A lot of people forgo the technical steps just keep a reference image next to their computer to remind them how things look in print vs. their monitor.

Most pro print labs do offer color profiles for their specific workflow on their websites. I’ve never done that personally. Now what I what I do is use a lab that will do their own color correction for an extra fee. If I haven’t overly processed the images in Lightroom this is pretty effective.

If I have heavily modified an image I do a print test before placing my actual order through my main lab. Before I do that I just order an 8×10 from Walgreens with several versions of an image (kind of like the test strips we did in film days) to see which version looks best. It’s cheap, it’s ready in a hour and it’s pretty effective at cluing me in when things are too dark or too saturated.

Does that help you out?

Thank you for your feedback Chris! It’s certainly important to me to hear these kinds of things so I appreciate you taking the time to write about your experiences.

I would rent or borrow one beforehand if possible to see if you’d really get your moneys worth for what you’re trying to do. My 70-200 is not stabilized either and even on a tripod the wind and/or shutter vibration seem to affect the sharpness of the image. That said, there will always be some type of gear out there that could improve your images but there are often other techniques we can employ with our existing gear that we’re not taking advantage of and are worth trying too. I could probably make myself a wind shield for $20 and use a remote shutter cable to minimize vibration on that end. Gear vs. Technique is always a balancing act.

Certainly worth renting or borrowing one though to know for sure.