Printing Lab or product printing: Greetings, Does anyone have a recommendation or a favorite for printing portraits? Like a printing press or a lab, that takes orders online and sends...

sjshaf Loc: Odenton, MD

Greetings,

Does anyone have a recommendation or a favorite for printing portraits? Like a printing press or a lab, that takes orders online and sends the print by mail. Have you used any place online that you like and trust? I am looking to print mostly 4x6 and 5x7 but all different sizes. Also, would be nice if they have different commodities, like mouse pad, coffee cup etc.

Thanks,
SS

hangman45 Loc: Hueytown Alabama

sjshaf wrote:

Greetings,

Does anyone have a recommendation or a favorite for printing portraits? Like a printing press or a lab, that takes orders online and sends the print by mail. Have you used any place online that you like and trust? I am looking to print mostly 4x6 and 5x7 but all different sizes. Also, would be nice if they have different commodities, like mouse pad, coffee cup etc.

Thanks,
SS

I have had great results from Adoramapix
http://www.adoramapix.com/app/home

Wall-E Loc: Phoenix, AZ

sjshaf wrote:

Greetings,

Does anyone have a recommendation or a favorite for printing portraits? Like a printing press or a lab, that takes orders online and sends the print by mail. Have you used any place online that you like and trust? I am looking to print mostly 4x6 and 5x7 but all different sizes. Also, would be nice if they have different commodities, like mouse pad, coffee cup etc.

Thanks,
SS

BayPhoto http://www.bayphoto.com/

They will also drop ship to your customer with no lab logos.

Photo printing is different than press printing.

Edit: Sorry, I should also add that Costco and Sam's Club both have reasonable photo labs on-site. And online uploads and ordering.

Papa Joe Loc: Midwest U.S.

sjshaf wrote:

Greetings,

Does anyone have a recommendation or a favorite for printing portraits? Like a printing press or a lab, that takes orders online and sends the print by mail. Have you used any place online that you like and trust? I am looking to print mostly 4x6 and 5x7 but all different sizes. Also, would be nice if they have different commodities, like mouse pad, coffee cup etc.

Thanks,
SS

Check out www.rockbrookcamera.com. Excellent work and reasonable prices. All sorts of extras available.

speters Loc: Grangeville/Idaho

sjshaf wrote:

Greetings,

Does anyone have a recommendation or a favorite for printing portraits? Like a printing press or a lab, that takes orders online and sends the print by mail. Have you used any place online that you like and trust? I am looking to print mostly 4x6 and 5x7 but all different sizes. Also, would be nice if they have different commodities, like mouse pad, coffee cup etc.

Thanks,
SS

I tried Mpix and a few other sides, but did not like their results. Now I print everything at home and I'm happy.

Wall-E Loc: Phoenix, AZ

speters wrote:

I tried Mpix and a few other sides, but did not like their results. Now I print everything at home and I'm happy.

Did you ever figure out WHY you 'did not like their results'?
What do you do differently printing at home?
Do you sell your photography? Are you full time?

speters Loc: Grangeville/Idaho

Wall-E wrote:

Did you ever figure out WHY you 'did not like their results'?
What do you do differently printing at home?
Do you sell your photography? Are you full time?

No I don't sell my photography, though I do make some money with it on occasion, but I do quite a bit of printing, I just enjoy it and having prints to look at, or give to someone is just something I really enjoy. I do not print any smaller than 8.5 x 11, a lot of times bigger and I do print about 200 to 300 images a year on average. When I print at home, everything is better, compared to the ones I've gotten online: sharpness, color, overall appearance.

sjshaf Loc: Odenton, MD

speters wrote:

No I don't sell my photography, though I do make some money with it on occasion, but I do quite a bit of printing, I just enjoy it and having prints to look at, or give to someone is just something I really enjoy. I do not print any smaller than 8.5 x 11, a lot of times bigger and I do print about 200 to 300 images a year on average. When I print at home, everything is better, compared to the ones I've gotten online: sharpness, color, overall appearance.

Do you have your monitor calibrated for colors? I have used printing places before and thats what my dilemma was! THey look great on the PC and then the colors come out all screwed up in the print! Does that sound like a calibration issue? Any recommendations on strategy or software to use?

Wall-E Loc: Phoenix, AZ

sjshaf wrote:

Do you have your monitor calibrated for colors? I have used printing places before and thats what my dilemma was! THey look great on the PC and then the colors come out all screwed up in the print! Does that sound like a calibration issue? Any recommendations on strategy or software to use?

I, personally, have a Spyder 2 I bought a few years ago.
Probably time to update.
I have an X-rite Color Passport that I use as a white balance, color balance standard.
And X-Rite has some information/training available on their website. Obviously leaning towards their products/services, but pretty good nonetheless.
http://www.xritephoto.com/ph_learning.aspx
As does Datacolor:
http://spyder.datacolor.com/learning-and-training/

speters Loc: Grangeville/Idaho

sjshaf wrote:

Do you have your monitor calibrated for colors? I have used printing places before and thats what my dilemma was! THey look great on the PC and then the colors come out all screwed up in the print! Does that sound like a calibration issue? Any recommendations on strategy or software to use?

Yes I do have my monitor calibrated and for that I use the X-Rite i1Display Pro.
The prints come out just like they look on screen, but I really don't go by that, I usually make a few "test" prints and go from there (if I feel I need to make any corrections, I base it on the print, not the monitor).

flipper2 Loc: East Tennessee

I just checked the cost. For and 8x10 it was going to be $1.49. Not bad, but shipping and handling was going to be a extra $7.00 for one print. I just now ordered 4 8x10 from Sam's club which had to be sent to my home. The local Sam's doesn't have a photo lab. The total for 4 pictures and shipping was $7.53. It might not be the fancy photo labs, but I ordered about 10 8x10 a few years ago which turned out beautiful. I was going to order one the same one from each photo lab and see which one was best. I decided rather quickly I could not afford to do that.

SpeedyWilson Loc: Upstate South Carolina

Walmart, Walgreen's, CVS, etc.

Quick and easy. You can order online and pick up at a nearby store.

Wall-E Loc: Phoenix, AZ

flipper2 wrote:

I just checked the cost. For and 8x10 it was going to be $1.49. Not bad, but shipping and handling was going to be a extra $7.00 for one print.

From who?

And you need to understand who their customer is. Not the one-at-a-time hobbyist, but the volume professional.