printing help

[allenlennon]

hi all. Im thinking of printing some photos, had this in my head for a while. I'll be getting it printed through a site like snap fish and such. As i cant really justify the expanse of buying a printer and printing my own, as i dont think i'll be printing alot of my photos in a short time so i have a few questions:

1) can anyone share light/give my a link to how i should prepare and the process of editing the image i want to print.
2) what site would you recommend, and keep in mind i live in australia.

Just a few notes, that my photos will be no longer than a4, perhaps A3.

[Shadowman]

1. Whichever service you use, find out what editing they might apply to your image.

2. What is your typical workflow for editing your images, what software do you use, and what critieria do you use to determine what is an acceptable image. Then see #1 above.

I rarely send my photos for printing unless I'm shooting film or I happen to get some free prints from my local camera vendor. But on the four occasions where I have sent in photos, they've done an equal or at times more superior job than I could at home.

[allenlennon]

thank you john, my workflow is pretty much mainly in camera raw, where i adjust it to my liking, such as exposure, clarity(love clarity), white balance, local adjustments. Only open in into photoshop for compositions and slight work.

I am tossing between getting a printer or just go labs. A mate told me that getting a printer is better and fun. At this point in time i dont want to go higher than A4, so a A4 printer will work, and have been looking around, and been looking at the canon PIXMA MG6250. my canon Mg220 is not ideal as the inks are one for black and one for colour.

[Shadowman]

thank you john, my workflow is pretty much mainly in camera raw, where i adjust it to my liking, such as exposure, clarity(love clarity), white balance, local adjustments. Only open in into photoshop for compositions and slight work.

I am tossing between getting a printer or just go labs. A mate told me that getting a printer is better and fun. At this point in time i dont want to go higher than A4, so a A4 printer will work, and have been looking around, and been looking at the canon PIXMA MG6250. my canon Mg220 is not ideal as the inks are one for black and one for colour.

Allen,

If you only plan to print a few using a printing service will be the better route. I agree with your friend that printing your own can be fun, but it can also be most frustrating.
1. Ink runs out when you are pressed for time.
2. Printing errors from clogged heads, disparity in what you see on the screen and what output you get.
3. When you make an error printing it costs you, when the printing service makes an error they eat the cost.

If you plan to do a lot of printing then you can do a cost/benefit analysis.

[gregj1763]

I have the MP640 Allen which is an earlier model to the MG6250 and the quality of the images on Canon glossy paper is superb.
However as John has pointed out there is some frustration involved getting what you see on the computer monitor to replicate in print. That's not to say it can't be done and coincidentally I have spent the last 4ish hours doing just that and I have just about nailed it. You have to weigh up the cost of printing your own photos taking into account the cost of the printer, good quality paper and ink which after reading a review on the MG6250, sounds like you will go through some, against getting it done for you at a lab. I'm getting some
8 x 12s done tomorrow at Officeworks and they cost $3.65 each. That's pretty inexpensive stuff
Cheers, Greg

[davidedric]

Yes, there can be some frustration, but I enjoy doing it myself and the satisfaction of having the print in my hand straight away. (Instant gratification - probably says something about my maturity ). I have a Canon Pixma iP4600 photo printer, which gives results good enough for me at the moment.

I think that if you have a calibrated monitor, software that allows softproofing and the correct profiles (presumably Canon provide them for the printer and their own papers), then once you have found the settings you need you should be good to go.

I use Lightroom, and I do enhance both the brightness and contrast in the Print module before printing.

I don't do anything fancy with my prints (which are up to A4), just hang them around the house. I do find that I need to tweak the brightness depending on just where I hang them. That's the beauty of doing it yourself - if you don't like the result it's easy to go again. And, of course, you can always do test prints on smaller paper which I think gives a pretty good idea of how the larger print will look.

Dave

[allenlennon]

Thanks guys. Ill just get them done in a lab. Now thinking that I should use a image as a test and get them to print out on a smaller size(which size?) on different types of paper to see which one is better and how I should edit my photos to print. Eg if its a bit darker I brighten it up a bit, ect. Does that sound good ?

[Polar01]

Allen yes you will have to work with the lab, myself I print as my printer can handle and file that my system can sent it. You may find that most labs can only handle sRGB jpeg files. I seem to remember another thread about a year or so ago about the same thing must have run about 60 plus posts (3 pages) long or better.
Best of luck

Cheers:

Allan

[chauncey]

Do not buy your own printer...for the reasons that Shadowman, John pointed out.

[allenlennon]

And what labs in Australia would you recommend. Or ones that deliver to australia I am looking at snapfish.com.au

[gregj1763]

I haven't used Snapfish so couldn't pass comment on what they were like.
I guess the only way is to give them a try and see what you think.
After looking up the size of Portland on Wikipedia I'm assuming that you don't have anywhere local to get photo's printed so a trip into Bathurst would be your other option.
What do they have in there for photo processing?

[gregj1763]

Just had a look at the Snapfish web site Allen and their pricing is exactly the same as Office works where I get mine done. $3.95 for a 20 x 30 cm but you have delivery costs on top

[allenlennon]

thanks greg. The only place in portland is a small kiosk in the small towns pharmacy. Lithgow(my place of employement) has a few kiosks at a pharmacey and harvy normans, and a printing place who is apparently good but expansive. I been looking at other sites, like prolab.com.au, and inclined to try them because they offer luster paper along with the normal gloss and mat paper.

[gregj1763]

That Prolab looks really good and their pricing is even cheaper than office works. Couldn't find their delivery charges though