Controlling your (physical) environment
The first step in colour management is to avoid dramatic lighting: keep it ambient in the room where you work. Don’t put your monitor in front of the window or other strong light sources and keep bright objects out of the field of view to avoid reflections on your screen.
Choose a nice neutral background patterns for your computer desktop. Ideally use a monitor hood to improve shading of the screen. The best, most accurate way of knowing if your screen is showing accurate colours is to invest in a spectrophotometer device such as an i1Display2 or similar. This inexpensive little gadget comes with full instructions and will perform tests on your screen to determine the output.
Visit Gretag Macbeth’s website here
To check your screen calibration you can compare a test print side-by-side with its on-screen image using a product such as the Gretag Macbeth / XRITE Colour Checker Chart for a final check of saturation, density and hue.
Read more about the Colour Checker here
Remember you can also soft-proof your prints at Metroprint. This is a good way of checking your colour is correct before going to print.
Photo Printing
Prints ready for collection within 24 hours, or for delivery worldwide. We can produce prints in sizes from a simple 6×4 up to 2.74m x 1.22m / 108 x 48 inches, giving you a huge choice of sizes when it comes to producing your prints.
Fine Art Giclee printing
While all of our colour and black and white photo printing services are of gallery quality, a lot of photographers and artists like to produce their fine art prints on Giclee watercolour paper, using archival pigment inks.
Black & White printing
We can produce real Silver Gelatin 'Darkroom prints' from your digital files. Working with Ilford, we are able to print directly to Ilford Galerie Silver FB Glossy fibre based bromide photo paper and Ilford Galerie Digital Silver RC Pearl.
Mounting your prints
After your photos have been printed, our mounting team are able to mount the prints on a range of substrates, ranging from the lightweight foamex, foamboard or kapamount. We can also mount ctype photo prints onto more sturdy materials such as dibond or aluminium, backed with either battens or a subframe, depending on print size.
Framing your photos
When ordering online, we offer a limited range of classic photo frames, in three finishes: white photo frame, smooth black photo frame or a solid light oak frame. Alternately, just order your prints online to take advantage of our great value online ordering system, then contact us to discuss alternate framing styles and our range of thousands of frame mouldings.
