Where do you guys go for printing ?

little bess

Just wondering what most people do for printing ? I find that when i send my shots out for printing that they are coming back darker than how they look on screen.
My screen is not calibrated, but when i print off my own printer i prefer the results as they look as they do on screen -it's not a top of the range printer.
A photographer friend told me that the 'shop printers' are set a stop lower for darkness or something like that ? Could that be right ?
And why are my b&w's coming back with a green tinge - yuck !
I've changed them to grayscale, tried a few different places for printing, is it my screen or what ?
On a major budget so can't afford expensive calibration equipment..moan moan...

Rb

Where have you been getting them printed?

little bess

I've tried a photographer in donaghmede, he has fuji machines i think, Photocare on Abbey st and that pixel place off Henry St, sorry can't remember the name..

AnCatDubh

here goes first of many recommendations i'm sure that will ensue for our resident on forum printer - user stcstc (steve). Same question and same answers.

Typically you may want to talk to him for enlargements or specific prints. The beauty of dealing with steve is that you ftp your images to him and then ring him up and discuss what you want with him and he'll tell you how it looks and how it is likely to turn out.

Many people use him from this forum and many satisfied customers. You'll probably pay a little more than some of the internet bargains but you do get the personal level of service that you don't get from afar. Typically you wouldn't use his services for a batch of 200 6x4's though.

If you are looking for a 'cheap' good large-ish format print then snapfish.ie do a great 20x30 for €10 or thereabouts - you only get to talk to their online system though so you don't know how it's going to turn out before you get it. Also only comes in a glossy format.

melekalikimaka

If the Image is ready, as in colour correct, gunns does great print jobs too

wersal gummage

little bess wrote: »

Just wondering what most people do for printing ? I find that when i send my shots out for printing that they are coming back darker than how they look on screen.
My screen is not calibrated, but when i print off my own printer i prefer the results as they look as they do on screen -it's not a top of the range printer.
A photographer friend told me that the 'shop printers' are set a stop lower for darkness or something like that ? Could that be right ?
And why are my b&w's coming back with a green tinge - yuck !
I've changed them to grayscale, tried a few different places for printing, is it my screen or what ?
On a major budget so can't afford expensive calibration equipment..moan moan...

i've the exact same problem! photos look good on the LCD on the camera (and in the histogram they are correctly exposed), they look good on the laptop but they come back from print a bit dark..... (have tried a few different on-line places all with the same result).

Tallon

On line places are generally for family photos and stuff, not pro-tographers.

Best bet is go to somewhere in person and tell them exactly what you want, I.E. Gunns, Harvey norman, or even most kiosks

CabanSail

wersal gummage wrote: »

i've the exact same problem! photos look good on the LCD on the camera (and in the histogram they are correctly exposed), they look good on the laptop but they come back from print a bit dark..... (have tried a few different on-line places all with the same result).

You really need a Calibrated Monitor. If you don't have that it's all a bit hit & miss.

smelltheglove

Callibration is a must, the lovely Paul Walsh callibrated my monitor for me only a couple of weeks ago and I was amazed at the difference, even though it wasnt huge it made quite an impact on the pics, my screen was much brighter than it need to be and seemed to have a higher level of saturation, this would show in pics printed elsewhere although your printer is hooked up directly to your computer and is more likely to print as the screen shows.

little bess

Thanks for the replies folks, think I will have to go for calibration then !
Might have to wait till recession is over though;)

smelltheglove

well you may be as lucky as me whereby you know someone close by that might lend you a spyder.

Pigwidgeon

is there any point in getting laptop screens calibrated? like does it make much of a difference? (just got a new laptop)

stcstc

ok few things


most laptop screens are rubbish for post processing - they are not accurate and dont have enough control over them

Calibration is a must for anyone who is wanting to do prints,

BUT calibration is not a mechanical process, well not totally, some of the systems like the spyder have you set the brightness by eye. this leads to different people calibrating their screens to different levels

also viewing a print and a image on screen, they will never really look exactly the same as one is backlit and one is reflected.

the main problem people have is brightness in prints not colours generally

so a good place to start is to drop the brightness on your screen down to about 35 or 40 % of full power and prints will then look a lot closer

in terms of printing, Obivously i do printing for a lot of people here etc. But i specialise in high quality larger prints.

Gunns will do a decent job

but someone suggested harvey normans and kiosks, If quality is your thing, dont touch theese with a barge pole. they will employ someone on a low ish wage who wont be an expert at this stuff, and quality will vary and also be inconsitent

its kind of the same as would you pay a unskilled person to fix the brakes on your car!!! or build your house

s

wersal gummage

stcstc wrote: »

most laptop screens are rubbish for post processing - they are not accurate and dont have enough control over them..............the main problem people have is brightness in prints not colours generally..........so a good place to start is to drop the brightness on your screen down to about 35 or 40 % of full power and prints will then look a lot closer

thanks. i didn't know any of that.

Dr.Louis

stcstc wrote: »

they will employ someone on a low ish wage who wont be an expert at this stuff, and quality will vary and also be inconsitent

its kind of the same as would you pay a unskilled person to fix the brakes on your car!!! or build your house

s

That's a bit of a generalisation. I'm 20 and on minimum wage and work in a one hour lab. I do quality checks, paper calibration, screen calibration- the works; just to make sure the prints I make are consistant and good quality. I know my stuff too, I work with large format epson printers (9880) in college and have created custom ICC profiles for all of the paper I use (mostly hahnemuhle)

Anyway- your photos will generally print darker than what you see on any screen (calibrated or not) because screens are back lit. If you hold your print up to a light box or window, it will recreate the effect of a back lit screen and make your print look lighter. Calibration does help here, but it never 100% solves the problem.

If you can't calibrate then experiment with sending the same photo to print a few times, but with a varying brightness in each of them and check the results. That way you'll know roughly how much to lighten your photos to get what you want (again- roughly).

As for your BW prints coming back with a green tint, unfortunately that's a flaw of the fuji printers. They use light sensitive 'colour' paper. So even if your images are 100% grayscale they can still get a colour cast through the colour paper. There is nothing you can do except hope that the lab tech has calibrated the paper (although this doesn't always work).

Also I have never heard of the lab machines being set to print 'a stop darker'. I wouldn't really trust that opinion to be honest.

One last thing- try getting the same photo printed in gloss and matt- you'll notice a difference in colour and contrast.

I hope that adds something to what has already been said!

stcstc

Yes it was a generalization, and sorry for suggesting everyone is the same.

BUT

as you well know, most places, in my opinion have this problem.

and from feedback from my clients, they tend to find the same problem

houseoffun14

If your are looking real quality try Repro 35 near Merrion square. Wonderful prints and very helpful guys.

stcstc

one of my clients came to me a couple of weeks ago

he was getting prints from repro and needed so extra gloss prints done, i suggested he went back to them so they all looked the same

he rang them while he was with me and they told him 2 weeks for the prints!!!

the other interesting things was when he gave me the price he was paying it was almost 50% more than my full price,

needless to say i ended up doing a series of them for him

I think there are a good few places to do prints that are ok, the main problem is consistency, find a printer your happy with and as long as they keep producing consistent prints stick with them

there are lots of issues to do with prints your going to sell to someone, lightfastness etc too

Dr.Louis

I have had more bad experiences with Repro 35 than good ones. They are over priced and the man at front of house is extremely rude and arrogant.

There is a new place that has opened just off Pearse street called Exhibit A

http://www.exhibitastudios.ie/

It's run by two artists and they're so friendly and helpful. They even have freshly baked cookies!

megna

- You need to calibrate your monitor

- Also if you work with photoshop you need to stimulate paper in: View>Proof Setup>Custom..

Print screen below:

http://img83.imageshack.us/img83/3427/picture2e.png

I got all paper profiles for CS4 from my LAB (different for B&W, mat and gloss). Prints look the same like my jpg files.
Works fine for me.

little bess

Dr.Louis wrote: »

That's a bit of a generalisation. I'm 20 and on minimum wage and work in a one hour lab. I do quality checks, paper calibration, screen calibration- the works; just to make sure the prints I make are consistant and good quality. I know my stuff too, I work with large format epson printers (9880) in college and have created custom ICC profiles for all of the paper I use (mostly hahnemuhle)

Don't know how to do quotes, hope that works .

Dr.Louis - hey where you working , might have to drop into you

Dr.Louis

I work out in the Blanchardstown Shopping Centre. If you can't make it out that far, there's plenty of places that use the same printers as us and do the same quality checks, Gunns on wexford st being the first that comes to mind.

In fact most camera shops that also have a lab in them will give you the best quality, which is the kind of lab I work in (back of the camera centre in blanch).

In general stay away from photo labs in chemists or places like Harvey Normas. They're not even cheaper (or much cheaper) than the likes of Gunns or other camera shop labs.

Also here's a tip for printing BW- even if you have desaturated your images yourself they might still be 'colour files', so when you load them into the kiosk to send them to the lab printer, choose 'edit' and then choose black and white. Even though the files are already BW the machine will read them as colour files unless you tell it otherwise. It helps a little bit with that awful green or magenta tinge to the prints.

Louis

Anouilh

I have never had problems with even the most mass produced orientated companies.

What do posters think about sending film away in batches for processing?

Specialists like Hetty's Darkroom are particularly good, but friends used send film to the Channel Islands, as it was reasonably priced.

stcstc

the other really big reason for those green or magenta casts is most labs use some form of mini lap for prints, with colour paper in it

for example photobox use fuji crytal archive - is design for colour not B&W and wont give you a truely neutral print

same as kodak endura which is the other popular mini lap paper

smelltheglove

Ah Dr. Louis are you in the camera centre? I might just have bought my 50mm off you!

I have sent high volume of files away to be printed, on one occasion 1200 pics to mypix and couldnt complain at all. I use them for all of my personal pics, I find their prices very reasonable and they deliver quite quickly. They also have the storage facility so when one of my laptops crashed and I lost all of my personal files I was ok as most had been uploaded to my account, hence the 1200 prints;)

I have also received large prints from them for posters for the local boxing club but always used Steve for Canvas and large pics that need to be framed for customers.

Dr.Louis

smelltheglove wrote: »

Ah Dr. Louis are you in the camera centre? I might just have bought my 50mm off you!

I sure am. I also work on the floor so it's quite possible I sold it to you! All the other guys are auld fellas anyway :P *joke*

stcstc wrote: »

the other really big reason for those green or magenta casts is most labs use some form of mini lap for prints, with colour paper in it

That's what I was getting at in my first post about the 'colour paper'. I doubt there's a 'one hour' style lab in Europe that uses actual BW paper. Do you know if there ever was such a thing? (as in one hour BW lab?)

You can also download generic ICC profiles for the Fuji Frontier printers that use the crystal archive paper. They're not really needed for colour printing, but I've found that with BW I get slightly better results. The shadows and highlights are cast free. But there is a slight tint in the mids.

stcstc

i dont know of any mass production B&W papers

I like photorag & fine art pearl from hahnemuhle for real B&W from my epsons

The other paper that gives quite good results if Fuji Pear 290

and for canvas you cannot beat Fuji HD white cotton canvas, I have tried about 20 different ones now including hahnemuhle ones and none of them are as good

Hugh_C

megna wrote: »

you need to stimulate paper

Hmmm,

stcstc

:eek: :eek: :eek:

Stimulate the paper!!! he he

megna

simulate paper, silly me

smelltheglove

Dr.Louis wrote: »

I sure am. I also work on the floor so it's quite possible I sold it to you! All the other guys are auld fellas anyway :P *joke*



That's what I was getting at in my first post about the 'colour paper'. I doubt there's a 'one hour' style lab in Europe that uses actual BW paper. Do you know if there ever was such a thing? (as in one hour BW lab?)

You can also download generic ICC profiles for the Fuji Frontier printers that use the crystal archive paper. They're not really needed for colour printing, but I've found that with BW I get slightly better results. The shadows and highlights are cast free. But there is a slight tint in the mids.

I was in there on Sat and I felt like just shouting out Dr. Louis and see who responded. I wasnt talking to you though.

Dr.Louis

smelltheglove wrote: »

I was in there on Sat and I felt like just shouting out Dr. Louis and see who responded. I wasnt talking to you though.

Haha you need only shout Louis... I don't really have a phd...


Although I've been on a break from there for the past 4 weeks. I'm a wee student and was too busy with end of year things to work part time... :eek:

Thankfully they're nice enough in there to let me take that long off!

Dr.Louis

stcstc wrote: »

I like photorag & fine art pearl from hahnemuhle for real B&W from my epsons

Real BW? From an epson? Bit of an oxymoron no? *joking*

I use hahnemuhle all the time actually. Lovely range of papers. Have you tried their new recycle bamboo paper? It's very matt but doesn't lose any saturation. Wouldn't suit everything though.

Also I've started using the Permjet FB Royal, especially for BW printing. I'm really impressed with it, I couldn't tell the difference between that and a print on the old Agfa FB gloss!

smelltheglove

Well I have to admit, coming from that area I used the camera centre for a long time and never had any complaints with them at all. And there is also the fact that the guys there know their stuff and are full of advice, Lousi I could nearly guarantee I bought that lens of you, young, dark hair?

Also I always find the man with the goatee (i think) very helpful too.

AnCatDubh

Dr.Louis wrote: »

Real BW? From an epson? Bit of an oxymoron no? *joking*

The Canon V Nikon debate of the printing world maybe?????

I can't wait for the come back line :pac:

stcstc

ah you know wht i mean, for B&W as close as your going to get from an inkjet

i tried bamboo and didnt like it

Have you tried metalurgy yet? sheets of aluminium that you can print on?

Actually I did one of my first B&W prints mounted on acyrilic the other day and that looked very cool, the print was laminated to 8mm acrylic and backed with Diabond.

I had to make it as a sample for an artist client of mine

Nick Carroll

Dr.Louis wrote: »

I sure am. I also work on the floor so it's quite possible I sold it to you! All the other guys are auld fellas anyway :P *joke*

Oy!

smelltheglove wrote: »

Also I always find the man with the goatee (i think) very helpful too.

But I suppose that makes up for it!

FatimaKid

stcstc wrote: »

ah you know wht i mean, for B&W as close as your going to get from an inkjet

i tried bamboo and didnt like it

Have you tried metalurgy yet? sheets of aluminium that you can print on?

Actually I did one of my first B&W prints mounted on acyrilic the other day and that looked very cool, the print was laminated to 8mm acrylic and backed with Diabond.

I had to make it as a sample for an artist client of mine

Steve,

I've had no end of trouble sourcing 8mm or 10mm acrylic. Where do you get yours?

Thanks

stcstc

There are a few places

it depends exactly what you need, are you doing your own acrylic mounting?

Or do you mean someone to mount it

FatimaKid

stcstc wrote: »

There are a few places

it depends exactly what you need, are you doing your own acrylic mounting?

Or do you mean someone to mount it

Not for photographic use - wanted to use it for baseplates for router (woodworking).

stcstc

best place would be somewhere like magco, although they are trade, and generally u need to by a decent ammount

Dr.Louis

Nick Carroll wrote: »

Oy!

Are we all on this now?? haha