some iterations. Either you ask for samples of different versions of your adjustments... or you do the opposite and ask them to send you samples of adjustments they make.

    The former is probably better. Of course...if you compensate correctly.. then you ask them NOT to make an adjustments on their side.

    -the Blockhead
  • Jonathan Anderson
    edited November 2024
    Thanks. . . my guess was that I'd have to make it almost cartoonish on my monitor. I want to be the one making the changes since they won't know what I'm looking for. . . though if they have a decent monitor, I just want it to look like what the file looks like.

    She is specifically asking for metal, which made me cringe, but I may have to compromise and print on regular paper and affix it to a metal plate!

    Glad to know it's not my editing! I think my camera shop farms out the prints. . . I know who they use, so I may just contact them directly to see what they say.
    Jon
  • BlockHeadBlockHead
    Yes, it is very much over the top on my monitor to compensate. There isn't another great way. There is a very complicated way in which you force your monitor to be calibrated and then display images based on their monitors... way to much work I think.

    I wouldn't give up there. Most companies will allow you to buy small metal squares as samples... don't print the entire picture on the sample..instead print a part that is at the full scale so you are looking at what will you get at the end of the day.

    -the Blockhead
  • Jonathan Anderson
    That's a great idea! Thank you!
    Jon
  • Jonathan Anderson
    Would you suggest these changes to be done via Color Saturation process and/or Curves Transformation, or are there other tools that you have found to be more effective? I am guessing use CS to blast up the colors that are deadened on the print, then CT Saturation, Luminocity, and maybe RGB/K to boost things further?

    J
  • BlockHeadBlockHead
    Nothing special. Yes, curves and saturation have done the job for me. 
    -the Blockhead
  • Jonathan Anderson
    Thx. Lots of folks on CN suggesting the whole monitor calibration thing. I'm not going to rent or buy some calibration tool to mess with that though. Plus I don't have photoshop...not entirely sure what it was that photoshop provides, I'll have to go re-read that part of the thread. . .

    If I can get 'close enough' by getting some settings to create a custom 'profile' for my mac studio display, then I'll gladly do that, but I'll be trying to print samples in the meantime

  • BlockHeadBlockHead
    Yes, as I mentioned you can used calibrated monitors and attempt to work in the correct color space and color profiles. It is technical and complicated. 

    -the Blockhead
  • Jonathan Anderson
    Ya, I was just confirming that there are folks suggesting that more complex road . . . only way I'll even consider going that route is if it is possible to create a "profile" that I can turn on and off for my mac studio display where another mac studio display user just gives me numbers and settings to punch in . . . short of that, I've already contacted a photo lab to arrange for some samples  -- Glad you mentioned not doing the whole pic though--just a section that shows different aspects of the image). That'll help save some dough.
    J
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