I think the problem is as much about monitor calibration as anything Peter. We're all very used to being able to look at things instantly on monitors, and forget that colour handling does vary from one system to another. Most day to day printing is still CMYK, and in certain colour ranges (especially blue tones) there can be really quite dramatic differences between what we see on screen, and a final print. Spot printing can solve this, as it can be checked with a pantone reference or similar, but this doesn't help wtih photographic images. With digital images (generally captured in RGB), which are then optimised for their on-screen look, this becomes even more of a problem. The thing that amuses me is that print companies offer to send a pdf proof of a process printed article - which is utterly meaningless when viewed on screen. Sometimes, the old, slower ways are still better.