Kodak Digital print Kiosk

[dnadalin]

Anyone have any experience with those Kodak Kiosks (Kodak Picture Maker) that are popping up everywhere?

I tooks some studio pictures of my daughters for Christmas cards (first time in a proper studio for me) plus a random assortment from this year and put them on a CD and printed them (4x6) using the Kodak kiosk at the local drug store.

First time I used the kiosk. I printed 65 pictures for $18 or so in less time it would have taken me on my old Epson to print a half dozen. I was pretty impressed with the speed and quality of most of the pictures.

I had a few that came out a bit yellow, as if the white balance was not set correctly (from my G3) and to much contrast. They printed decently on my Epson.

A couple of the studio pictures came out slightly red/pinkish (Rebel, studio lighting). I reduced the red channel slightly, so we'll see how that goes. I'll attribute that to my in studio rookie status.

I adjusted the ones that seems to have bad white balance and heavy contrast. I made some adjustments like reducing the saturation, contrast and adjusting the color away from yellow, but I'm not holding out much hope for them. I'll print them as an experiment to understand what I need to adjust.

If I can figure out how to get consistent prints, I think I'm going to save a ton on inkjet ink. The quality of the print from the Kiosk are impressive, no comparison to the Inkjet. With the Rebel pictures it is pretty hard if not impossibe to discern it from 35mm prints.

What should I adjust on my end?

[robertwgross]

What are you using for the Kodak printer profile?
--or--
What image file format are you feeding to the Kodak printer?

---Bob Gross---

[defordphoto]

dnadalin wrote:
What should I adjust on my end?



You should adjust your route AWAY from that kiosk the next time you want prints. Try a real developer. Get the Costco profile and print there, if you have a Costco. There are alot better alternatives to printing semi-pro digital prints than a Kodak kiosk.

Get your Costco, and other, profiles at: http://www.drycreekphoto.com/

[dnadalin]

RFMSports, have you tried the Kodak Kiosks?

Depending on purpose, the cost is hard to beat.
Printed 60 Christmas postcards with my kids on it, and they came out wonderfully. Costco is 30 min from here, Bartell is 3min. Much more convienent for the snapshots.

Of course if I wanted a 8x10 printed for framing, I would go to a more professional developer like "Costco". ;-)

[dnadalin]

Bob, I am feeding the Kodak printer JPEGS off a CD.

I think you're right, I need to specify the color profile for the Kodak. How do i do that?

At home I specify the Monitor and printer with Windows ICM and the work pretty good.
Is there something else I need to do to embedd the information into the file?

[robertwgross]

dnadalin, did you read the posting from RFMSports?

---Bob Gross---

[dnadalin]

I assume you meant RTFM ;-)

Yes, after I made my replies I went to the link given. I'll be doing some studying.

Any tips would be useful.

Thanks.

[dnadalin]

Jim, thanks for the link to Dry Creek Photo.

I can't afford the spyder for calibration, so it will have to be Adobe gamma for now.

I plan to test out the Costco photo lab this weekend.

However, checking the Costco web site, they appear to suggest the Kodak digital print solution?

http://www.costco.com/frameset.asp?trg=photocenter%2Easp&catid=2781&log=


I'll have to see what I find when I get to the store.

Anyway, thanks for the help.

[defordphoto]

Hey I can't afford the Spyder either. But, my system spits out to the printer what I see on the screen here. Once you get that resolved then it's a matter of printer profiles.

To be honest, when I've printed at Costco, I haven't used any profiles. I haven't printed that often, but they've turned out great! I'm very happy with the Costco quality. I'll have to play with the profiles (I finally installed them! :) )

Now if you want real pro quality (note when I said Costco I said semi-pro). For pro, you'd have to hit a pro lab or pro shop that sends to a pro lab, of course.

[CanonUser]

Hi Guys,
What JPG resolution do you put on the CD to have the 4X6 or 8X10 printed? Or should I just spec a resolution ~250PPI for a given canvas size in Photoshop? Can I do a batch conversion from the RAW files dumped to the hard drive from the digital SLR?

Any input would be much appreciated. TIAs!

Regards,
Alan

[dnadalin]

I took my original problem prints and desaturated them slightly. I also reduced the contrast a bit and they turned out pretty good on the Kodak Kiosk. So I am still of the opinion it's a great convienant solution. Not for Semi-Pro or Pro pics, but equivelent to 1hr 35mm photos.

If you have a "calibrated" monitor this is the Pic we used for 50 xmas cards.
http://www.pbase.com/image/24208874

The Kodak printer had the red a bit more saturated, but overall quite good. I over exposed a some on the left so I can't blame that on the Kiosk.

I think it will be worth the effort to understand the differences, so I can send the wife there for her snapshot prints.

I didn't change the DPI at all for the 4x6 prints.
You can not tell it was a digital print. At all. No way, no how.
Trust me, I put it under a microscope by giving it to my mom. She always said, "can't you send me a real picture" when I sent something from the inkjet. She accepted it as a "real" picture.

David.

[robertwgross]

David, did you get Model Releases on those two gals?




---Bob Gross---