costco prints: Made my first attempt at ordering Costco prints. The site wasn't very intuitive. I had to fumble my way thru it.. Then the 8X10s were cropped too small for my liking. do...

foathog Loc: Greensboro, NC

Made my first attempt at ordering Costco prints. The site wasn't very intuitive. I had to fumble my way thru it.. Then the 8X10s were cropped too small for my liking. do I have to frame my shots to make Costco happy???

Linda From Maine Loc: Yakima, Washington

Best way is to make the crop before submitting. However, the crop tool is on the site, too, so you can choose which part/s you want cut off rather than let Costco's computer do it.

Note that if your camera is 3:2 aspect ratio, to print everything you see in the jpg will require an 8x12 print.

Hal81 Loc: Bucks County, Pa.

foathog wrote:

Made my first attempt at ordering Costco prints. The site wasn't very intuitive. I had to fumble my way thru it.. Then the 8X10s were cropped too small for my liking. do I have to frame my shots to make Costco happy???

Why would you want to make Costco happy? They just want your money.

ejw 46 Loc: Tempe, AZ

I use Costco frequently to print photos. There are several things I do to help ensure I will like the results.
1. Crop the picture to the size you want printed and then if your photo editing software allows, change the image size to the size you want printed and set the resolution you want.
2. If your software allows you to soft proof your photos, see if you can download the ICC profile for the Costco and paper you will be using. This helps to make sure your photos will look the way you would like them to look.
3. After doing the first two steps, I save the pictures to be printed in a separate folder with a descriptive name that tells you what the picture is and what size you cropped to. ie. Birthday 1 5X7.jpg DO NOT SAVE AS THE ORGINAL as you may want to use a larger format next time and your master will still be intact.

ICC profiles are available on line (google Costco ICC profiles)

Hope this helps.

GoofyNewfie Loc: Kansas City

foathog wrote:

... do I have to frame my shots to make Costco happy???

You have to crop them to make yourself happy.
I do it for any print service so I know what i'll be getting.
I have problems with most ordering software, so I know what you mean. Do it often enough and it gets easier.
The quality of the prints varies a bit between the two local Costco labs here but generally very good.

foathog Loc: Greensboro, NC

I don't know about anyone else, but when I take a shot I frame it the way I want it....the way I would want to see it on the wall. I don't WANT to crop it. Now I have to accomodate the photo lab???

GoofyNewfie wrote:

You have to crop them to make yourself happy.
I do it for any print service so I know what i'll be getting.
I have problems with most ordering software, so I know what you mean. Do it often enough and it gets easier.
The quality of the prints varies a bit between the two local Costco labs here but generally very good.

GoofyNewfie Loc: Kansas City

foathog wrote:

I don't know about anyone else, but when I take a shot I frame it the way I want it....the way I would want to see it on the wall. I don't WANT to crop it. Now I have to accomodate the photo lab???

Gotta do it smart and play within their system.
Not hard to do at all.
They may not have print sizes that match your size needs.
For Costco, (and others) in Photoshop, I make the print the size i want it, then add canvas to match the size they offer. Another thing I often do is make a blank image the size I want to frame, copy and paste the image I want in that leaving a nice wide border (self-matting?) then add a small drop shadow, so that at a distance, it looks like it is floating on a mat board. Super easy to do and I can ALWAYS count on getting what I want. What program at you editing in?

Jana-TAS Loc: Washington

To save money on printing, it is good to order from costco.com. That is what I do before having to volunteer for State Fair. If what you appeared to order did not look good though when you picked it up then think to yourself, did I edit that picture before sending it to them? Meaning cropping it the way you wanted it, not just adjusting colors, or if there are people in the photos taking out red eye, etc.

LarryFB Loc: Depends where our RV is parked

When ever I want to get a Photo printed, I crop it to the appropriate size, make sure the resolution is what I want, then save it as a .jpg.

I have photos that I have printed as a 4X6, 5X7, and 8X10, but each one of those photos have bee cropped to the correct size and the resolution is appropriate.

ygelman Loc: new -- North of Poughkeepsie!

GoofyNewfie wrote:

Gotta do it smart and play within their system. . . make a blank image the size I want to frame, copy and paste the image I want in that leaving a nice wide border (self-matting?) then add a small drop shadow, so that at a distance, it looks like it is floating on a mat board. . .

This is clever, but one purpose for the mat is to keep the glass away from the print when it's framed. What do you do for that?

foathog Loc: Greensboro, NC

I'm editing in Canon DPP 4.5. Been considering Affinity or Macphun. Not into shackling myself to Adobe.

GoofyNewfie wrote:

Gotta do it smart and play within their system. br... (show quote)

billnikon Loc: Pennsylvania/Ohio/Florida/Maui/Oregon/Vermont

foathog wrote:

Made my first attempt at ordering Costco prints. The site wasn't very intuitive. I had to fumble my way thru it.. Then the 8X10s were cropped too small for my liking. do I have to frame my shots to make Costco happy???

I believe they do 8X12 prints on request. I also believe you set the crop, not them.

foathog Loc: Greensboro, NC

billnikon wrote:

I believe they do 8X12 prints on request. I also believe you set the crop, not them.

Well that wasn't made clear. I'll go back and see if I'm able to move the borders. Like I said the site assumes everyone knows exactly what to do without any instructions. The prices seem good but are they worth the frustration?? When I called customer service they weren't exactly the best. I had a bad connection and she sounded like she was talking from under a pillow. When I asked her to repeat she was conspicuously upset with me. That didn't make MY already bad experience any better.

GoofyNewfie Loc: Kansas City

ygelman wrote:

This is clever, but one purpose for the mat is to keep the glass away from the print when it's framed. What do you do for that?

Good point. Can't see it but I use a narrow spacer behind the frame between the photo and the glass.
Without it, the prints can stick to the glass.

Linda From Maine Loc: Yakima, Washington

foathog wrote:

I don't know about anyone else, but when I take a shot I frame it the way I want it....the way I would want to see it on the wall. I don't WANT to crop it. Now I have to accomodate the photo lab???

Look up "aspect ratio"

3:2 camera has multiples of 4x6, 8x12, 16x24 etc

4:3 camera makes 6x8, 12x16, 24x32

For a print of 5x7, 8x10, 11x14, you have two choices: crop something out, or print with a white border (which will not be evenly distributed around the edges).