Photobox ftw!

Roen

Wooo,
just got my first digital print ever and it's turned out as good as I could have hoped. I just ordered two more on the strength of the first one.
I guess I was lucky that the old Adobe monitor calibration software thing worked out. Or just lucky I don't know.

I was a bit worried how a file from a 20D would look at 18x12 but I have to say I am well pleased with the result. Not bad value for €13.50 either!

rymus

first digital print EVER? My God man

I'm a firm believer that once your monitor is calibrated, you really can't go wrong with photobox. Every size and type of print comes out spot on. Their 18x12's are great, I've got three of them mounted & framed in front of me and love looking at them

Dimy

rymus wrote:

first digital print EVER? My God man

I'm a firm believer that once your monitor is calibrated, you really can't go wrong with photobox. Every size and type of print comes out spot on. Their 18x12's are great, I've got three of them mounted & framed in front of me and love looking at them

They're not self-portraits now are they? :rolleyes:

Zillah

How does one calibrate the monitor properly? Since I reinstalled windows my photoshop gives me an odd montor profile message at start up, but everything seems to look ok.

rymus

no, theyre all 20x30's hanging in the hallway...

Zillah, quite simply I just got a calibration print off photobox themselves and did a bit of matching to an onscreen image. Not the most technically correct way to do it but it sure worked

Zillah

20x30? Thats a damn big print!

Valentia

I can't remember my photobox password (odd because I just used it recently and I always the same one). Anyway when I request my password they always reply with the mail saying that "the password is at the bottom of this email" Guess what's at the bottom??

********** that's what!!!! How in the name of jazus am I supposed to figure that one out :rolleyes:

Roen

I just ran the Adobe Gamma thing in the Control Panel and took it from there, you can get hardware solutions but that's money. Would prolly be worth it if there was a few of ye in the class and you all chipped in.
20x30 is a fairly mighty print, did you do all the interpolation yourself Rymus or just have the Photobox crowd do it?

Zillah

What the hell is interpolation?

rymus

photobox do it. I just send em the highest res file I can to ease the job

Zillah; http://www.dpreview.com/learn/?/key=interpolation

Fionn

hmm i tried that calibration thing but i got lost!!!

i posted about my experiences here

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2054991732&referrerid=&highlight=

notwithstanding my experiences which may have been a one off
their prices (Foto.com) are very good
the closest they have to Roens 18x12 I could see is 17½x11¾ @€;4.99 or 23½x15½ for €5.99
delivery is €3.99

Zillah

rymus wrote:

Zillah; http://www.dpreview.com/learn/?/key=interpolation

Huh, thats very cool. Yes, seems like it should just be left to Photobox if they're willing to handle it.

fifth

Yes, i ordered a ton of prints off them a while back and am very pleased.

JMcL

Zillah wrote:

How does one calibrate the monitor properly? Since I reinstalled windows my photoshop gives me an odd montor profile message at start up, but everything seems to look ok.

At the most basic level, you can use Adobe Gamma, which comes with Photoshop. I've used Quick Gamma as well, which I found a bt more straightforward. These are better than nothing, but a hardware solution is better, as there's no subjectivity involved. These can be had from around €90 for the Pantone Huey, or around the same for a basic Spyder. The sky's the limit pricewise from there.

At the very least, if you want to make prints, use one of the gamma methods. The brightness on most monitors (laptops in particular) is set too high, so if you make something appear as you want it onscreen, it'll be too dark when printed, if the printer doesn't adjust for exposure etc (which is what you want). Photobox apparently don't do this, nor do Foto.com.

Zillah wrote:

Huh, thats very cool. Yes, seems like it should just be left to Photobox if they're willing to handle it.

Well, it's straightforward enough to do yourself, with the advantage that you can see what the results will be. Photoshop, Elements, GIMP, etc, etc all allow you to do it easily. Just go into the alter image size, enter the size you want to make it (pixels, cm, inches, whatever). Just make sure you go for at least bicubic interpolation.

Dimy

About Photobox... I think their Canvas prints are pretty expensive, I ordered a 90x60 cm Canvas for my mother's birthday last week for only € 121,-.
I'll give photobox a try for other prints though and maybe some poster-size prints as well . How are the delivered? It probably won't fit through the mailbox and my problem is that nobody is at home during daytime to accept packages.

rymus

the larger prints are delivered in strong cardboard tubes... They wont fit in the mailbox so you'll probably have to go to your regional sorting office to collect it.

Roen

Thanks for the replies all,
Fionn, the 18x12 option is there somewhere, down toward the bottom of the page I think. Here it is.

I did the same thing as well Rymus, just sent them the original file sa a jpg with quality set to max.

The prints come in a Fionn McCumhail sized toilet roll insert that looks pretty indestructible. It won't have a hope of fitting through the front door so our postie gave a ring and delivered it that way.

Cheers once more.