Who has their own printing "lab"?

And by lab, I mean anything as long as you use it to sell prints. I don't care if it's located on the 2nd shelf of the garage next to the lawnmower gas.

I have an Epson Stylus 1400 and a crapload of different paper. I don't sell wedding photos but do sell a lot of senior portraits and other minor stuff. Anything below 8x10 they just go to Wal-Mart it seems.

So tell me about your lab, what you use it for and if it's worthwhile...

I use a pro lab for most of my printing because they are close, reasonably priced and do a very nice job with printing. For some specialty printing or very short turnarounds I do anything 13x19 or less on my Epson 2880 using a wide range of Epson papers.

I use a pro lab because I trust them to print well, accurate, with expensive equipment I can't afford. Their photographic process is time tested, spraying ink on paper not so much ( though I always get flack when I say this ). Plus printing and printed calibration take time and skill.

I use Mpix through my Zenfolio account. They produce outstanding prints and have a ton of options. My clients also like it because they can go through and order exactly what they want without having to go through a middleman. Having the pro account on Zen gives me the option to price the prints how I want, so I can make a decent profit on them as well.

I also use Mpix and Zen. It turns print sales into free revenue. And my print sales volume is in that hazy middle ground; too much to want to go through the time and hassle to print myself and not enough to justify the cost of expensive equipment. And given the quality job and low prices of Mpix (among others), I can't imagine going any other way.

my studio orders through a lab mostly, but we have 2 dye sublimation printers which we use for printing on site at events as well as for rush orders. we have a shinko 2145 that prints up to 5x7 and an old fujifilm pictrography that goes up to 11x14. The fuji seems to have better print quality but it's definitely not portable like the shinko is.

at events, we typically set up a background and sell couples portraits printed on the spot from the shinko for $15 a print. it usually works out very well.

i use a pro lab, mainly because what i sell is A3 size.
Economically it makes more sense to use the pro lab

I use my R1800 or 7800 when I need only singles for non-wedding prints. Since I print on Kodak professional paper, one cannot tell the difference from mine, Miller's or WHCC e-prints. Color accuracy is dead on. It's a matter of complete system calibration - including your printer. Monitor calibration is useless if you don't take the time to calibrate your print as well. Generally though, I use a lab just to save the hassle and drop-ship. (even on single prints most of the time)

amonline wrote in post #9282906
Monitor calibration is useless if you don't take the time to calibrate your print as well.

Ain't that the truth. It's so much of a hassle using my 1400 I cringe at wasting paper just to get it right.

Aha! - tip of the hat to another R1800 user . Are you using Kodak paper with that Epson? So far I've just used the Epson, but have considered experimenting.

amonline wrote in post #9282906
I use my R1800 or 7800 when I need only singles for non-wedding prints. Since I print on Kodak professional paper, one cannot tell the difference from mine, .....

sapearl wrote in post #9284129
Aha! - tip of the hat to another R1800 user . Are you using Kodak paper with that Epson? So far I've just used the Epson, but have considered experimenting.

I use Kodak Professional Glossy and Luster papers - exact same paper as many Kodak paper based labs. I also use Ilford Galerie Smooth Pearl, Premium Photo Pearl and High Gloss from time to time. (I just really love those too) For cheapies, I use Epson 4 & 5. (5 for larger prints) Anyway, I recommend the Kodaks and Ilfords I mentioned. They're all outstanding... worth trying.

amonline wrote in post #9282906
Generally though, I use a lab just to save the hassle and drop-ship. (even on single prints most of the time)

I have a minimum order, I don't want the single print over. There's way too much overhead to be worth your while for one print, unless it's a fairly huge print.

tim wrote in post #9285260
I have a minimum order, I don't want the single print over. There's way too much overhead to be worth your while for one print, unless it's a fairly huge print.

Should have specified... I just meant for individual "friend-type" things. That is not the case for weddings or traditional clients.