To get prints made, what do you take to the processor?

[dennykyser]

CD, Compact Flash Card,

What file type of picture. JPEG, TIFF, RAW

What size of file for eacth pic?

Sorry for all the questions but reading all I can but still not sure of a lot of things.

Thanks for the patience.
Denny

[Vegas Poboy]

Here in Vegas it all depends on where you go, Sams Club & Wolf prefer Jpegs due to the large file size of Tiffs. I have a Pro-shop I give my major work to & they will take TIFFs and lower. I burn the files to CD/CD-RW and save them with the name & print size.( Paul 5x10 etc.)
Over all I prefer to save my work in this order PSD -Tiff - Jpeg. So pick a shop that has a good rep and speak with the tech and see. Overall try to stay away from those quicky printers to me they're not worth the time or $$.

[PacAce]

Most places will take CF memory cards or burned CDs. If you're going to burn a CD, I would stick with CD-R instead of CD-R/W since some places may have difficulty reading the CD-R/W.

[TeraGram93013]

Hiya Denny!

What I did the last time I made prints was to create a new folder on the CF card and placed all the images to print into it.

The problem arises when you've got images that you've just shot and haven't previewed. I took the card to Costco (which believe it or not actually exceeded my expectations for print quality). Their machine reads every folder on the card so I had to page through quite a few images before I got to the folder that had the pics I wanted to print.

It was a lot more time consuming than I had anticipated.

In the future I will probably just burn my images onto a CD.

[ssim]

I use pretty much the same process as Vegas. If I'm just printing for my own personal enjoyment my local Walmart does a pretty good job. I normally wait until have a few to print and then burn them onto a CD as JPG and use their self service center. I have taken in duplicates, one in TIFF and the other in JPG and there is no noticeable differences in the prints.

For really good prints I use a pro online service and I can upload the TIFF's to their server and a few days later I have my prints. They are a little more pricey but the results are excellent. The largest that I have printed from my 10D is 11X14 and the quality was great.

[Orogeny]

I generally use Walmart for my prints. Around Thanksgiving, I took my CF card to my local store to have some print made using their self-service kiosk. While uploading my pictures, their system crashed. After they re-booted, I tried to re-start the upload but both kiosks reported 0 files on the CF card. In a bit of panic, I went home and thankfully all the photos were still there. Ever since then, I have burned my photos onto a CR-R since I know that data cannot be erased from them.

As far as file type, mostly I use .jpg since I print 4x6 pictures. There is no difference in quality between .tiff and .jpg when printed at 4x6.

Tim

[maderito]

I generally use Walmart for my prints. Around As far as file type, mostly I use .jpg since I print 4x6 pictures. There is no difference in quality between .tiff and .jpg when printed at 4x6.
Tim

I agree about 4 X 6 print.

My questions are : At what level of enlargement does a Tiff image print better than a JPEG (with minimal compression)? Are most/all photo printing systems using 8 bits/channel or can some take advantage of a 16 bit Tiff file.

I can certainly see JPEG compression artifacts on web images, many of which are often highly compressed. I haven't noticed them on 8 X 10 prints.

[evilenglishman]

--

[TeraGram93013]

if in doubt, why not ask the people who will be doing the printing

Well, if you're having your prints made at some place like Santa Barbara's Armstrong Imaging Center (http://www.armstrongimaging.com), you'll probably get viable and valuable information.

But at Wally World? :lol:

[JStone]

Our lab has a Noritsu 2711 and we have multiple kiosks...so, we can handle every type of media card out there except CDRWs they're a no-no.

For file types..TIFFs can be dealt with but not quickly, JPEGs are definately preferred and recommended...If a TIFF comes in it has to be 8 bit.

For the most part customers are using the kiosk and only "sending" us the images they want printed...and they get to my lab encoded with quantity and size information...It also saves us from having to decipher the notes and we used to have descrepincies(sp?) from "camera file names" to "actual file names"....Also, the kiosk will let a customer know if the resolutionisn't enough for the print they are requesting.

Personally, I bring a CF card (fits in the pocket & reusable--and, since I work here if it were to get lost or damaged (which has never happened) I know where to get another. On the card I create a folder "To Print" inside of that are sub-folders: "1 4r m" (1 4x6 matte each), "3 810 g" (3 8x10 gloss each) and so on. The lab does their job and I get my prints and card back.

I always recommend to customers that they don't leave the only copy or original with us...It has never happened but god forbid if it did....because there is always the chance that the CD could get scratched and be rendered unusable...at least if it is a dupe we can provide a free cd to replace the scuffed one...but like I said, most customers no longer leave media with us thanks to the kiosks.

[arthurb]

Well, lets see, Flash card costs $50-250. If the place loses it or I lose it on the way there, I have to buy another, with a big budget hit. Plus I have to mark which prints I want printed.

A cd-r costs $0.25-1.00, if I lose it etc, no big deal. I copy to it only the pictures I want printed and tell the attendent, "Print All".


I don't think that the consumer photo finishing places can use tiff or raw.

Sombody laughed about Wal-Mart, but at least the ones near me do a good job. And its cheaper than using the home printer, when you take into account the prices of ink cartridges, and good paper.

[dennykyser]

I agree, Some of the Wal-Mart Stores use the newer computerized systems and they do quite well for most cases. I had a wedding customer one time that wanted a 5 X 7 that day so her Mother could take it that day. I explained that there was no way, unless I took it to Wal-Mart, thats what she wanted to do. I told her I was in no way responsible for the results and told her not to judge my work by there print.

We were amazed, the only differance was the Studio Name was not on the print.

I know that is a NO NO for client work, and if it was a larger size probably would have been a diff, or maybe to some pros eyes, but to hers she was thrilled.

[TeraGram93013]

I just feel the need to clarify something here.

I wasn't laughing at anyone about getting prints made at Walmart. Afterall, I get a lot of my prints made at Costco!

What I was laughing at was the expectation of getting viable and valuable information for an important project from a Wal-Mart clerk.

There are exceptions in any case, of course. But Wal-Mart isn't exactly known for paying good money to hire competent professionals. More than likely the person running whatever machine they have knows exactly how to do the job for 90% of the customers that walk into Wal-Marts doors, and so most of the time you're going to get decent prints.

Cripes, the few times I've been in the Wal-Mart in Oxnard I couldn't even find someone to tell me where the freakin' item I was looking for resided within their store. So, understandably, my expectations of getting accurate technical responses from any one of their employees is rather low.

[arthurb]

I liked the story about how the client was satisified with the Wal-Mart print.

Granted they do make fairly good prints up to 8x10. But the main thing it shows is the true value of a photograph.

99% of the people out there can't tell and don't care is a photo was taken with "L" glass and processed buy the best lab on the planet. If the colors are good and its not blury, most folks are happy.

The memory is the most important part of a photograph.

TeraGram93013 you are right about getting questions answered, they are not know for hiring the best and the brightest, but the people in their photo lab area are at least willing to try and help.

[dennykyser]

Actually a couple things to keep in mind. If you do this too often and people see "their photographer" getting prints done at walmart they begint to talk and think that your not a pro, also the employees start to do the same. Also is harder to justify your pricing.

When I was doing weddings quite often I would send my wife down when we just had snapshots.

[ashforth]

I found that Ofoto provides great service. I just send them the images over the internet and get them back in a few days via USPS. I also can send the photos to anyone who has a PC with internet access and they can also place orders.

Ofoto is a Kodak company and the prints are what you would expect from Kodak.

Herb

[sjprg]

If you need large prints
http://www.calypsoinc.com/

Paul