Help! Advice for Prints from Sam's Club?

craftgirl

I needed an inexpensive way to get my stuff printed for clients. So I joined Sam's Club because of thier prices and many recommendations from fellow photogs. I know each store will be a different experience depending on who takes care of the equipment. Here is my problem since the manager will not be in till next week...

I ordered prints on line to test out thier printing quality, not too happy with the outcome.
The machine that prints the smaller photos had great color (4x6 & 5x7) but the enlargement machine printed on the yellow side. YUCK....Can I let them know that and can they do anything to the machine to calibrate it better?

Also, Do all Fuji etc. machines print low res? The print on the back of the photos says lowres, I thought I wanted hi res? again I am clueless about this kind of stuff so any info would be helpful!

The cropping was unexpected and horrendous(sp)....On line they did not state or make it availible for me to choose my own cropping like other places Ive been to. The lady at the counter said I should come in and have them printed to control the crop. Can I change the photo size in photo shop(ie. 8x10 or 11x14) and have it come out right or will I have to use the fuji machine?
I am not sure if I am wording any of this right or getting my point across correctly so...
Thank you in advance for your help!

jhmjcm

Are you using a color managed workflow - i.e. have you calibrated your monitor and are using soft proofing?

If so, you may be able to find an ICC profile for your local Sam's Club at Dry Creek Photo. If I recall correctly, they also have a service to profile printers they don't already have in their database.

If you do soft proof, you should be getting fairly consistent results with what you see on the screen when compared to the print. There will be some minor differences due to the manner in which a screen is lit and reflective light on the print. If the two printers are producing different results when you soft proof, one is out of calibration and you will probably need to find a different printing source.

One thought: Why not use SmugMug for your printing? I've had excellent results.

Jim

vegasphotog

Are you a Smugmug customer? If you are ordering online...EZ Prints is the way to go for sure.....the quality and embedded profiles work well....

So, either upload via your smugmug account or go directly to www.ezprints.com

DavidTO

Just doesn't sound like it's worth the pennies you save, IMO. Why hassle with a printer that doesn't make good prints? You get what you pay for, and you're paying for it now!

craftgirl

DavidTO wrote:

Just doesn't sound like it's worth the pennies you save, IMO. Why hassle with a printer that doesn't make good prints? You get what you pay for, and you're paying for it now!

I agree with you there...lol. either that or only get 4x6 and 5x7's printed...lol

craftgirl

jhmjcm wrote:

Are you using a color managed workflow - i.e. have you calibrated your monitor and are using soft proofing?

If so, you may be able to find an ICC profile for your local Sam's Club at Dry Creek Photo. If I recall correctly, they also have a service to profile printers they don't already have in their database.

If you do soft proof, you should be getting fairly consistent results with what you see on the screen when compared to the print. There will be some minor differences due to the manner in which a screen is lit and reflective light on the print. If the two printers are producing different results when you soft proof, one is out of calibration and you will probably need to find a different printing source.

One thought: Why not use SmugMug for your printing? I've had excellent results.

Jim

Jim, I feel like a dummy cause I really dont know about what you are describing. I have soooo much to learn. I think I may have to check out smugmugs prints! duh, I really dont know why i didnt think of that!

craftgirl

vegasphotog wrote:

Are you a Smugmug customer? If you are ordering online...EZ Prints is the way to go for sure.....the quality and embedded profiles work well....

So, either upload via your smugmug account or go directly to www.ezprints.com

This is the general concensus, thanks for the input! I will use your link right now to check it out!

jcdill

craftgirl wrote:

Jim, I feel like a dummy cause I really dont know about what you are describing. I have soooo much to learn. I think I may have to check out smugmugs prints! duh, I really dont know why i didnt think of that!

It's really easy to order prints from SmugMug - I wouldn't bother going directly to EZPrints as you don't save anything and SmugMug has a better interface.

However, you will never get an exact match for the colors you see on your computer unless you have a color managed workflow. To do this you have to profile your monitor, then softproof the images with the color profile for the printer.

You CAN get good photos from Sams Club, Costco, etc. IF you use a color managed workflow. Check and see if Dry Creek Photo has an ICC profile for the printers at your local Sams Club.

Good luck!

craftgirl

Again, I thank you. I will definatley check it out.

jhmjcm

craftgirl wrote:

Jim, I feel like a dummy cause I really dont know about what you are describing. I have soooo much to learn. I think I may have to check out smugmugs prints! duh, I really dont know why i didnt think of that!

Judging by your response, the best place to start is ordering through SmugMug and choosing the Auto Color option when you order prints. The Auto Color option will correct a multitude of sins and will generally produce a very acceptable print.

When you are ready to delve deeper, I would suggest first reading Real World Color Management, 2nd Edition by Bruce Fraser, Chris Murphy & Fred Bunting. Many consider this to be the definitive color management reference and it provides a wealth of information. Then, with the knowledge you will have gained, you will want to obtain a hardware calibration device for your monitor along with calibration software. There are several choices available on the market at different costs. The old rule of "what you get is what you pay for" applies here; however, there are good solutions to be had at reasonable cost.

The software you use for photo editing will need to be color aware. The gold standard here is Adobe Photoshop CS3. I use this along with Adobe Lightroom for asset management. The two programs are color aware and integrate well.

Just to touch on a few other issues: There is the RAW vs. JPEG debate which, to my mind, has been pretty well settled in favor of RAW when working with RAW files became as easy as working on JPEG files. Then there is the "print yourself" vs. "send to commercial printer" debate. I send my color work out to a commercial lab (SmugMug/EZPrints or MPIX) depending on the type of paper I want to use. Black and white work is still an open debate with me and probably will be for the forseeable future.

Jim

Tommyboy

Help! Advice for Prints from Sam's Club?
Don't.

craftgirl

jhmjcm wrote:

Judging by your response, the best place to start is ordering through SmugMug and choosing the Auto Color option when you order prints. The Auto Color option will correct a multitude of sins and will generally produce a very acceptable print.

When you are ready to delve deeper, I would suggest first reading Real World Color Management, 2nd Edition by Bruce Fraser, Chris Murphy & Fred Bunting. Many consider this to be the definitive color management reference and it provides a wealth of information. Then, with the knowledge you will have gained, you will want to obtain a hardware calibration device for your monitor along with calibration software. There are several choices available on the market at different costs. The old rule of "what you get is what you pay for" applies here; however, there are good solutions to be had at reasonable cost.


The software you use for photo editing will need to be color aware. The gold standard here is Adobe Photoshop CS3. I use this along with Adobe Lightroom for asset management. The two programs are color aware and integrate well.

Just to touch on a few other issues: There is the RAW vs. JPEG debate which, to my mind, has been pretty well settled in favor of RAW when working with RAW files became as easy as working on JPEG files. Then there is the "print yourself" vs. "send to commercial printer" debate. I send my color work out to a commercial lab (SmugMug/EZPrints or MPIX) depending on the type of paper I want to use. Black and white work is still an open debate with me and probably will be for the forseeable future.

Jim

I will check out the book! I use CS2 and just picked up a book to help me really learn what it can do.

Thank you so much for your great advise!