subject: Six Editing Steps To Perfect Pictures For Canvas Printing [print this page] Sending a photo to be printed on canvas without touching it up is sort of like going to a cocktail party without makeup on. We know that real beauty is on the inside anyway, and if the content of your picture is optimistic and beautiful, it will always be so. But photo editing, like makeup, can make those bright colours just a little brighter ,those whites a little whiter and the blacks a little deeper, to help compensate for the imperfect rendering of a scene that a camera creates compared to the human eye in reality. If you are new to editing photos, don't stress - we have created a set of easy-to-follow, simple steps for creating gorgeous canvas art prints every time.
Of course, every photo editing program is completely different - you will need to become familiar with your particular software. However the concepts remain the same across the industry.
Step 1: Colour space
Most digital cameras will automatically process your photos in an RGB colour space (Red Green Blue), which is optimal for on-screen viewing. Your canvas printer, however, will need photos to be in a CMYK colour space (Cyan Magenta Yellow Black) - this is the system used for representing color with ink rather than light emitting diodes. Change the photo to CMYK before you make any other changes, as this can affect the overall look.
Step 2: Format
Ensure you are working in the correct format. Most canvas printers do not accept files such as .gif or png. Make sure you are working in jpg or tif format - this will also change the colour broadly.
Step 3: Sizing
Some canvas art printers are able to cut custom sizes for their frames - so you might not have to crop anything off your photo if you don't want to! If you do want to crop out unnecessary detail and blank space from the photo, do this first. Those details in the space which will ultimately be removed will affect your perception of the colour and contrast changes you are about to make in the next steps. If you crop afterwards, you might get a less-than-optimal result, colour and contrast-wise.
Step 4: Contrast and Brightness
These will be found in radically different places within the menu depending on what program you are using, but are often located together. You are already familiar with the effects of contrast and brightness from playing with the dials on old monitors and cathode ray televisions. Since RGB colour space typically seems quite a bit lighter than CMYK, a bit of upward adjustment of contrast and brightness is usually needed to make the canvas art print appear more true to life.
Step 5: Lightness
Yes, lightness and brightness are two different things! You'll have a better understanding once you have seen them at work in your own photos. In Photoshop, you can use the Curves dialog to adjust lightness - other programs will call it something different.
Step 6: Colour enhancement
Tread very, very carefully with colour enhancement when you are photo editing. Our eyes have a keen sense of what is natural and what is not with colour balance, and if you overdo it your print will look as if you are viewing it with cellophane over your eyes. Typically you would only enhance one colour range for your canvas art print - cyan, magenta, yellow or black.
