theehmann

Friends, I need your expertise. First of all I get my images printed at Costco and have been very satisfied. Recently, my enlargements have been turning out much less vibrant than those on my CD. The colors are not as crisp. I do turn off the auto adjust. Any suggestions as to how I can math the images on my CD would be much appreciated.

Bill_de Loc: US

Are you using Costco's "printer profile"?

https://www.drycreekphoto.com/icc/

--

Nikonian72 Loc: Chico CA

Basically you are stating that the images on your MONITOR (whether from hard drive or CD) do not match your prints. I suggest that you need to calibrate your monitor, which will then much more closely match your prints.

pixbyjnjphotos Loc: Apache Junction,AZ

I just recently went through 2 weeks of frustration with Costco prints. I took a series of grandchildren photos for a lady friend of our family. I worked the photos as always and the first batch of 4x6 proofs came back with a wicked red tint. I reworked a couple of photos and had them reprinted and they were great. It took a lot of time but I went back to the raw images and started over with a new work flow. Had a couple of images printed and they were beautiful. I then had them all printed 4x6 and they were very good. Two weeks later I had the lady's order printed from the exact same image files and they were tinted red. Same image files printed the same way they had been printed previously and they were terrible. I took them back and got my money back. Then I sent the exact same photo images to MPIX and had the whole order printed over again. Same exact images as Costco printed. They came back and were beautiful, just as they appeared on my monitor. I would suggest dumping Costco and get another lab to do your printing. Just my experience. Have a GREAT DAY!

NoSocks Loc: quonochontaug, rhode island

Thank you for sharing your experience.

theehmann

Thanks so much for all the replies.

whitewolfowner

Photo labs at stores are the worst. They hire high school funkies off the streets, give them a couple hours of instructions and send them on their way to do the photos. The person training them hasn't a clue either. My suggestion is to buy a printer, and calibrate your monitor to it and you won't have any trouble from then on. Buy a good one though; do your research before you buy. If you plan on doing a lot printing, get a really good quality one; in no time, you will recover the cost of it in ink costs alone. The ink for the better ones is a lot cheaper per print than a cheap and you get quality photos verses junky ones.

flyguy Loc: Las Cruces, New Mexico

This is the first step in getting great results and the second step is to use the Costco ICC profile in the color management step of the print process.

boberic Loc: Quiet Corner, Connecticut. Ex long Islander

The Canon Pro 100 can be had for $150 after rebate, from B&H. But if you print bigger than 9X14 You will need apro lab to get quality prints. If there is a Staples nearby, they do quality work. I have 16X24 prints from staples that are first rate

londonfire Loc: NY to NC

I usually use Costco and am happy 90% of the time. The few prints that haven't turned out well I just put in a pile and swallow them for what they cost. On occasion I open them up at the counter because I really want to see them. If I mention then and there that I'm disappointed with the print the rep usually says ' Don't take it '. Once they tore it up and put it in the can.
That's secondary to my main point. Just a few days ago I had a bunch of 5x7's done for my wife at Sam's because we were closer than Costco. The prints came out absolutely gorgeous and my wife raved about them and she usually doesn't get excited about photos. When she said that she was thrilled with the color the rep said that she had just changed the inks in the printer at opening and we were there around 11 am. She also said that there's a big difference in quality from new inks to the end of the run which is no surprise. From now on I plan to ask what is the status of the ink supply. I might not get the most accurate info but it can't hurt.

Picture Taker Loc: Michigan Thumb

Costco has replaced a lot of the printers lately. Talk to the people at the Print Dept. at your Costco.

theehmann

As a follow-up to my post, I took the raw files and enhanced them on my other computer- my lap top. I just got back from Costco , had the enlargements re-done and they are perfect. I'm still not sure if my desk top monitor needs to be re calibrated or if Cosctco had not processed the images properly. Next time I go there I think I'll burn discs from both my desk top as well as from my lap top and compare the enlargements. Thanks to all who responded.

JD750 Loc: SoCal

Tough problem. Lots of variables.

So since this is a recent problem you need to figure out what changed. Something on your end or on their end? I would start by pulling up some old files from when everything was working great. Do they those old files look good on the monitor? Compare them to the new files. If everything looks ok, have a sample print done at Cotsco, print some old files and new ones together, to see if those same old files still look vibrant when printed by Costco today.

This will help partition the problem so you know where to look.

theehmann

Great too. Thank you.

jeep_daddy Loc: Prescott AZ

Ditto!

And forget about all that icc profile stuff when it comes to Costco. Just make sure that you save the final image as an sRGB.