Photo printing

[JayDee]

Hi all,

I just wanted to find out where everyone gets their printing done. I have a pretty decent A4 printer but I've got a pitch at this years Brixton Urban art fair (www.urbanart.co.uk) and wanted to get some of my photos printed in larger sizes but still want the printing to be good quality.

Any ideas or info would be much appreciated,

Cheers, James.

[Nina]

Hi James.

I use ProAm and I am very satisfied with the price and quality of their printing.

I haven't heard of Urban Art Fair and may go and have a look. Good luck!

[Mike Farley]

James

I print at home on an Epson 3800. It is undoubtedly more expensive than using a lab which relies on automation to keep prices down, but it is much more convenient. Sometimes, however hard I try, prints just do not come out right the first time, but at least I know straightaway. Home printing also means that I can choose a specific paper to go with the print, whereas labs usually have a more limited choice. At the moment, I am experimenting with matte papers, which I know that ProAm does not offer. However, there are specialist labs such as theprintspace (http://www.theprintspace.co.uk) which are able to provide a more bespoke service, albeit at a cost. This is not a recommendation, as I have never used them. The company is based in London, so it could be worthwhile visiting them to discuss your requirements and see samples.

My advice is if you are going to have a lot of prints made, have the lab print one or two samples on different papers to see how well your photos come out. Once you have found a lab with which you are happy, have one print made of each of the images which you intend to sell before committing to a larger order.

Good luck with your research and at the Art Fair.

[davidc]

theprintspace are good but don't do any proofing - if you've not calibrated your monitor or the colours are off you will get exactly that in the final image.

[Mike Farley]

theprintspace are good but don't do any proofing - if you've not calibrated your monitor or the colours are off you will get exactly that in the final image.

The same will apply to any form of printing, whether doing it at home or sending files to a lab. If using a commercial print service, I would not expect them to change the colours in an image as they will assume that you know what you want. Many printing companies are using Fuji equipment, which means that images have to be in the sRGB colour space. Happily this coincides with the range of colours which the majority of monitors are capable of displaying.

There is a post about monitor calibration on the forum which explains more - viewtopic.php?f=2&t=127.

If printing at home, it is also necessary to ensure that the printer and paper combination is profiled to ensure accurate colour rendition. This is not necessary with a commercial lab as they will take care of that, but it is worthwhile getting a profile for the equipment and paper they use if you want to soft proof on your monitor.

More about printer profiles here: viewtopic.php?f=2&t=128&p=788&hilit=printer+profiling#p610

[JayDee]

Thanks for all the replies and info!

Nina: Just had a look on the ProAm website and their prices are very reasonable so i might get a couple of images printed with them just to see if the colours match what I'm seeing on my computer monitor. You should come and check out the art fair as its a great day out and has a really good atmosphere, although as it's open air it only takes a bit of rain and it will be a wash out!

Mike & Dave: I would love to have a printer at home that could print up to A2 but don't do enough printing at that size to justify it. Had a look on theprintspace website too and they look very professional and high quality, i would like to try them too to see if it's worth the extra but I'm going to take both your advice and try and get my monitor calibrated first as I've got quite an old Sony flatscreen monitor that I've never calibrated and it sounds like i'd be wasting my money as the prints would probably look different when i got them back from the lab. Will have a better look at that topic link you put up Mike as i only had a quick look earlier and monitor calibration looks like a bit of a minefield!

Cheers again for the info!

James

[Mike Farley]

I would love to have a printer at home that could print up to A2 but don't do enough printing at that size to justify it.

Other than the convenience, I am not sure that I can justify an A2 printer, either.

In fact, I did not set out to buy the 3800, but Epson was running an offer at the time as it was about to be replaced by the 3880. It is not actually much bigger than the 2400 I was intending to purchase and although it cost a bit more, I reckoned that the larger ink cartridges it came with more than made up the price difference. Running costs are a bit cheaper too, as Epson does not rip off its customers to quite the same extent as with the cheaper consumer models.

....... I'm going to take both your advice and try and get my monitor calibrated first as I've got quite an old Sony flatscreen monitor that I've never calibrated and it sounds like i'd be wasting my money as the prints would probably look different when i got them back from the lab. Will have a better look at that topic link you put up Mike as i only had a quick look earlier and monitor calibration looks like a bit of a minefield!

Apologies if I have made monitor calibration process sound complicated; it is actually very straightforward and the software does all the clever stuff. It's one of those topics which sounds scary when you first encounter it, but when you know what is involved you wonder what all the fuss was about.

• Raid piggy bank and purchase calibration device
• Turn on computer
• Check supplied software is latest version
• Install software
• Wait 30 minutes for monitor to warm up
• Connect calibration device to computer with supplied cable
• Start calibration software if it does not commence automatically after previous step
• Adjust monitor brightness, if prompted by the software
• Place calibration device on the screen
• Select "easy" option
• Run calibration process
• Save profile when prompted
• Repeat steps from item 5 onwards every 2 - 4 weeks

Other than making sure that the monitor is not adjacent to a window and has a neutral colour behind it, there's not much more to it.

Simples, as the meerkat says.

[JayDee]

I did check out the spec of the epson 3800 printer and it looks like an amazing bit of kit! I've got a Canon mg6150 which prints fine but only up to A4 and a set of original canon inks costs about half what a paid for the printer! I think I will defiantly upgrade in the future as it would be nice to be able to print larger when you feel like it without having to go anywhere!

Thanks for bullet pointing the monitor recalibration process as I can kind of get my head round it now! The spyder 4 looks pretty good so might go for that but going to shop around first.

Thanks for the advice,

James

[JayDee]

Well, got hold of a Spyder 4 pro and what a difference!
It seems I've been editing my photos very dark and somehow with a bit of an oringe hue!? It did take a few goes to get it right but the photos colours are looking much better on my phone and the wifes laptop so hopfully that's saved me time and money on the printing side of things, although I'm still going to send off a few test prints just in case.

Thanks again!

James

[Mike Farley]

Thanks for the feedback and letting us know that everything worked for you.