UK Hosting & Printing

[bigrob]

Hi

For all the UK photogs out there on POTN.

Can anyone give me advice on who they use to host & print (links, prices etc).

I have been looking at http://www.photoboxgallery.com/

Anyone on here use them? I have had my home photos printed by Photobox since 2003 & I have been very happy with their customer service.

However look at some of their Pro Galleries is extremely slow.

I want to be able to offer a range of products (t-shirts, calendars etc etc).

Thanks in advance.

[jonwhite]

I used to use Photobox for my print sales but ditched them over a year ago when I decided I wanted something of higher quality plus their pro galleries were in a complete mess at the time because they changed their website and ignored the pro galleries. No doubt things have improved there now because they have spent time updating the pro galleries but as one of the people who tested it early on I found it very disappointing how bad things were to start with and how slow they were at fixing things.

For that reason I removed my print sales from their site and now I host my own gallery via Photocart (http://www.picturespro.com/) and then print via Loxley Colour (http://www.loxleycolour.com/) who are a proper professional lab who don't sell to consumers so their focus is business sales.

The big advantage of doing it this way is that I retain control of everything, I can change my lab if I want to but everything still looks the same to my customers. Because I arent tied to a single supplier I can also order from multiple suppliers at the same time which is something I do because I dont buy my canvas prints from Loxley Colour.

Photobox are generally pretty good for print quality but I did some comparisons between them and some pro labs and the pro labs definitely have the edge.

If you want something cheap and cheerful then Photobox will probably do it for you but if you want something where you have more control over then I would suggest not tieing yourself to one lab.

[bigrob]

Thanks Jon - I will have a look at those.

[ahobden]

I use these guys for my printing, alway been happy with their service and products http://www.dscolourlabs.co.uk/

[bigrob]

Thanks I'll check them out.

[g3org3y]

Any follow up to this?

I've noticed people using Smugmug and Zenfolio - any good? Applicable to the UK market?

I want a site where I can:

- Display my albums
- Offer people the opportunity to purchase the images in a variety of sizes
- Have a blog
- Look good/professional

[bigrob]

It was something like those that I'm looking for that links in to a UK printer.

Photobox's progalleries are SO slow.

I need more time to investigate Jon's recommendation.

[dreamcatcher23]

There are a few companies doing this in the UK. http://www.onevisionimaging.com/ is a print producer that you can use with imagefile, peak imaging in sheffield offer a similar service too. Also check out exposuremanager and ED.

However, we've found photobox to offer consisitently great service - their system is "set and forget" and needs no user interaction once upload is complete (a godsend if selling hundres / thousands of photos a month). Yes the website is slow, but we haven't noticed a reduction in sales since moving from a faster service, so it doesn't really bother me.

Edit: The other services are expensive too, from £50 setup, £30-£50+ a month, commerce fees and higher print prices. Simply not worth it against photobox, yes we might lose some sales due to the speed, we're still better off with them than paying so much more for everything else. Quite frankly, I think the only way they would be superior is if you charge a high price AND have a high volume. For low-mid price/high volume photobox wins out, and for low volume it's defintley for the winner, you may even prefer to print your own photos.

[bigrob]

Thanks for that Dreamcatcher.

[Racerman]

i've used Photobox and also DS Colour Labs as said above really can't complain with DS they are only around 7 miles away from me so I always have my stuff the next day, the print prices are excellent and you can also download the profile to apply to your images before you send them off so you don't get a nasty surprise when they come back if they are a tad dark :)

[urbanbridesmaid]

+1 for Loxleys

Also have a look at Colorworld Image Partner (http://www.colorworldimaging.co.uk/ImagePartner/tabid/101/Default.aspx) for online client photo hosting/ordering.

If you are resizing them yourself and then posting to the client - have a look at Pro Am Imaging (http://www.proamimaging.com/).

[dreamcatcher23]

+1 for pro-am, we use them for all our large volume stuff and they're stunning. Bloody cheap too.

[landl]

I'm so glad I did a search first and saw this. I was about to post a question on UK print labs as I've been using photobox for many years and have been ok with the quality. However, I ordered a calendar from them a couple of weeks ago and was very pleased with the results, so ordered another in the exact same style with only a couple of pictures changed from the original. Well, The second calendar was much much darker and had a yellow/orange cast on all the pages (not just the photographs). It was awful. I am not a pro but I would hate to have wildly different prints come back of the same uploaded picture.