Looking for good quality inexpensive printing

dinneenp

Hi,
I'm looking to get 2 good quality prints that'll last but also 'inexpensive'.
I already have the frames with mount, they're for an exhibition & hopefully to be sold.

I'm 1/2 thinking of dry mounting them too, some people say there's no need, some recommend it.

I'm looking for-
1 12" by 12"
1 20" by 30"

Photobox charge:
€7.25 for 12" by 12", Printed on FujiFilm Crystal Archive digital photographic paper
€25 for 20" by 30", Printed on FujiFilm Crystal Archive digital photographic paper

Davids, Salthill in Galway €8.95 for 12" by 12" and €50 for 20" by 30" (poster).
Have to check the paper quality.

360-dpi €30 for Pearl and €52 for Fine Art for 20" by 30", I'll have to phone Steve to ask for 12" by 12" price and what exactly is Pearl and Fine Art quality.
Anyone recommend anywhere?
Thanks in advance,
Pa.

stcstc

make sure your comparing like with like.

for example. photobox use srgb jpeg as their default source. along with the tech they use. means that my prints have a considerably bigger colour gamut.

the default paper i use (pearl) is actually hanemuhle lustre

fine art papers are from canson and hanemuhle

the other thing is the prices, 30+vat for 30*20 on pearl this is a one off price, depending on how many there is a discount

the other thing if you want to present the images in the best possible way, ideally 20*30 wants to be dry mounted so it stays flat


hope that helps

almorris

Hands in Mullingar?

dinneenp

No such thing as a stupid question but.....if the larger print is black and white can the final result still vary (cheap vs. expensive print) a lot or would it be a lot more noticeable in a colour print?

stcstc

in my experience yes

lot of mass produced prints, photobox etc dont produce the best B&W prints and when they get big is is much more noticable

dinneenp

stcstc wrote: »

in my experience yes

lot of mass produced prints, photobox etc dont produce the best B&W prints and when they get big is is much more noticable

Thanks. I went with Cancer in Galway in the end. I've dealt with them before for large prints and liked the results.

RoiSoleil

I've used Snapmad for years now and am always pleased with the results.

elysium321

I'm looking for a decent standard 6 x 4 digital prints service either in Dublin or online.
I read some older threads and people seems to be happy with Photobox but unfortunately I wasn't impressed with them. The actual print quality is fine but even if I select 'shrink to fit' will come out cropped and in a completely random way.
Can anyone recommend an alternative?
Cheers

DaireQuinlan

Photobox. If your shots aren't in a 6x4 aspect ratio natively then select a different size that's a better fit or manually crop them. In photobox once you add them to the basket you can go through each one and set the crop rectangle.

elysium321

Thanks, I'm aware of that. That's why I picked the 'shrink image' option with white borders where needed.
But the photos still came out cropped with no white borders.

DaireQuinlan

elysium321 wrote: »

Thanks, I'm aware of that. That's why I picked the 'shrink image' option with white borders where needed.
But the photos still came out cropped with no white borders.

You're probably doing something wrong, but it's probably worth your while getting onto photobox and asking them about it, they have a good support team.

elysium321

I'll ask them alright. Unfortunately it's not the first problem I had with them. That's why I'm looking for alternatives.
Thanks anyway.

elysium321

Just checked the order again. This is what I went for:

Shrink to fit
Shrink to fit allows you to get your whole photo printed. Your image isn't cropped but you will get white edges along two sides (usually the two longest sides).

Only 2 out of 35 photos have white edges, the rest is cropped.

toe_knee

I have used photobox for large B&W prints and they were awful. Green colour cast. I got back onto them and they asked me to re upload and they sent me another one free of charge with the same problem. I also got a 6x4 off them of the exact same photo and it was perfect. I would not use them for large B&W prints anymore. I get a friend to print them for me now and the results are amazing.

DaireQuinlan

toe_knee wrote: »

I have used photobox for large B&W prints and they were awful. Green colour cast. I got back onto them and they asked me to re upload and they sent me another one free of charge with the same problem. I also got a 6x4 off them of the exact same photo and it was perfect. I would not use them for large B&W prints anymore. I get a friend to print them for me now and the results are amazing.

They use different technologies AFAIK for different sizes. Anything up to 8x10s is lightjet onto RA4, and anything bigger is inkjet. Did you have a RGB profile embedded in your image ? If so from what I remember they'll print it as-is, they don't have any way of telling whether or not it's meant to 'be' a B&W or not so the fault could lie with your original file.

I've just realised typing this that I sound like a complete photobox shill :-D I'm not connected in any way with them, I've just used them pretty extensively for years and never had a problem with the prints, and any process related problems I've had with them they've resolved immediately.

elysium321

I'll get onto their support this evening, it's just surprising that even though I use them only occassionally and I've had 3 issues with them already. Whereas my colleague uses them on regular basis and never had any problems.

toe_knee

No I did not embed the profile (will have to look this up, never knew about this). Strange though that the when I got it printed elsewhere I had no issue regardless of size. When I got onto there customer service (which is excellent, got 2 prints and credit as I was not happy) they never mentioned that and could not explain why there would be a colour cast on the larger print and not the smaller one.