Murray Loc: New Westminster

I agree completely. I've been printing my own for years (latest printer Canon Pro 100) if the color is off, I can fix it immediately. Personally, I don't find it terribly expensive as I print maybe 4 out of 100.

londonfire Loc: NY to NC

I just left the Costco in Spartanburg, SC and talked to a rep at the photo desk. She said she encourages people to check the prints at the counter and if you don't like them don't take them.

Picture Taker Loc: Michigan Thumb

I just remembered that with Costco old printers they did not try to atomically adjust your prints. The new printers now require you to check off that you don't want you pictures tampered with. CHECK THIS OUT AT THE STORE

whitewolfowner

Hate to say it, but Cosco getting new printers and not training their operators how to print is like a school system building new buildings thinking it give their student a better education. I have honestly seen this argument brought forth by a school board trying to justify new school buildings. They almost conned the whole community into it too. Just how ignorant can Americans be....well just open your eyes and you will see.

theehmann

Well said!

JD750 Loc: SoCal

Back to the topic, printing.

The technology changes constantly and Costco like other companies is always trying to use the new technology to cut costs.

It's not that hard to queue a print job to a printer. That does not take a large amount of training. The real question is what level of service is Costco offering? Are they simply printing files or are they offering print services where the printer operators are an integral part of the final quality of the prints?

Having operators adjust the prints can be a double edge sword. I took a file in for print, water splashing in sunlight, in a fountain and I had deliberately greatly underexposed the surroundings, for effect, using flash and high speed sync. Imagine my horror when the print that I received showed all the surroundings in great detail, blades of green grass, shining in the sun, etc. I give them credit, that took some work. I didn't know it was even possible! But it was not what I had discussed with the clerk, or what I wanted. Needless to say they made me another print. I spoke directly to the Photoshop-guy and explained what I wanted, and I got what I wanted.

I don't think it is possible at Costco to talk to the operators of the printing facilities. But if your getting good results then that's all that matters. And if your not, well, time to make some changes.

whitewolfowner

Sorry, but you are so wrong and there is a lot more involved than the printer and it is impossible to que a printer to print everything correctly. Many prints need manual adjusting; almost from one print to the other and definitely from scene to scene. Then there is the chemicals. They don't use the same process one does in a darkroom; they use ones that start out as a starting kit and then refresh them with a replenishing kit; which has to be constantly monitored by analysis and adjusted by how much is being added to the mix as the paper runs though the machine. Ignore it too long (should be checked several times a day) and the whole batch goes bad and the machine has to be drained and reset up. It can take hours to do and then you have to wait for them to settle down to the right temperature. Every time you go to a new batch of paper (it comes in large rolls), you have to tune in the color pack for it as each batch is different from the other. There is a lot to know to run a quality photo lab.

JD750 Loc: SoCal

No need to read any more. Too bad I was actually enjoying the civilized discourse up until now.

TROLLS HAVE ARRIVED TIME TO UNWATCH THIS THREAD.

whitewolfowner

Sorry you can't handle the truth.

amfoto1 Loc: San Jose, Calif. USA

You say you're "turning off all the auto stuff", but that might be a mistake.

The vibrancy, contract, saturation, color and tint of your images all start the moment the photo is taken. The White Balance and other settings of your camera have a big influence on how the images will look in the end.

If you are "shooting JPEGs", the camera is converting from RAW immediately (all digital cameras take RAW initially), using the parameters you've set. If "shooting RAW" and converting to JPEG later at your computer, there is more flexibility to change setting. Your camera manufacturer's RAW conversion software can be set to process "as shot", utilizing all the shot parameters that were set in-camera at the time the photo was taken. Or you can manually change any of those factors. Third party RAW conversion software (i.e., Lightroom, Elements, Photoshop, etc.) will not pay any attention to most of those settings..... but most do utilize the color temperature and color tint (i.e., White Balance) that was recorded at the time the image was taken.

A Custom White Balance may be best... but isn't always possible. Auto White Balance might work better than one of the preset WB modes ("Sunlight", "Cloudy", "Tungsten", etc.). Those are actually rather crude estimations, at best. And setting the wrong WB preset (such as using "Sunlight" in the shade) will cause major color shifts. Auto WB might be better... though you still may need to do some additional tweaking after the fact, and that's best done from a RAW file, rather than a JPEG.

One reason RAW is "better" is because JPEGs are "8 bit" files, while RAW are typically either "12 bit" or "14 bit" in most DSLRs, either of which is interpolated by post-processing software as "16 bit". What's the diff? 8 bit has 16 million colors, which at first glance seems a whole lot (and is quite adequate for purposes such as printing or online display).... However, 16 bit has 23 trillion colors! It's far better to do most tweaking, sizing and adjustments with this much broader palette, then reduce and save it to the necessary 8 bit JPEG file as one of your very last steps.

To do all this well and accurately requires some pretty rigid control of your workflow... Including using a quality computer monitor that can and has been calibrated, is periodically re-calibrated and is used in a location where ambient light doesn't change constantly.... Working within a software that can be color profiled... Installing a color profile in your computer that can be used to "soft proof" your images, predicting as best possible what the finished print will look like.

Most computer monitors are way too bright and nowhere near accurate in the colors they render. Using a device and calibration software such as Pantone Huey, Datavision Spyder, XRite ColorMunki or similar will insure the monitor renders images are "truthfully" as possible. If your computer monitor is "lying to you", it's causing you to adjust your images incorrectly!

Also, the brightness and color rendition of computer monitors change gradually as they age. So it's necessary to recalibrate periodically.... say every month or two. And over time those calibration devices can essentially pay for themselves... in savings of wasted ink and paper, or the cost of reprinting by a outsourced service. Another benefit of using a calibrated computer monitor is that the feedback you get about your images will be more accurate. Only when it's reasonably accurate can the feedback help you correct any errors in your camera setup or fine tune it for best results.

canon Lee

Hello do not expect your prints to be as bright and detailed as you see on your computer.. First of all you screen starts out brighter since you are looking into the light..its called "backlit" your prints look dull and not so bright because of a lot of factors, like; prints you are looking at a reflection of the light that bounces off the surface of the print... & you know that bouncing light off a wall or ceiling will attenuate and spread out the light.. same principle... What I do is tweak my images with more brightness and bring down the contrast,( in lightroom its called shadow) and I have learned in Costco to up the brightness 15% and lower the blacks 15%. The other thing is that the prints are too "contrast" blocking out lots of detail in the blacks... you need to practice how much brightness and contrast you send to Costco... take in consideration that Costco alters their printers ( ICC profiles) to average out all other cameras and exposures...