Author Topic: Recommendations for printing companies  (Read 2624 times)

Recommendations for printing companies
« on: 09 November, 2008, 10:21:53 am »
Can anyone recommend a company that does prints from RAW files wot will turn out better than my Epson photo printer?

Re: Recommendations for printing companies
« Reply #1 on: 09 November, 2008, 10:29:11 am »
I use photobox, the service is fantastic, but I think you have to send them jpegs rather than raw, and it's worth doing a small size first before getting it enlarged because they sometimes come back darker than they look on screen.



Biggsy

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Re: Recommendations for printing companies
« Reply #2 on: 09 November, 2008, 11:39:56 am »
No one prints directly from RAW.  It will be converted to TIFF or JPEG first.  You don't get the full benefit of RAW unless you do the conversion yourself and tweak the settings to your liking.

If wondering why RAW is supposed to be better if it ends up as a JPEG anyway, that's because you and your computer can do a better job of it than your camera on its own.

Yet to use them myself, but I've heard very high praise for http://www.proamimaging.com/.  You have to do all the preparation yourself though.  They don't mess with the image at all.
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Zipperhead

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Re: Recommendations for printing companies
« Reply #3 on: 09 November, 2008, 12:35:25 pm »
I use photobox, the service is fantastic, but I think you have to send them jpegs rather than raw, and it's worth doing a small size first before getting it enlarged because they sometimes come back darker than they look on screen.

Another recommendation for photobox. I've used them a lot. For one order something went pear shaped with the printing, but as soon as I contacted them they sorted it out.

The first time I ordered from them, they sent me a calibration print so that I could compare it with an image on their site to tweak my screen.
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David Martin

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Re: Recommendations for printing companies
« Reply #4 on: 09 November, 2008, 12:48:07 pm »
I use photobox for prints from digital (I've just ordered a photobook as a gift for some friends - far nicer than handing them a bunch of prints after their 50th anniversary bash - so it will be interesting to see how that comes out).

I use peak imaging for large format prints (from a digital image derived from a scan of a 5x4 slide). Good price and good people to deal with.

..d

"By creating we think. By living we learn" - Patrick Geddes

Re: Recommendations for printing companies
« Reply #5 on: 10 November, 2008, 06:08:19 pm »
+1 for photobox. Cheap, good quality and if things go wrong it's sorted quickly.

Jakob

Re: Recommendations for printing companies
« Reply #6 on: 12 November, 2008, 08:02:28 am »
I've just bought a Canon ip4500 and I'm very happy with the quality. Now the printers will only see me if I need to print larger than A4.
 Dunno what it retails for in the UK, but here it's CAD$129. (And we got a deal for $82!)


David Martin

  • Thats Dr Oi You thankyouverymuch
Re: Recommendations for printing companies
« Reply #7 on: 12 November, 2008, 09:29:48 am »
I've just bought a Canon ip4500 and I'm very happy with the quality. Now the printers will only see me if I need to print larger than A4.
 Dunno what it retails for in the UK, but here it's CAD$129. (And we got a deal for $82!)



Is the ink fingerprint proof, and what about lightfastness?

..d
"By creating we think. By living we learn" - Patrick Geddes

Jakob

Re: Recommendations for printing companies
« Reply #8 on: 12 November, 2008, 08:28:32 pm »
I've just bought a Canon ip4500 and I'm very happy with the quality. Now the printers will only see me if I need to print larger than A4.
 Dunno what it retails for in the UK, but here it's CAD$129. (And we got a deal for $82!)



Is the ink fingerprint proof, and what about lightfastness?

..d

Not sure what you mean by fingerprint proof?
Canons own marketing about the ink can be found here:
http://www.canon.ca/digitalphotography/english/ctech_article.asp?id=210&tid=3