Owen Carey wrote:

 

… is the solution to go into PS preferences in the file handling tab and click on: Ignore EXIF Profile Tag in the file compatibility box?

No!  Don't do that!

Owen Carey wrote:

 

… their computer/printer- a big noritzu unit, apparently ALWAYS auto corrects any files that have exif data, whether you tell it to auto correct or not…

That is nonsense.  It's simply not true.

Owen Carey wrote:

 

and if I do indeed want to maintain all the exif data in my files but want to strip it just from a file I send to Costco or any lab that hash as similar issue - how would i go about stripping the exif info just from the jpeg I am uploading to them?…

If you want to strip the EXIF data, just use "Save for Web" but remember to tag the file (embed the color profile in the file).

Otherwise, just send them tagged sRGB files and use the Costco profile to soft-proof the colors only—as per my previous post above.

The key is always to tag your files, i.e. embed the color profile in them.

____________

Wo Tai Lao Le

我太老了

Also, the local Costco operator may be untrained or incompetent.

I did not want to start a new thread, but can someone tell me how they went about getting the Costco printer profile please? Thanks, Jennings

Thank you very much.  Jennings

In a message dated 9/12/2011 12:15:14 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time, 

forums@adobe.com writes:

Jennings, the costco profiles can be found at Dry Creek Photo.  here's the

link: http://www.drycreekphoto.com/icc/  I even think the  costco photo lab

website has a link somewher that you can click for  "professional

photographers - but the link i just gave you is where it takes  you.

when you're on that page, pick the state that you are  interested in and

the next page will show you all the labs there. Remember  there will be

different ICC profiles for matte and glossy and different ones  for every location

and sometime  they are machine specific, in cases  where they use multiple

machines. Not sure if you are a mac or PC, but dry  creek can also tell you

just where to save them on your machine -- on a mac -  it's  the main

library of your system's hard drive > Colorsync >  Profiles... not sure of the

thread on a PC.

good  luck!

oc

Owen, I've done a fair amount of print testing at Costco. Here's what I've learned through numerous conversations with many Costco employees, through tens of hours of trial and error, and many, many test prints of identical images:

The gain of 1/2 to 2/3 stop of brightness is probably because the autocorrect "feature" was enabled, despite your instructions. Costco must manually turn this off when the print order is received by them. It has nothing to do with the fact that you did anything to the image in Photoshop. Between 5% and 30% of the time (depending on the operator, work loads, etc.), the operator at Costco will miss the request and print the image with Autocorrect feature on. Check the codes on the back of the print, and if you see "NN" after "N   N   N   N" then the autocorrect feature was on. For images which were properly color adjusted prior to submitting to Costco, but somehow are printed with autocorrect on, the colors will shift, highlights will be blown out, and you'll see the gain in brightness.

Also, check to see when your Costco lab checks its chemicals in the printer. They typically do not do it daily, and to rule out issues along those lines, print on days that they are rebalancing the chemicals until you begin to be able to predict your print results. Out-of-balance chemicals don't result in a brightness gain, typically, so that has probably not been your problem.

My highest-quality procedure for using printer profiles at Costco is to begin with 16-bit files in Adobe '98 RGB from RAW, get the image looking like you want it to look on a monitor, make a copy of the image, then take your original but modified file and press Control-Y to get a softproof (assuming you have Photoshop set up for the printer profile you desire) and attempt to adjust the image to match the copy that you have on-screen also. In other words, you are adjusting your image file (viewed through the lens of softproofing) to get as close of a match as possible to your copy that is not softproofed. You won't get there, but you will get close with the right adjustments. Then come out of softproof (Control-Y), and perform a final save. Then convert your color space from Adobe '98 RGB to your printer profile for your adjusted image, crop, resample, sharpen, and output to (save as) jpg. Feel free to cut corners as you desire. Not all images need that kind of treatment. The extra work will provide superior color, more in some hues, less in others. For certain photos, the effort is worthwhile in my opinion, but everyone's mileage will vary. Cheers.

Obviously, you know what you are doing, Owen. I agree with your use of ProPhoto RGB.

I had some large prints made at Costco yesterday on its Noritsu printer and the codes on the back of the prints indicated that autocorrect had been turned on. I asked them to reprint them, and after a while, was informed that they have new software and are unable to turn off autocorrect. That is something new at this particular Costco. Since the highlights were not blown out, I'm wondering if the software did indeed automatically turn off autocorrection, but that they codes did not update as they should have. The prints did match my softproofs. Several months ago, I tested uploads using their inhouse computers vs over the internet and did not find a difference, other than I could upload 30 Mb files inhouse and not over the internet. I did see a difference in standard sRGB profiles vs the glossy Noritsu profiles, but the differences were marked in only a few hues. For some photos, the difference is critical, not for most photos.

The Costco lab I use (in the Dallas area) promised to get the software corrected soon. Again, for this particular Costco lab, it remains to be seen whether the current issue (as opposed to past issues being autocorrect definitely on or poor chemicals on a rare occasion) is the autocorrect cannot be disabled or it is disabled per the user's instructions but that the codes don't reflect that. Also, I've heard from a knowledgeable source that not all the color ICC profiles are correctly performed by each Costco lab, so that can impact the quality of each Costco's printer-and-paper-specific ICC profile. Finally, this Costco lab recently rotated its most experienced technicians out of the lab into other jobs within the Costco, so they lost a fair amount of talent in the lab. Not fun. I still like Costco for its prices and quality, but it is less reliable than a pricier lab, perhaps.