Facts - Questions - Answers!

•  Basic Color Management using Adobe Gamma.

•  What books do you recommend to learn Photoshop techniques?

•  How big a print can I make from my digital file?

•  How can I see what my file will look like at a given print size?

•  My camera has a histogram -- What is it and and how do I interpret it?

•  What types of files do you accept?

•  Is there a character limit of filenames?

•  Do you accept RAW or16-bit files?

•  I installed ROES, but don't have a desktop icon -- How do I create one?

•  What is Crop vs. Fit?

•  What is a ROES CD?

•  Why am I getting blurry dark spots on my digital files?

Basic Color Management Using Adobe Color Manaement

Many of the labs in the photo industry are set up on color management systems that conform to the industry standard. Color management can become pretty sophisticated using a variety of profiles that enable the end user to simulate how their images will look when printed on a variety of materials. 

Basic color management basically consists of adjusting your monitor's brightness, color, and contrast to as closely match a print made to the industry standards. With older tube type monitors this is a fairly simple procedure (it's just like adjusting your TV), but with LCD monitors it becomes a little more tricky as not all monitors have brightness and color controls.

Click here for a short tutorial on how to create a basic ICC profile using Adobe Gamma.  This will allow you to adjust your monitor to the industry standards.

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What books do you recommend to learn Photoshop techniques?

Scott Kelby has written a number of books including "Photoshop CS for Digital Photographers". They provide color illustrated, step-by-step procedures for a wide variety of "How Do You Do That"  techniques and is applicable for Photoshop 7.0 and the Photoshop CS series of products.  He doesn't try to teach each tool, rather he teaches by showing you how to use the tools to designed to achieve a given objective.

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How big a print can I make from my digital file?

Well, here is the technical stuff ... Digital Cameras measure their resolution in pixels. These pixels are NOT measured per inch (PPI), but are a total count of how many pixels per color were used to capture the entire image. If you have a 6 MP camera and take a digital photo at it's highest resolution you would have 2,000 x 3,000 pixels or 6,000,000 pixels per color (Red, Green and Blue).  Multiply that by 3 (for each of the colors) and you have an 18MB file!  Whether you print this image as a 8x10 print or an 16x20 print, the original file will still have 6,000,000 pixels per color.

Printing is a little different.  Pixels are measured by print size and resolution.  The size of the print  times the printers resolution is used to calculate the file size.  "Optical quality (film)" was typically considered to be 200PPI.  At TNT our prints exceed film quality!  If we make an 8x10 print at 250 PPI the calculation would look something like this:  8-inches X 250 pixels = 2,000;   10-inches x 250 pixels = 2,500;   2,000 X 2,500 = 5,000,000 (5MB);   5MB X 3 (Red,Green, Blue)  = 18MB.  That's an ideal file size, BUT that NEVER happens!  So we've got some pretty fancy algorithms that take a look at the file and either upsize or downsize the file to 18MB!  Down-sizing file typically does not impact image quality, but dramatically up-sizing a file (the more information we interpolate) can stretch the original file beyond the point where the print looks clear and sharp.  TNT has some pretty sophisticated algorithms and it is amazing how large a print you can make from a smaller file that are sharp and properly exposed!  Typically, you want to maintain image interpolation to less than 5 times.

One last thing to consider!  If you are looking at a 4x6 print or an 8x10 print, you are typically looking at it close up.  Larger prints are typically viewed at a distance where image pixels don't appear as predominate (you're not going to typically view a 20x24 print at arms length, it's going to be displayed over the fire place!).  Additionally, adding a mounting option such as Canvas Mount, adds an additional dimension to the print that helps fool the eye and reduce apparent pixelation!

Photos intended for printing larger size prints should be taken at the highest resolution and saved with minimal compression for the best quality print.  Having said that, there isn't any benefit to shooting large files if the intended print size is a smaller print.  If you are shooting an event where the largest picture you are going to print is a 10x13, you should adjust your resolution setting to provide a file size to accommodate the print size.  Larger files simply use up disk space and slow down processing times!

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How can I see what my file will look like at a given print size?

In an image application such as Photoshop, you can temporarily resize your image to the print size you want to make.  Prints up to 10x13 are printed at at 250 PPI, prints 11x14 and larger are printed at 300 PPI. 

•  In Photoshop, Select Image -> Image Size •  Set the resolution to 250 for images 10x13 and smaller, 300 for Images 11x14 and larger. •  Set the Width or Length to the dimension needed, the opposing value should be large enough    for the required print.  In this example we are going to make a 16x20, so we selected a width of    16 and the corresponding length is 22.4.  We will crop off the extra length in the final print. •  Click OK to resize the image.  Zoom to 66% to see how it will look at arms length, 100% to view it    close-up. •  When your done, Select Edit -> Undo to revert back to your original image

	If you want to see how your camera will print at various sizes, or if you are buying a new cameras, we recommend that your order one of our Camera Resolution Test prints.  They are only $5 and and show you a slice of your image ranging from an 8x10 to a 30x40 to see how your camera performs!  You'll find them in the ROES Deluxe Color Corrected Print Catalog in the Miscellaneous Tab.

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My camera has a histogram -- What is it and and how do I interpret it?

A histogram has been called the 21st century light meter and it's a great tool for evaluating your exposure!  It displays the range of tones bing captured by the image sensor and the relative position of the tones in relation to the sensors dynamic range.  Click Here to link to an article that does a good job of explaning how to evaluate a histogram.

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Can I submit RAW or 16-bit files?

At this time, only JPEG files in 8-bit can be submitted through TNT ROES.

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I installed ROES, but don't have a desktop icon -- How do I create one?

PC: Windows 2000 & XP: Select Start → Run;  Windows Vista : Start → Start Search.  Enter javaws -viewer and press OK [javaws(space)-viewer] this should launch the JAVA Cache Viewer.  Select either: View → Applications or Show → Applications depending on your system.  Find the TNT Color application, right click on the icon and select Install Desktop Icons.

Mac: Select Finder → Applications → Utilities → Java → Open Java Web Start.app.  CTRL + Click on TNT ROES and select Create shortcut.

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