Printing onto canvas

yeahimhere

I'm not sure if this is the correct forum or not

I wanted to create some of my own art to put up in my appartment and found that you can get your own prints put on canvas. I've found a few websites that do this however on one, they mentioned that you just get the print rather than it being the finished article that you can put on your wall.

Has anyone used a company to do this before (and recommend one)?
And is it common to just receive the print rather than the finished article?

Thanks!

Slidinginfinity

Get in touch with Steve at http://www.360-dpi.com/
on Boards here his screen name is STCSTC
He comes highly recommended and if he can't do what you need he can point you in the right direction usually.

pixbyjohn

Harvey Norman's do canvas prints , mounted or unmounted

yeahimhere

Excellant, thanks guys!

O'Hairless 1

pixbyjohn wrote: »

Harvey Norman's do canvas prints , mounted or unmounted

and they charge very handsomely for them also:mad:.

I would have to recommend Paul Morgan of "Exclusive Art" http://stores.shop.ebay.ie/Exclusive-Arts I have used his service several times and the prices are great.:D I've had both colour and black & white canvas prints usually printing A1 size, the quality is outstanding and the colours are excellent. That's just my 2cents worth.:rolleyes:

CabanSail

I have never had Canvas Prints done, but I have heard it's one of those things where you get what you pay for.

I have seen some of the work that Steve does & it did look very good. I have also seen cheaper stuff which was was not the best. I am guessing that the average punter on the street is not going to notice it, unless they were side by side. Then again they often don't notice things like obvious colour casts & pixelation.

Quality comes at a price.

yeahimhere

O'Hairless 1 wrote: »

I would have to recommend Paul Morgan of "Exclusive Art" http://stores.shop.ebay.ie/Exclusive-Arts I have used his service several times and the prices are great.:D I've had both colour and black & white canvas prints usually printing A1 size, the quality is outstanding and the colours are excellent. That's just my 2cents worth.:rolleyes:

I checked him out and his prices are fairly cheap and if you've gotten some good quality work done...he's the front runner at the moment. (money's tight at the moment!)

CabanSail wrote: »

I have also seen cheaper stuff which was was not the best. I am guessing that the average punter on the street is not going to notice it, unless they were side by side. Then again they often don't notice things like obvious colour casts & pixelation.

Quality comes at a price.

lol I might put myself into the "average punter" side of things at the moment, it's only something I want to try out with some of my own stuff so don't mind paying a little less at the moment until I come up with something I'm really proud of...then I think i'll go the more professional route.

Thanks guys for all your help, I'll let you know how it turns out

Rb

To be honest, their prices are so cheap that I'd be prepared for disappointment when ordering from them.

yeahimhere

I'm in two minds now, just because something is cheap..doesn't really equate to it being bad....or does it...or they could have a high turnover so they can charge less? (or im being nieve)

I had a look at the seller on eBay's feedback page and there isn't alot of negative/neutral comments.

I used to work for eBay and they way they've changed it around in the past few months, some sellers are temporarily selling their stuff cheaper to try and increase their standing in the search results so that could be a reason for the lower prices.

I might sleep on it...

Rb

yeahimhere wrote: »

I'm in two minds now, just because something is cheap..doesn't really equate to it being bad....or does it...or they could have a high turnover so they can charge less? (or im being nieve)

I had a look at the seller on eBay's feedback page and there isn't alot of negative/neutral comments.

I used to work for eBay and they way they've changed it around in the past few months, some sellers are temporarily selling their stuff cheaper to try and increase their standing in the search results so that could be a reason for the lower prices.

I might sleep on it...

Well, I work in a minilab and we do canvas printing & mounting and see the costs involved and would call the prices on that site suspicious at best.

Someone turns up slamming other companies and promoting another that noone has ever heard of, operating solely through Ebay, without ever having posted here before infact having only registered that day then disappears and doesn't post since would indicate that it's spam and no company that has to resort to such ****e marketing tactics should be trusted to produce a product of even acceptable quality.

Tbh I wouldn't take too much stock in the comments on their page either, people buying canvas at that price are looking for price only and would have little to no consideration of quality and are consequently impressed that it turns up and is indeed printed on canvas paper.

For the prices they quoted you couldn't even produce a decent quality canvas print that has been stretched and mounted, let alone sell it on the market to make a profit or even aim to breakeven on.

There's a good reason services like Steve's charge more and such a difference in price should tell you at least one thing about the seller at the bottom.

stcstc

a lot of those very cheap canvas prints are done using a printer design for printing signs, as they use solvent inks

this allows them to print an stuff that doesnt have to be as well treated

the downside to this is the printers dont print anywhere near as high resolution etc

the major thing about some of these places, is the people employed are generally not used to dealing with art as such, and so are sometimes not as attent to the details as they should be

smelltheglove

Speaking of canvas and you get what you pay for, I had a customer come to me today swearing on her sisters grave that there is a place on Abbey Street doing a 20x28 for €25, obviously if there was somewhere doing that I'd love to see the quality of them but I highly doubt there is.

OP Steve is great at what he does and not only does he give you a great service but he has a vast knowledge of photography and is as helpful as can be.

O'Hairless 1

Rb wrote: »

Someone turns up slamming other companies and promoting another that noone has ever heard of, operating solely through Ebay, without ever having posted here before infact having only registered that day then disappears and doesn't post since would indicate that it's spam and no company that has to resort to such ****e marketing tactics should be trusted to produce a product of even acceptable quality.

.

One I did not slam any company, I merely pointed out that the company which had been mentioned in a previous post were expensive (H.N. €149.99 vs. E.A. aprox €40 for an A1 mounted canvas). Incidentally RB had you google'd the company I was recommending you would have found that they don't operate solely from eBay!

So That was my first post on boards, big deal, I haven't disappeared but I am not going to be posting every day either, and certainly won't be averaging 7 posts a day.
For the record I am in no way, shape or from connected to the company that I recommended to the OP. They are based in Derry I'm in south Tipp, I've never met the man or spoken to him, just communicated through email.

I first saw canvas prints by Exclusive Arts at a photo exhibition in Carrick on Suir last year, exhibition was held by my local camera club. The canvas stood out amongst all the mounted A3 prints and I was impressed by the quality (so too was the chairman of the club who happens to be a professional photographer), so when the time came for me to get some Canvas printed I choose the same company.

I fully agree with the saying that you get what you pay for and had I not seen examples previously I may not have chosen the company, however I am glad to say the work that I had done was excellent hence the recommendation.

OP at the end of the day when you finally get a canvas printed only you can make the final call as to whether the job was done right. You will have the original file on your PC and will be able to compare the quality, colour saturation/colour cast and any other variable that you wish.

Only recently did a canvas print in a shop and it was absolutely dreadful (very washy colours, soft focus, some noise), however if I were to just come along that shop X do terrible canvas prints then that would be wrong of me as I didn't see the original file and don't know what quality they had to work with, for all I know the original photo could have been taken on a compact camera with the ISO bumped up very high. By the same token I know that the very same shop in question can produce excellent results as I seen there work in the hands of other camera club members.