It should be noted that all my printing is done interstate with a commercial printer.  This enables me to provide a broad spectrum of paper quality and sizing.  Due to this all orders will be subject to mailing costs.

The post processing programs I use are Adobe Lightroom CC and Adobe Photoshop CC.  All images are soft proofed to ensure that the colour gamut prints in sRGB colour which is the most popular printing colour space.  Adobe RGB (1998) and ProPhoto RGB are colour spaces also used for processing on a regular basis. 

 The colour space that I use is Adobe 1998 however if required I also utilise ProPhoto RGB colour space for a wider gamut of colour.  Soft proofing is undertaken to ensure that the colours are not out of gamut at the time of printing.

To aid in correct colour for your images I always use a Colour Checker Passport or similar colour guide to match known colour patches with any camera that I use. My monitor and any printers I use are also calibrated to ensure accurate colour processing.

When you purchase an image or digital file I will convert it to either TIFF or JPEG depending on your preference. Most commercial printers prefer flattened TIFF files for printing.

Depending on where you want your images to be printed or used (eg. Web pages) I will convert your image to the appropriate colour space be it sRGB, RGB, LAB or CMYK.

For those of you that are wondering what I am talking about here's some basic image processing information for you.

When you take a picture your camera, depending on how it is set up will take images in RAW or JPEG format. There are others but for the sake of this excercise I will keep it simple.

All images are initially processed in a RAW digital format where your image processor records all the lighting and focus details. For those photographers who shoot in RAW format (a format I always use) processing of the image has to be done on a computer and using a program like Abobe Bridge or Adobe Lightroom to enable you to see and manually adjust images. This provides significant creative flexibility without destroying image pixels.

JPEG is different. Images shot in this format go through Bayer Interpolation and  tasks such as brightness, contrast, white balance etc are decided by the camera and not the photographer. Once this is done the image is compressed (pixels destroyed) to provide a smaller file for the user.

The plus side of jpeg format is that you do not need to manually provide adjustments to the image.  The camera does this for you.  In addition to this the files are smaller in size and do not take up much storage space on your camera or hard drive.

The downside of this format is that you stand the risk of losing quality detail from your image, particularly when blown highlights exist in your digital file. If you shoot in RAW there is still a chance to get some of that detail back. With JPEG...well I don't like your chances.

Every camera has its own unique colour profile, even those of the same make and model. Manufacturers keep their cameras within certain tolerances however there are minute differences in colour.

When an image is downloaded on to a computer and viewed on a monitor, the monitor has its own unique colour presentation which is unlikely to be the same as your camera. So what your camera saw is not what your monitor sees. It is for this reason that image processing professionals calibrate their monitor to reflect known colour swatches captured by the camera under the lighting conditions used at that time. This way what you see on your camera is what you see on your monitor.

After processing images on the computer we reach a point where images go to print. Once again there are numerous variables. Each printer has its own unique colour profile (how it interprets colour) and to make matters more complicated printing paper also interprets colour differently. For this reason the monitor image has to be calibrated to the printer profile and paper profile to ensure what you see on the monitor is what appears on the final print.

Complicated isn't it? Well that is my job. I ensure that the image is colour correct by the time it goes to print so what is on my monitor is what comes out on the final print.

I will ensure that the white and black points are maximised to enable the image to "pop".

I will also ensure that any colour cast is removed and the image maximised for Web Coated SWOP Grade 3 paper or GraCol protocols.

This setting will generally cover most standard commercial printers so that minimal calibration will be required by the commercial printer in order to reprint your image on their midrange quality archival papers.

The general rule is to try and obtain the colour space settings used by the commercial printer and this is adjusted in Photoshop prior to dispatch to the printer. However given the varying papers on the market this is not always possible for you, the client, without access to Photoshop. A good commercial printer should be able to make the necessary colour profile changes at their end with the digital file but please note they will most likely charge you for this.