SPierce Photography wrote:
So, I  bring her upstairs, we look at the shot, and the first thing she says is "wow, it looks really blown out" which is how I'm normally looking at my screen, and it looks OK light/color wise to me.

So, I switch over to the imac calibrated version, which my roommate set and to me looks like an absolute disaster and really really shitty, and she says "oh, now it's much more better/perfect!" It looks pix elated, way too dark with shadows where there shouldn't be shadows and generally ugly

Assumption 1:  when you say imac calibrated version, you are viewing a copy of your photograph that was edited on an calibrated monitor but not currently using a calibrated monitor.

Assumption 2: your roommate calibrated the monitor properly.

This suggests to me that your monitor is way off, and perhaps you should adjust it?

SPierce Photography wrote:
How am I supposed to do pics/figure things out, if my EYES are the problem ? Now I'm left wondering if all my shots look like disaster areas, or if i'm ok. sigh.

That part's easy:  if no one else has complained, tell yourself it is her eyes.

Corollary: the easiest way to give her an image she likes will be to have her there while you do the initial editing.  It sounds like you won't like the result, though...

Note:  you indicate that the print doesn't look anything like what you see on the screen.  You might want to see how it is being printed and use the same color space, etc.

Marc Damon wrote:
Send it to Brent (BlueCube). He'll get it right.

I always do I'm not doing the printing in this case, however, and she needs the image on tuesday. I told her i was going to send an image to brent anyway, but i'm waiting for my other order to come in... i sold 8 prints at a recent show and i want to submit all at the same time.

I have a feeling that her printers are trying to do some processing to them, and thats where we're running into trouble! everything still looks horrid on my screen but it at least looks better/proper on my roommates so having less worries about that.

SPierce Photography wrote:

I always do I'm not doing the printing in this case, however, and she needs the image on tuesday. I told her i was going to send an image to brent anyway, but i'm waiting for my other order to come in... i sold 8 prints at a recent show and i want to submit all at the same time.

I have a feeling that her printers are trying to do some processing to them, and thats where we're running into trouble! everything still looks horrid on my screen but it at least looks better/proper on my roommates so having less worries about that.

Sounds like you send enough business his way that you could call and ask for a rush job and pay the overnight to have it Tuesday morning. Or maybe he could walk you through figuring out calibration, color settings, etc to let the other printer get it right.

Marc Damon wrote:

Sounds like you send enough business his way that you could call and ask for a rush job and pay the overnight to have it Tuesday morning. Or maybe he could walk you through figuring out calibration, color settings, etc to let the other printer get it right.

If I needed too, I certainly can/would, but as she is determined to print herself (although I told her that if she was going to be doing any bulk printing, I do want her to go through Brent) at the moment, i'm just working with her to get things set up and working the best. She's paying for the prints, not me, so no big deal, you know?  PLus, it'd come to me, then I'd have to ship it to her in NY, which doesn't quite work logistically either. I am going to try and change the color settings to CMYK, and see if it makes a difference