Where is the best place in Dublin to develop pictures?

Fat_Fingers

Hi guys,

After frustrating number of visits to different printing shops I have to turn to you guys to hear where do you develop your pictures?
Last place I used was Harvey Normans in Swords , developed some 12x16 size images and they came out darker then they should.

Issue is not on my end. My monitor is IPS Dell U2312MH. Monitor is calibrated with Spyder 4

xia

I print myself...After doing a printing course with SineadW http://sineadmcdonald.com/workshops.html and using the facilities in RUARED in Tallaght.
As far as I know the next workshop is on the 15th December. Couldn't find her thread about it now.

kelly1

Fat_Fingers wrote: »

Hi guys,

After frustrating number of visits to different printing shops I have to turn to you guys to hear where do you develop your pictures?
Last place I used was Harvey Normans in Swords , developed some 12x16 size images and they came out darker then they should.

Issue is not on my end. My monitor is IPS Dell U2312MH. Monitor is calibrated with Spyder 4

It's very frustrating, isn't it!? I got some prints from dscolourlabs.co.uk and they came out too dark too. Having said that, I'm not calibrated and I only have
a laptop screen and the brightness changes with viewing angle! I haven't got a chance!

Prenderb

xia wrote: »

I print myself...After doing a printing course with SineadW http://sineadmcdonald.com/workshops.html and using the facilities in RUARED in Tallaght.
As far as I know the next workshop is on the 15th December. Couldn't find her thread about it now.

Do you need to buy expensive printers and inks for that? I've always had the (mis?)conception that you have more control but need to be printing quite a lot to make that worth while.

The commercial labs and printers have the turnover to invest in equipment that should (should, of course!) be better than anything I think I could afford. It's a pity the OP doesn't get the results s/he wants.

OP, have you tried somewhere a little more personal than the likes of the big stores? Where you can say to them, look, I've been getting pretty dark results from the other guys, can you help me out? I'd try some of the specialist camera shops (Gunns, Conns, Camera Centre) in or around Grafton St and see how you got on.

sineadw

Prenderb wrote: »

Do you need to buy expensive printers and inks for that? I've always had the (mis?)conception that you have more control but need to be printing quite a lot to make that worth while.

Using the Ruared printer is very economical- own paper, €1 for a4, €2 for a3 and €4 for a2. Makes it very workable

squareballoon

I use GMS for pro printing http://www.gms.ie/

xia

Prenderb wrote: »

Do you need to buy expensive printers and inks for that? I've always had the (mis?)conception that you have more control but need to be printing quite a lot to make that worth while.

I definitely can't afford buying a good printer myself (and don't print enough). So RUARED is ideal.

As Sinead said already... You use their printer / ink / MAC and in addition to own paper and per print you only pay 2.50 an hour to use the room (if you prepare your pictures at home it's fast enough when you're there then). Oh, and once a Membership fee of €5.

So yes, you have complete control over your print. What is brilliant - and it's a great feeling to see them printed - by yourself

Definitely worth a try. And the workshop well worth it. Even if you end up not always printing yourself it help you understand why those prints didn't look like you expected.

stcstc

i do a lot of printing for boards members

your welcome to come over and see things happen if it helps

then once your happy i have an uploader on my website where you can upload and order

Prenderb

xia wrote: »

I definitely can't afford buying a good printer myself (and don't print enough). So RUARED is ideal.

As Sinead said already... You use their printer / ink / MAC and in addition to own paper and per print you only pay 2.50 an hour to use the room (if you prepare your pictures at home it's fast enough when you're there then). Oh, and once a Membership fee of €5.

So yes, you have complete control over your print. What is brilliant - and it's a great feeling to see them printed - by yourself

Definitely worth a try. And the workshop well worth it. Even if you end up not always printing yourself it help you understand why those prints didn't look like you expected.

Sounds good (if you're nearby!). May be worth a trip up some day! Thanks

Fat_Fingers

xia wrote: »

I definitely can't afford buying a good printer myself (and don't print enough). So RUARED is ideal.

As Sinead said already... You use their printer / ink / MAC and in addition to own paper and per print you only pay 2.50 an hour to use the room (if you prepare your pictures at home it's fast enough when you're there then). Oh, and once a Membership fee of €5.

So yes, you have complete control over your print. What is brilliant - and it's a great feeling to see them printed - by yourself

Definitely worth a try. And the workshop well worth it. Even if you end up not always printing yourself it help you understand why those prints didn't look like you expected.

thanks, it does sound great. Tallaght is little bit way out my way.

xia

Fat_Fingers wrote: »

thanks, it does sound great. Tallaght is little bit way out my way.

Oh. Thought you're in Swords. But yes, if you have to use public transport it's a bit of a travel.

Fat_Fingers

xia wrote: »

Oh. Thought you're in Swords. But yes, if you have to use public transport it's a bit of a travel.

I'm in Artane.

xia

Fat_Fingers wrote: »

I'm in Artane.

Hmm...Closer but still not really handy. I agree. But maybe worth it if you don't want to print on a weekly basis;)

Heard meanwhile from someone else that they are very happy with GMS (squareballoon suggested them) - maybe worth a try.

As everybody that prints can confirm it is a tricky thing. I had huge trouble with a shop a lot of people love for printing. You just never know.

punchdrunk

the key thing is here, (and I think a lot of people forget this) is that by default a fuji frontier lab will automatically apply corrections to your prints unless you instruct the operator to turn it off! basically the lab is really set up for doing "joe soaps" printing, so it will assume that your levels are all over the shop, your white balance is off and they need to be sharpened! it actually makes well exposed and taken shots look way worse because the correction software works on averaging all the values out so you end up with dull, lifeless photos.
another big factor is do they run their condition prints every morning? (you're supposed to, but I doubt a lot of your Harvey's/chemist type labs do) and also do they run condition setups if they change paper during the day because there's no guarantee that both rolls of paper are from the same batch and calibrated the same.


but the key thing is if your shots are even half decent get them to write on you order docket to turn off the auto correct