Hi Guys,

Hopefully someone can help me!

I've got a photograph that I want to frame for a Christmas present. The photo is shot down a tunnel on a playground. I cropped it to be a square as obviously the tunnel is round and I messed with the brightness and contrast so that it was clearer as she was backlit.

I went to a photography place today to have it printed (who had said a few days before that 4"x4" would be no problem), and when I have got it home it is much darker than on screen and they have cropped it and taken out all the background so you can't even tell its a tunnel! They were confused as to how they could print it 4x4 as it was not a standard size, even though I suggested they print it on 4x6 with a 2inch white bit but that seemed too difficult they seem to have printed it on 4x6, distorted it, and then measured and cut it to 4x4.

So after this long story my question is - can I alter my settings so that what I see on my laptop screen is how it will come out when developed? I know sometimes graphics are shown in online quality or something. Trouble is can't make it lighter and have it done again if what I see on screen isn't accurate.

And - is it too much to ask for them to do it again without cropping half the picture? If I had my own printer I could do it so why can't they?

Please help, I messed with it in some basic editing software but I don't really know what I'm doing and I want it to look good!

Hi Sidewinder

Google 'monitor calibration' for an introduction to this. You can do a fair amount without any equipment. The only way to get proper prints is to pay a specialist a decent amount for it. Try here (http://www.peak-imaging.com/htmls/about.htm) - I used to use these guys when I needed stuff for work.

Good luck,
Pete