best digital photo printing service?

hi...

haven't actually seen this mentioned all that often...i've had varying results (qualitywise) with printroom, shutterfly and ofoto...curious what others experiences have been...

some companies have a habit of "altering" (i.e. similar to the one hour photo at wal-mart) images to achieve the "best" quality...i thought that WE were the ones doing the touchup work in photoshop : )

point is...i tried three different service with the same set of pictures...and go figure...three different sets of results!

all images started from a D-30 or Olympus E-10...

oddly enough...those overly "blue" E-10 flash pictures came out looking peculiarly natural (it isn't my setup...it's completely calibrated) so i wonder what gives...

i'd love to know just which company will deliver the best results...

you just gotta admit...those D-30 images look simply beautiful on glossy kodak paper : )

bob

Hi there!

I very very warmly recommend http://www.dotphoto.co​m to get outstanding quality prints of digital pictures. Joining dotphoto is free and you get 60 free 4x6 when you sign-up. You can then create albums to organize your pictures. Each picture can be up to 10MB in size. There is no limit on the space you can use up (although dotphoto asks to keep it under 1GB). Now comes the best part:

1. You can set your own price for the pictures (if you want to sell prints - very convenient if you shoot commercially)
2. They print the pictures exactly the way you submit them (i.e., they don't alter anything about your picture except cropping if you ask for and the print size is different from the submitted size)
3 The prints are OUTSTANDING. They use a continuous silver-halide process (same as for regular photography) -and the result shows. It's much better quality than what you can get with inkjets or dye sublimation prints.
4. Prints are very reasonnable (the larger size they do is 12x18 at $9.99).
5. You can purchase bulk prints, which makes it really cheap if you print a lot of pictures.

Dotphoto is geared towards professional photographers but everyone can sign-up. I have tried many online printers and that one really stands out. I warmly recommend you try it for yourself and let me know if you agree.

Cheers!

Philippe

PS: I'm not affialiated with dotphoto...but I really love them if you couldn't tell.

thanks so MUCH philippe! i didn't even know this company existed...didn't come up in the usual search engines...the other companies i mentioned also give use the usual silver halide process and kodak paper...although this odd retouching (resembles auto levels in photoshop...ugh!) is MOST annoying...

i'll be ordering prints from dotphoto this afternoon...and i'll let everybody know how they look later on this week...although i have a good feeling about it1

thanks again...

bob

Bob, no problem, let me know if you liked the results. I forgot to mention the paper these guys use: here is a cut and paste from their site:

"dotPhoto prints both on glossy and matte paper. Glossy prints are printed every day, and, because of the reduced demand, Matte paper is printed on Wednesdays only until demand develops for more frequent matte printing runs. If you wish to have your prints on matte paper, please click on the box to the left of "Matte Finish" located on the checkout screen.
dotPhoto uses Fuji Crystal Archive paper for both glossy and matte finishes; this paper has the longest fade life of any photo paper -- about 70 years versus 15 or 20 for standard photo papers. In other words, your images are more secure as dotPhoto prints. The matte paper is called "Lustre Matte."

I've never had any noticeable color shift to day...Enjoy!

Philippe

Anyone know of any similar photo services in Canada?

I'm not sure about canada, but note that dotphoto ships to Canada (and worldwide). The Canadian shipping rates seem pretty reasonable to me.

Sounds stupid, but walmart.com. They use Fuji Crystal Archive paper and the prints are better than excellent. You can have them shipped to you or to a Walmart near you for you to pick up. If you ship to the store, there is no shipping charge either.

Pete

thanks again philippe...

received my first set of prints from dotphoto...exactly as they looked on my screen...so i'm sold! funny thing is...they accidentally sent me two complete sets of pics...but only charged me for one!

so i can join you...i highly recommend dotphoto.com

thanks again!

bob

Hey Bob,

Good to hear that you ended up happy about dotphoto prints. Another one I just checked out is jumbogiant.com for very large prints. I ordered a 24x36 that turned out to be pretty good. They upsize the image for you (you provide a 150dpi file) and print glossy or mate. They did a pretty good job and unless you stick your nose on the print you can hardly see it comes from digital. The color rendition is really good too. Price is $25 for 24x36 plus shipping. They ship real fast (couple days). Check out their website (http://www.jumbogiant.​com) if you're looking for real big prints!

Cheers and Regads,

Phil

I prefer local labs!
I can go in - and tell them what I want (sometimes even over see printing) and I can get remakes for things I don't like.

Pick one lab - calibrate your monitor for their equipment!
I had several prints made, brought them to the computer and adjust my monitor color to match their prints. My digital previews on my monitor are now exactly like their prints. (they don't adjust color -they jump dump it into the machine and print it).
What I saw is what I get.

Many people are surprised to find that they have a local lab - and more surprised that they are capible of printing digital files photographically. We have to such local labs (that I know of - possibly even more).

That's very true, however if you sell your picture or share them with family/friends/colleag​ues all over the US and abroad who want prints---and you're too lazy/overworked/broke to deal with shipping/printing costs and logistic, these online printers are very convenient. The only thing is that you want them to come close enough to your original images colorwise and quality wise, even if not 100% perfect. So both options are great to have depending on the needs.

Cheers

Phil

It's' not really that specilized of a service any more. Man people are surprised to find that they have local labs that can print digital images.

We have 3 such labs within a 30 mile radius of our home. Getting personalized service and being able to get a reprint in case of a problem is a asset.

Look in your yellow pages for photo labs and photo finishing. Call the labs in your area and ask if they can print digital files.

My primary lab can print up to 10x15 on a Fuji Fronteir (these machines will appear in WALMART stores) Many have them already. They make excellent proofs and small enlargements to 10x15.

Another lab in my area has a Lightjet which can print anything up to 50x60". I get my studio display prints made there. They often let me work with the digital printing department during the printing of these larger enlargements.

Check your yellow pages and cross your fingers. If your in a rural area - check in the larger near by cities.

I use dotphoto with good luck. They will gladly redo ones if they dont suit me. They have the option not to add any enhancement to the photos which is what I want.

I asked at local Walmart and they said they can do them without enhancements too but I havent tried them yet.

i sent the same batch of photos to dotphoto.com and walmart.com to see the differences. in general the 8x10 prints from walmart's photo lab were sharper and had less noise than those same prints from dotphoto. somehow dotphoto's prints had digital noise or pixelation that just isn't present in the files. of course you have to look for the differences, they're subtle, but significant enough for me not to use dotphoto again. also i was disappointed that both only accepted .jpg files. do other shops accept tiff's?

btw, these pics really do look great on paper!

Jefffffff

For digital photo printing in Canada, just tried Japan Camera. The 5x7s came back crisp and clear... though I would have liked a little more contrast. (Not sure if that's their fault or mine... ie, not sure if they do any adjustments)

They take digital files in person or over their website, then you pick them up at one of their stores.

The price seems to be comparable to film reprints... and for small quantities, roughly the same as a dotphoto (when you take the exchange & shipping into consideration): Cdn$5 for 5x7s.

The advantage over web-based photo services is that these guys offer next day or, in a pinch, even same day service.

s.