Many of the guests on TWiP Family encourage parents to print their family photos. It’s the right thing to do. But have you ever been disappointed with how your image looked when it was printed? I have.

For this episode of TWiP Family, I talked to Martin Bailey about how to get better prints from our digital images. Martin is an expert on printing. He wrote the (very beautiful and thorough) ebook, Making the Print. He is an X-rite Coloratti and the man behind the long running podcast, The Martin Bailey Photography Podcast.

If your prints are too dark, turn down your monitor’s brightness. You can set your default brightness and the computer will adjust the brightness depending on the light in the room. Even more important, realize that your camera will create images that are dark to begin with. If your monitor brightness is high, you won’t realize your photos are dark. Use your histogram to make sure your images are well exposed. Martin talks about why he exposes to the right. (If you want to know more about exposing to the right – check out Martin’s post about ETTR.)

Next we talk about calibration. When I first heard about calibrating my computer monitor, my eyes glazed over. It sounded complicated to me. But, after getting one hundred dollars of prints that were a strange orange color, I bought a calibration tool. It’s not complicated to use. My kids love watching all the different colors flash up on the screen. Martin also suggests sending off a few test prints before placing a big order – good advice that would have saved me some money. I use the Color Munki Display. If you print at home, Martin suggests the Color Munki Photo.

This week, I ordered prints. After applying what I’d learned from this interview with Martin Bailey, I got back beautiful prints. Let me know how your next round of prints turn out. You are printing your photos, right? Your mom needs some. Facebook posts and emailed pictures are not enough.

Martin’s Simple Tip for Parents

Be prepared. Don’t wait until something happens to turn on your camera. Be ready for the shot before your kid does something adorable.

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