Costco B&W question

I’ve been a fan of Costco photo printing for some time. I prefer White House but in a time crunch Costco has always been quite good. Holiday crunch time……

I am trying to print a B&W, something I have not done at Costco. I edited the image, soft proofed using the Costco profile with no visible change. My monitor is calibrated using a Spyder3. I submitted the image online and ordered an 11x14 and a 12x18. My profile at Costco has autocorrect turned off.

I picked up the images and they are sepia toned. I asked that they be reprinted as B&W and they told me they printed what I sent them. The only way they could get to B&W was to turn auto correct on. That got B&W but bumped the contrast too.

What am I doing wrong and how do I get B&W prints that look like my monitor?

Hmm, I don't know, I think I've had B&W prints done by them with good results...

But I do have a printer here at home that if I just do a B&W straight out of Lightroom/Photoshop/Wh​atever, the prints come out with a "tone"/cast/whatever..​.in the print driver I've had to specify "Black Print Only", something like that, I guess I'll have to play with Costco more!

I'll have to try that. It seems that, if a white has all the RGB values equal, it should print as white & not sepia.

I've printed from Costco with great success. My B&Ws come out as B&W. If you're using LR and you're using the B&W conversion, I don't see how it's going to come out sepia, whether you print it yourself, at Walmart, Costco, Mpix, etc. Are you sure you're not using any split toning in your B&W conversion?

In the past I have had problems with inkjet printers printing monochrome images with a slight green tint. Since I have benn using my MG5150 with Canon paper and OEM ink it hasn't been a problem. I put it down to the cheap ink and paper I was using in my old Epson.

Alan

Dave,

I have had one B&W at Costco printed a couple times at different sizes with no problems and good results. But I sometimes (and lately) get into a thing where the color prints are off. dark. Did they do a reprint for you besides with the Auto on?

bpiper7 wrote in post #16534533
Dave,

I have had one B&W at Costco printed a couple times at different sizes with no problems and good results. But I sometimes (and lately) get into a thing where the color prints are off. dark. Did they do a reprint for you besides with the Auto on?

They did but when they turned autocorrect on they boosted the contrast which rendered the image harder than I wanted. Useable but I've gone through this process 4 times with them now and I believe it should be a simple deal. I think I'll try another local Costco.

HiepBuiPhotography wrote in post #16534306
I've printed from Costco with great success. My B&Ws come out as B&W. If you're using LR and you're using the B&W conversion, I don't see how it's going to come out sepia, whether you print it yourself, at Walmart, Costco, Mpix, etc. Are you sure you're not using any split toning in your B&W conversion?

So it's got to be either me or my local Costco...

But another question for you - do you use the Dry Creek method of converting the image to the Costco profile and saving it without an embedded profile? For my color stuff I've tested both ways with Costco and seen no difference.

I've done it both ways with these B&W with the same results also.

I have a product that the client will hopefully be happy with but I will definitely go back and figure this out with Costco.

Titus213 wrote in post #16534574
... I think I'll try another local Costco.

Good idea. While my Costco has been great, I've heard that some few others aren't.