Costco printing woes - suggest an alternative

silverstang23 wrote in post #16565110
When it comes to printing, you usually get what you pay for

I agree that is usually the case, however I have found (thanks to other forum members) an absolutly superb lab that does stunning work. Whats even better is they are "Cheap as chips!" Unfortunatly they are not going to be of much help to the OP as they are in the UK. They are DS Colour Labs based in Manchester.

Alan

For a variety of reasons I have taken the time to calibrate my workflow for a multiple print sources.
I can prepare a print in Lightroom and photoshop, then prepare a file for printing in Lightroom and send it to:
A) my 3880
B) my Costco
C) Pro Lab A
D) Pro Lab B
E) specialty printer A
F) book publisher A

And the output is virtually indistinguishable.

What I do?

Make sure color input profiles are known.
Make sure that color profiles while post processing are known.
Always export form a known source for printing and assign a known color space to the image on export.

Usually, color problems at a single output source are the result of one of two things, poor color management through the process, or poor color management at the point of final print production.

I know my process, so, when there is a problem, I know what to suggest the printer do to correct it.

If you don't know how to help the printer fix the problem then you don't have control of your process.

And just to make sure all my print sources stay up to snuff, I send them a test image every so often.

My best advise is to uncheck the "auto-correct my images" box on the Costco Photo Center webpage. It shows the option towards the end of ordering. My prints have all come out spot on while using Costco.