Outsourced Printing?

I think I'm about to send off some photos to have printed. I searched for threads about printing companies, but I didn't come up with a whole lot of info. I did see where a couple of people mentioned WHCC and MPIX, but that was about it. Does anyone have experience whith these, or other companies, and have any suggestions?

There are many, many labs and it takes a lot of research to find the right one. I have printed from MPix, WHCC, Millers, ProDPI, and Black River. I used ProDPI and Black River most often because I prefer their paper and the results I've gotten from them.

However, to use these labs you have to be a legit pro photographer, you can't be a consumer. I know a few like WHCC and Millers require a Tax ID (or at least they did when I signed up) so if you don't have that I'd get one ASAP so you can access the lab you want. Or just print through MPix. Other people seem to like it and it's a consumer lab. I am personally not a fan (of MPix OR Millers) but it's just my personal preference.

Whichever lab you decide to use, Send in a test print before you send in a large order.

Thanks.

I noticed that WHCC suggests the X-Rite i1 calibration tool. I've seen people talking about other ones, but I don't have any experience with any of them. Is there really much difference?

4 weeks later, I just sent off my first order.

I just sent in an order to bay photo, I bought many samples off all their paper and textures. Wednesday I will get them.

http://Maxlab.net/

These guys do a great job!!!!

Peacefire. How are the prices at prodpi and black river? I use WHCC and MpixPro. I am assuming quality is comparable.

thebishopp wrote in post #12493480
Peacefire. How are the prices at prodpi and black river? I use WHCC and MpixPro. I am assuming quality is comparable.

It completely depends on what you are printing and what you print a lot of.

For instance, Company A (which has been mentioned in this thread) charges the lowest amount for a 4x6 print while Company B (also mentioned in this thread) charges $0.40 more. But for a 5x7 Company B charges $0.06 less then Company A.

So if there's no noticable difference between their labs I will opt for Company A when I'm making mostly 4x6 prints with a few 5x7s thrown in. But if I get a 100% 5x7 order I am going to print with Company B.

When researching print labs also take shipping costs into consideration. Most labs drop ship to the studio on file, but if you want to ship directly to your client there's a charge. And Company C charges $7.50 to drop ship to client while Company D only charges $3.50. And FWIW, I used to use Company C blindly for everything but after I did my research I realized I wasted over $100 last year when I could have been doing comparable printing for less as Company D.

The moral of the story- DO YOUR RESEARCH! It doesn't take long. I just picked 5 print sizes (4x6, 5x7, 8x10, 11x14, and 16x20) and came with the average cost for all the print labs. I combined that with their drop ship to customer cost and ranked them based on that. Then I picked the 5 most affordable labs and ordered print samples of the same 3 prints (some include this when you sign up, like WHCC and ProDPI). Then I compared and selected my lab based on cost, quality, and speed of delivery. Though, I still use a ridiculous combination of 3 labs just so I can get the best deal for quality possible.

PeaceFire wrote in post #12494050
It completely depends on what you are printing and what you print a lot of.

For instance, Company A (which has been mentioned in this thread) charges the lowest amount for a 4x6 print while Company B (also mentioned in this thread) charges $0.40 more. But for a 5x7 Company B charges $0.06 less then Company A.

So if there's no noticable difference between their labs I will opt for Company A when I'm making mostly 4x6 prints with a few 5x7s thrown in. But if I get a 100% 5x7 order I am going to print with Company B.

When researching print labs also take shipping costs into consideration. Most labs drop ship to the studio on file, but if you want to ship directly to your client there's a charge. And Company C charges $7.50 to drop ship to client while Company D only charges $3.50. And FWIW, I used to use Company C blindly for everything but after I did my research I realized I wasted over $100 last year when I could have been doing comparable printing for less as Company D.

The moral of the story- DO YOUR RESEARCH! It doesn't take long. I just picked 5 print sizes (4x6, 5x7, 8x10, 11x14, and 16x20) and came with the average cost for all the print labs. I combined that with their drop ship to customer cost and ranked them based on that. Then I picked the 5 most affordable labs and ordered print samples of the same 3 prints (some include this when you sign up, like WHCC and ProDPI). Then I compared and selected my lab based on cost, quality, and speed of delivery. Though, I still use a ridiculous combination of 3 labs just so I can get the best deal for quality possible.

lol, I guess we do lose a lot money in incidentals that aren't normally paid (no pun intended) attention too.

I went ahead and signed up for prodpi (waiting on my 5 samples as we speak). I liked some of the different things they offered that mpixpro and whcc did not. I will also probably use 3 labs now from the looks of things.

Never gonna buy a printer. The semipro lab ios less than 2 miles away They have an Agfa something I don't care The lab makes money on overflow work from drug stores My $8.00 8x10 prints are a break. My lab is Fairview Photo Processing. it's the tech that makes the difference She runs the place with 40 years experience. Always willing to call me if I goofed up. I always get perfect prints. I print under 30 shots a year and srill get treated like gold.
Sam

Bayphoto rocks, check em out.

Bay photo as well here. And always get extra little things and there customer service it top notch. Ordered at xmas and got extra cards in every order I ordered. Changed my shipping address one day and they caught a glitch and called to fix. Got like 20 organic suckers one time just cause on a order and there prints alway's match my moniter.

Vmann, I hear ya. Everything I've had done there so far has been incredible. I really like all the options they have and the metal prints are just awesome.

Bay Photo actually had the best overall prices. The only reason I didn't go with them was two of the 8x10 prints I made looked a little dull to me. Very colorful photos, too. So be sure you do test prints because, while the results were VERY subtle and the average person probably wouldn't even notice, it turned me off. Though the black and white shot looked AMAZING!