by Melanie Crutchfield
West Coast Imaging Professional Printer

At the West Coast burger joint, In & Out Burger, the menu consists of three main entrees: a hamburger, a cheeseburger, and a double cheeseburger. There are no Western Starry-Night Burgers; no Smothered Chicken Onion Burgers; no Matrix Burgers -- just burgers. However, if you know their secret menu, you can order your burger just about any way you want it. The Protein Style Burger features a burger wrapped in lettuce instead of a bun (much lower in carbs for Atkin's Diet followers)... and their service is so friendly, I'll bet you could ask for a Broken-Jaw Style Burger, and they’d blend it up and stick it in a cup for you. You just have to know how to ask for it, and that you CAN ask for it.

Custom printing at West Coast Imaging can be the same way. We sell prints of your digital files and film. But you have the power to make that print whatever you want it to be -- you just have to ask for it. Learning how to ask for what you want from your printer is a key step in making each print a unique piece of art that says what you intend. This article outlines some aspects of printing you should consider, and how to go about making your wishes known.

Unless you direct us otherwise, we will always try to match your print to the look and feel of your chrome (or reference print, if we’re printing a negative). So the first thing that you should do is look to see if anything about your chrome or reference print is undesirable. It is true that the best chromes make the best prints, so if your list of undesirables starts to grow and grow, it may be time to recognize that you just didn’t get the shot and try another day.

However, if you find yourself thinking, “I love this shot, but I just wish the foreground was a little bit lighter," it’s time to start making a wish list. Start by viewing your film on a color balanced light table to ensure that what you see is what we will see. Then, make sure your “wish list” covers the following areas:

1. Density
Look at the overall density (lightness or darkness) of your image. Could it stand to be a bit lighter? Or maybe a bit darker? Keep in mind that Custom Exhibition Prints include not only overall changes, but local changes. This means that you can lighten up your entire beach scene or specifically lighten the couple under the shade of the umbrella. It is important to note that, although Photoshop is a powerful tool, if an image is over or under exposed so much that you see no detail, you can lighten or darken all day, but that information is not coming back.

2. Contrast
Contrast, along with density, is a great tool for leading the eye through your image in a pleasing and interesting way. As you look at your image there may be areas that will come to life if they had a bit more contrast. If so, ask for it. Make a note of specific areas that you would like to add a bit of contrast to, keeping in mind that your chrome is your point of reference.

3. Color
Many variables influence the color of your final image from film bias, to the blue of open shade, to shifts in chemistry. These influences don't need to be present in your final print unless you want them to be. If you had some film processed and it came out a bit magenta, ask for your print to come back to a neutral tone. If the blue sky affected the shadows in a strong distracting way, ask for the blue to be reduced. Another miracle of digital imaging is that you can affect just one color in an area, such as the greens in the shadows...you're not stuck with making overall color changes that effect the entire image.

4. Saturation
Like all of the aspects I have discussed so far, an artist’s preference for saturation will range widely from person to person. What may seem vibrant and lively to one may seem garish to another--and what may seem natural to one may seem to be lacking color to another. There is no way for your printer to know your personal preference unless you tell him. If you would like the reds in your final print to be much more saturated than they appear in your chrome, tell us!

Making clear notes on the four areas above will not only help us give you a print that you love, but will let us understand the overall feeling you want to create. This closes the gap between your mental eye and your printer’s. And we always recommend ordering proofs, since they give you and your printer an even clearer way to see with the same eyes, allowing you to be involved in a way that is certainly worth the $15.

Even if you’ve loved every print you’ve ever received from our studio, communicating in this way will only allow you to be more involved. This involvement is already available, with every print, every time so you can get an exactly-the-way-I-want-it-and-you’d-think-I-printed-it-myself print, if you just decide to ask for it.