gvarner Loc: Central Oregon Coast

How much technical detail do you have to be aware of when dealing with the commercial print labs? What constraints do they put on your file size and type? How do you guide them to get the most out of your photo? Your experiences would be appreciated.

14kphotog Loc: Marietta, Ohio

Most commercial labs have a Webb site that have all that info. Check out "Pro Photo" in Fla.

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

I just send the largest JPEG I have on file.
If it needs cropping due to the print format, Costco provides a moveable mask.
Otherwise I may do my own aspect ratio adjustment and save it as another file.
Their software will work with the image. I don't worry about file size or pixel dimensions.
Life is simple.

bleirer

I use bay photo. If you download the app you get more choices than ordering online but you have to get used to the app a little (standard ROES I believe). Custom print sizes are not more expensive, just type in the size you want and choose border options and then if you want optional mounting or framing. They will take 8 bit tiff or jpeg, srgb or Adobe rgb. No file size limit that I know of.

gvarner Loc: Central Oregon Coast

That’s good to know. Very practical advice. Thanks.

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

Oh, one other thing about Costco - they have a "print as is - no correction" (no auto-correct) which I use so their system doesn't alter what I sent. Otherwise, their system might want to "correct" it for you, mostly color balance.

via the lens Loc: Northern California, near Yosemite NP

I use Bay Photo. I have their ICC profile and can view my image using that. Other than that, nothing much. Pop the image into the website, make my size and paper choices, and get back a beautiful print. Same has gone for a glass print I order on occasion. Quality in and quality out.

AzPicLady Loc: Behind the camera!

I occasionally use a lab located in Texas. It's available via Photo Reflect. They do lovely work and are quite reasonable. You can determine whether you want them to do any "correcting" or not.

saichiez Loc: Beautiful Central Oregon

Why would you go to Florida, when Pro Photo Supply operates out of Portland Oregon and has for many years. In fact they built a complete new lab within the last decade about a block from their Loooooooooooong time residency at their store in NE Portland.

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

Because someone totally out of his area uses a place in Florida and is unaware of what labs may be in Portland and made a recommendation based on his experience?
Like complaining much?
(Betcha there's labs in Ohio also...)

Bridges Loc: Memphis, Charleston SC, now Nazareth PA

Beside what others have said, be aware there is a vast difference in labs. You can pay anywhere from 1.80 for an 8x10 up to around 21.00. If you are good at photoshop or another similar program you can tweak your photos to exactly how you want the print to come out and save money. Some of the pro labs do things like dust removal, opening of eyes, color matching etc. If you print a 4x6 on your home printer and like the way it looks, you can send it to the lab and they will match colors etc. Also be aware your choice of paper in cheaper labs is limited to one, maybe two finishes --- glossy or matte. With a pro lab you can choose from a variety of six or more different finishes. Also pro labs will coat your photos making them archival to last virtually forever. These services come at a price. Some labs I have used are Whitehouse, Nations Photo Lab, and Bay Photo. My favorite lab closed down about six years ago, it was Burrell Color out of Crown Point, IN. Check around, you may find a small pro lab in your area that does many of the things I listed.

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

Ex pro lab guy here:

First, let's define terms a little more precisely:

A "commercial printer" is generally known as an offset lithographer, a company using huge presses and pigment inks to print books, magazines, packaging, etc. I worked for three companies that did school yearbook printing, via offset lithography. We also had professional portrait labs:

A "commercial photo lab," more commonly known as a "professional color lab," makes prints for photographers and artists. Most commonly, the process is based on silver halide chromogenic (dye based) paper developed in wet chemistry, but may also include much higher quality inkjet printing using 8-14 inks on a wide variety of papers and other substrates (canvas, metal, etc.). Pro labs typically serve a broad range of customers and clients who range from barely competent to brilliant artists. A good lab has technical service reps who can communicate across that spectrum.

A "high-end service bureau" serves artists, ad agencies, museums, and others, typically with "giclee" printing services. "Giclee" is a fancy word that really means high-end inkjet printing! The folks in this rarefied atmosphere really know their processes and materials and techniques. They are the ones that the very top photographers and museums and artists who sell limited edition prints go to — if they don't print their own work in a spare bedroom. Service bureaus typically deal with very experienced and sophisticated clientele who may have specific needs such as logo color matching, printing with UV-resistant inks on weather-resistant substrates, etc.

I'm going to assume you want a professional color lab. Most of my career was in that arena.

The #1 technical detail you need is an understanding of how to dial a telephone! Email helps, too. Getting the best results from your lab requires communications. The lab folks hate ambiguity. The more information you can give them about your files, your subject, what look you want, what finishing materials you need, and so forth, the better the results tend to be.

Most pro labs want files as full-size (large file size, fine quality, i.e.; with minimal compression) JPEGs in the sRGB ICC color space. The vast majority of them ASSUME this is what you will provide. If you want to give them a 16-bit TIFF file, ASK AHEAD, and label the files when submitting. If you want to use Adobe RGB or ProPhoto RGB as the ICC color space, ASK AHEAD, and label the files when submitting. Some labs will print them correctly, others cannot. MOST can deal with them if they know what they are getting. Labs generally do not work with raw files, since every camera uses its own custom raw format and profile.

Most pro labs use some sort of ROES system (Remote Order Entry System). This was originally a Softworks, Inc. product that connected with Kodak's DP2 lab system and let users submit work via a very friendly interface over the Internet, using their web browsers. Variations on the same theme are evolved from that concept, and most work great. You go to the lab's website, and upload your files, simultaneously ordering all the prints and services you need. Full instructions are on the sites themselves.

Very few labs have a low MAXIMUM file size limit. Nearly all will issue a warning if your file is TOO SMALL for the print size you want. Generally, it is better to submit the entire original file, and crop your work in the ROES system, so the lab does whatever re-sizing is needed. You may, of course, do all the work yourself, but the cropping and sizing is best done by the lab software, driven by ROES on your end.

COLOR MANAGEMENT is a huge area of potential contentions or misunderstandings. If you adjust your images on your computer in any post-production software (Photoshop, Lightroom Classic, Affinity Photo, Capture One, etc.), you should know that the adjustments you make are accurate, so you see unbiased representations of what the lab will print. There are international standards for that accuracy!

ICC color management is basically calibrating and profiling all the devices in an "imaging chain" so that the color you see in one place looks like the color you see in another. From your perspective as a lab customer, your job is to use a monitor that displays 100% of sRGB, or 99% or more of Adobe RGB, if they let you use that color space. That monitor must be calibrated with a hardware device known as a colorimeter or spectrophotometer, and then profiled with the calibration software that came with the hardware device. It sounds complicated, but it isn't! X-Rite and DataColor make the solutions you need.

If you calibrate and profile your monitor correctly, and use the lab's ROES correctly, you should get beautiful results. Find a pro lab near you and give them a call. They will be thrilled to help!

DonWauchope Loc: Brevard, NC

Burkphoto: Your posts are one reason I keep coming back to this website in spite of all the gibbering it generates. Thoughtful and helpful and a lot of time and effort on your part. Thank you.

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

You’re welcome!

It is the Internet... As with anything else on the ‘net, there’s plenty of noise and static. One learns not to take the crap too seriously. Many here are helpful. Most can be, at least sometimes.

14kphotog Loc: Marietta, Ohio

The lab I referred to "Pro Photo" is located in Lakeland Fl. Note the similar name. The one i referred to has been in business 70 some years.