Who Prints for you?

As I have yet to get a really good photo printer, I get my "snaps done" at Boots the Chemist and more recently at PhotoBox.
They give ok results as long as you know that they will try and turn your night shots in to day shots and will throw lots of sharpening in to it.
If I have need for anything large or diffrent I will talk to a lab and pay a bit more.

So the question is what do you do and where? Have you any top tips do you find printing at home easy, better, cheaper?

Hi Simon

Interesting question you raise.
For my very few prints I made so far, I’ve e-mailed my pics to Fujicolor Switzerland. Fujicolor offers very good services as I believe and I’m very happy with them.

I also bought a HP-Photo-Printer lately but used it only once so far. When my photographic skills get better and I should therefore need to print more photos, then I will stay with Fuji or maybe get in touch with a specialized lab.

Best Pius

You live in the home of Kodachrome.
I have to say I am going to use Photobox again and all should know that you get lots of free prints when you sign-up.
Pius the image you PP of mine looks wonderful thank you.

I actualy never print at home and I also prefer a selected serie printed in a book. I would like to try larger formats to put them behind plexi glass if they merit it!??!ù$

In the future you will see much better digitaf photo screens (under developement, I got some rumors) than those to day, the need for printing them out will go down even more!
Herman

I have had good results from PhotoBox and they are offering 40 free prints to get you started.
They have a quick turn-around.
But the best tip is to google photo printing and take up the free print offers most of the large web-sites will give you 20-50 free prints first time, just charging for postage.
If you work your way round them you can get a lot of free prints and know which one is best.
Prints are still the best thing to turn your photos in to, all my family love prints and will happily sit for hours looking through old photo albums but won't have the same time looking at a computer screen.
The sad thing is that we don't print as many photos as we used to I know I don't, I think the next big break through in cameras must be to get printing sorted out its far too expensive to print at home as Sigi said mega expensive, the inks are more expensive than fine old wine or perfum, how could this be that it is cheaper to buy the printer than it is to replace all the inks??? :evil:
So for now at least I will be using web-site printing and good old boots for a quick 1hour print.

When I started digital, I had a HP Photosmart printer. I was very impressed (like Siegfried and many others) of the quality I could get at home. That is until we decided to decorate our daughter's room when she moved out with 8x10 prints of us and the kiddies traveling over the years. Had the prints mounted on foam stock and hung them up. Unfortunately they faded badly after about a year or so - and this is not an overly bright room with no direct sunlight on the prints. Someone suggested an Epson printer and I got a really cheap one to test out. Have not looked back since. Currently running an R800 and love it. But it does get expensive when printing large batches of prints - like the 200 print photo album from our vacations .
Lately when I have a large batch of prints I use Costco (large warehouse-type company). I can upload the prints and pick them up about an hour later. Cost only 17 cents for a 4x6 print. (I can't do it that cheaply myself.)
Simon's idea of trying out several labs is a good one. Only suggestion - see if the labs you wish to send your photos to will allow you do download profiles for their printers. This way you can do your own color adjustments and not leave it up to their computers/techicians.
Also, if you can't get actual printer profiles, you should probably convert your JPEGs to sRGB if you are shooting in Adobe RGB (those using the Olympus DSLRs). Most commercial printers - at least here in the states - expect this. It may effect the colors of the prints you get back. (And yes, if you are using a DSLR, you should be shooting in Adobe RGB. It has a wider color gamut than sRGB.)
Steve

Nice catch Steve,
Downloading profiles is a great idea I will definatly try this.

I have chests full of prints from the past that I never take out of their envelopes and no wall space for enlargements. Now I am totally hooked on making photojournals for each trip. I use publisher.com. I'd appreciate the professionals' opinions of the printing quality. After you have laid out your pages, you upload the file and several days later get a book bound in cloth or leather with photos and text printed on archival paper.

Here's one you may flip through online:

http://www.mypublisher.com/bookshelf/bookviewer.py?d=tq%3Ey-cppl%60je%3E34%3A1442Your Order ID # is: M842455
Your password is: 1322937

Hey Josieann,

Welcome to the 'Photography is Fun / MyCanonG7' website. This site is a bit of a worldwide community, resulting in 'print suppliers' all over the world for the various participants. If anyone has already used this supplier, I would kindly as him to step forward and advise his experiences.
Otherwise, like is in most cases with this type of suppliers, it will be a question of trial. (Did you not get the free offer fopr an album I am noticing on the Publisher.com website?)

One thing is for sure, photo-albums continue to work for presentation and in this digital world, they offer a lot of freedom to personalize them. Perhaps if you indicate where approximately you are living, one of the participants can give you some alternatives he/she has good experience with.

By the way, you got some nice pictures in your album. Which camera are you using? Are you using post processing software?

Continue to visit to site, beside a lot of fun, there's a lot of information & learning on it.

Best
Paul

Hi Paul,

Thanks for the looking at my photobook. I happily use the g7. It is small enough to always be with me in my purse and is inconspicuous so I can take photos of people without their being aware of the camera. Siegfried's book is a big help, but I've still a lot to learn about the camera.

I've been gingerly doing a little post processing using the Canon Zoom Browser. I get the best results with the curves feature. To straighten signs, the Yellowstone gate, etc., I can go seamlessly from the Zoom Browser software to my Adobe Photoshop 6.

The "free" My Publisher.com offer is for new users. I've made a dozen or so books but always wait for the 40 or 50% discounts before uploading my book.

I live in Dallas, Tx.

Thanks for the welcome to the site. I've learned a lot just in two visits!

Josieann