Lightroom: The Frustrations of Printing

I need to print photos, isn't it why we have a print module? So what's the problem? Plenty:

1. The printed image is very different from the viewed image on a computer, laptop, pad… The printed image reflects light while the photograph viewed on a computer… is illuminated from behind. That's why there is “calibration!” The problem with calibration is that the calibration only works for a very specific orientation/relation between the screen and the exact position of your eyes. (If you have a laptop, you can see the difference by changing the angle of the screen).

2. I need to print different sizes. This means different crops. I need both 11” by 14” and 20” by 30”. That's when the real problems start.

   It's the same lab, actually the same company, 2 physical locations and 2 different printer brands. It will be the same paper.

The problem is not Lightroom in itself but the printing physical requirements. So the solution is complicated:

1. Get all the printer/paper profile combinations required.
2. Create a virtual copy of each photo (Ctrl+' or Cmd+') for each crop that doesn't belong to the same family.
3. Since I have so many photos, I create a sub-collection for each crop family, see the crop table for the family sizes.
4. The virtual copy for the different crop sizes must be done at the end of the “regular” processing. Since they are now virtual copies, all ratings, description… will be kept separate from the original photo.
5. A different processing for each paper/printer profile. Depending on the various printers it can be much more problem that you or I thought, especially when trying to match the different sizes. The best is to show the different sizes to different people or at different times, then close is good enough.

How did it turn out? I don't know yet, it's been three weeks that I've been working on it and next Monday I will be dropping the test samples at the lab. Another week to get the test samples back (I'm not paying for the ‘rush’ service). Then it's either another test or two weeks for them to do the prints.

Crop table by family sizes

Sorry, but I do not have the metric equivalent, many of the metric sizes do not match the imperial sizes.