Printing.... What do you do?

[GrJohnso]

It's easier than ever to get a good digital photo onto your computer, but then what?

What are people doing to get the best prints possible from their photographic/creative efforts?

Are you printing from home with all Name Brand ink/paper? Meaning, stick with OEM inks, OEM papers, and rely on their color matching? (I've done this for years, but....)

Are you using other inks, other papers, and doing your own print/color calibration?

Or somewhere between, OEM inks, but name brand papers with download able ICM profiles to help you match up?

Or do you do you own color matching/profiling for every type of media you print to that is not OEM?

I'm asking because I've just upgraded printers and am noticing some different results right away compared to what I was used to with my old setup.

Lastly, have you ever done the best setup you can at home, then also send out the same image to be printed by one of the big online shops, or even your local Ritz and compared results? How did you do? How do they do?

Just curious to hear what different people are doing with their "best" prints. Stuff you show off or print for customers...

 

[fuzzybabybunny]

I just do online printing. I don't have the need to buy and invest in a true photo printer because I hardly do any prints. I do my processing on a color calibrated monitor, convert to Adobe RGB, download the online printer's color profile, do a quick proof in Photoshop to see if their result is acceptable, and then send the images to them for printing.

If I were to print by myself, I'd probably color calibrate everything myself and print with some kind of CIS system: http://www.proprint.co.uk/ciss_basics.htm

But only if I became really serious and was actually selling lots of prints.

 

[tdawg]

I have an Epson R200 sitting on my desk at home and I used to print images with OEM inks that satisfied anybody whom I printed images for, but since I ran out of the OEM ink and replaced with cheapo ink carts, I cannot get a good print to save my life.

My monitor is calibrated with the Pantone HueyPro. I just recently sent some images to Kits/Ritz by my house and was more than pleased with what I got in return (reminded me of my film prints a couple of years back). Only thing that sucks is that I have all sorts of photo paper at home, but I haven't the stomach to purchase the OEM inks.

It's cheaper in the long run to do it at home, probably, but sending them to Kits and then running down there an hour later is much more convenient. Plus I don't have to worry about dust mites clinging to not-quite-dry prints coming out of the printer. And if any do on the prints from Kits, I just show it to them and ask them (nicely) to try again.

 

[virtuamike]

Print at home. Epson R2400, OEM ink and paper.

 

[PowerRanger]

I upload my photos online to a local camera store. Free delivery too, since they're not too far away from me. I've always wanted to print my own prints though.

 

[randomlinh]

I gave up on printing myself. I'm not doing proofs for anyone, just 4x6's for the family. the instant gratification is nice, but no matter what, there's always the few that come out banding, or something is wrong. 3rd party ink gets difficult to match colors properly... and fading issues I had...

 

[GrJohnso]

Thanks for the replies.. I'm kinda leaning the same way these days. Proofs and family stuff at home, volume low, so I stay with the OEM inks and either OEM papers or ones I can get an ICM profile for. Other than that, I think the big jobs are going out to mpix, etc... Still, nice to have the option to throw something together at home if the need is there.

I just have been pretty disappointed with the local Ritz(Kits) and Cosco jobs quite often.... Need to wait a couple days longer for someplace like MPix or Snapfish to deliver... Ah well, I'm not like I'm doing anything good enough to sell..