Any discussion of Photoshop's native sharpening options would be incomplete without mentioning Smart Sharpen. If Lens Blur and More Accurate are selected, you get a deconvolution sharpening method that does a great job of tightening up the image and drawing out small details - much better than Unsharp Mask. Adjusting the Radius slider is akin to adjusting the Point Spread Function in a standard deconvolution process. Use with caution, and always use the Advanced options and fade the Shadows and Highlights to lessen haloes.

You can also reduce sharpening artefacts by sharpening on a separate layer (set to Luminance, as previously suggested) and doing a custom blend on that layer - setting the Blend If values to gradually fade out at either end, thus concentrating the effect on midtones.

Lastly, I would add that increasing mid-tone contrast is another good way of increasing perceptual sharpness. The easiest way is the USM method - make a new layer (set to Luminance) and apply a wide-radius USM to it: say, Amount 20, Radius 60+, Threshold 0. Then do a custom blend as described above to avoid blocking up shadows and highlights, and adjust opacity to taste. Works very well, especially when printing on matte paper.

Diplomatic way of saying "this is exactly wrong."

My point, as CMW skilfully summarised, was that a too-bright monitor will fool us into making our images too dark for print, since paper is a relatively dull medium. Unfortunately there's no escaping the fact that a monitor that's well set up for photo editing (for print) will be less than optimal for web viewing etc. Having said that, one gets used to a less-bright display - it's certainly easier on the eyes.

Canon and Epson both make very good desktop printers - you can't go very far wrong with either. I would only recommend Canon over Epson if you are not intending to print very often (ie at least once a week). The Epson printheads can be very unforgiving.

My advice to customers is to supply the image at its native size. We resize on the fly (ie at the point of printing) using far better resampling algorithims than PS can offer. As long as your image is in the region of 240ppi minimum at the required size (do the maths or use PS's Image Resize with Resample unchecked) you will get a nice result. Even 180ppi can be OK for larger prints under some circumstances.

As for colour, make sure you tag your image with a decent colour space - sRGB may be acceptable at some printers, but at the Siskin Press we print a wider gamut than sRGB, so we recommend AdobeRGB or ProPhotoRGB. Your image may already be tagged in camera, otherwise use Assign Profile in PS. From then on, any changes in profile (eg to a profile offered by your print provider) should be made using Convert to Profile to prevent colour shifts.

If in doubt, talk to your printer (assuming there is a human there) and yes, as mentioned earlier, do make sure your monitor is calibrated, and, importantly, that the brightness is set to around 100-120cd/m2, otherwise you will get dark prints.

To be clear, this is just how we work at the Siskin Press - other print providers with more automated systems may do things differently.

@Spinno - nothing wrong with my cameras or film. My home-cooked b&w negs are always immaculate. As for talking to the supplier, I'm a vote-with-your-feet kind of consumer - at least, when the problems are so fundamental that I lose all faith in them. And if I provided sloppy service to my customers, I wouldn't blame them if they behaved the same way (although of course I would be happy to redo the work free of charge - just hasn't happened yet :wink.

Anyway, the good news is I got my first eight films back from The Darkroom today - fast! And the negs are impeccably presented. I'll be going back.

Kris, that black-point issue sounds like they're just batch scanning. Do you convert the scans to 16-bit before doing your adjustments? Might mitigate your artifacts somewhat.

I'm a liberal guy but this is taking human rights too far ...

The prints were fine - the negs were damaged. There's not much they can do to rectify that. And not just once, but every time recently. It's my fault of course - inertia kept me coming back for more.

Incidentally, I once had an identical experience with another online lab. I did complain then - sent them the results back as requested. They scanned the negs, did quick and dirty repairs to the scans, and printed (badly) from those scans. No refund, not great.

Might try the Darkroom. Thanks!

They deserve nothing from me. I'm not looking for a relationship, I just need a reliable, professional service. Nobody? How's the Darkroom in Cheltenham? Or better yet (cos it's closer) Davies Colour in Cardiff?

Hopefully that got your attention ...

I'm looking for a new online film processing lab. My current lab (Peak Imaging) has been supplying me with some pretty dusty, scratched and finger-marked results, and I'm not happy. Anybody here able to recommend a place that takes a bit more care? I don't generally use ICE when I'm scanning.

Thanks!

Peter

Save me from forum drama queens ...