# Prints - At Home or To a Lab?



## yustr (Sep 27, 2004)

I tried to make a print (of the Sunrise photo posted last week) on my Epson printer and was not at all happy with the results. So I'm wondering what the rest of you do when you want to make a print. Do you have a home printer that gives good results? If so, which one? Or, do you do like I did this afternoon, take it to my local photo lab to see how they do. (BTW: A 8x10 will cost me $6.50)


----------



## WereBo (Apr 5, 2008)

Although I haven't actually tried them, my local supermarkets and pharmacies have pic-printing boxes, they look a bit like free-standing ATM's. I've glancingly seen prints off some of them and they not too bad, but I don't know about the prices.

For my own stuff, I've been very satisfied with HP DeskJet (and now OfficeJet) printers - Mrs WereBo's old desktop still runs a perfectly good DeskJet 5650 and I've got an OfficeJet 6000 hooked to my router. Both give very good hoto-prints on ordinary paper, on 'Photo-paper' they're excellent


----------



## zuluclayman (Dec 16, 2005)

I use my printer for up to A4 then use a photo-lab/print specialist for anything larger - well we do have an A3 printer at work specifically bought for printing photos, so can at a pinch use that if I only need A3.
My printer is an older (3-4yrs?) Epson - the most important thing is to set up the printing parameters - dpi, type of paper, print quality etc. Make sure you are printing at top quality - in my case the setting is "best photo" - this will determine the number of colours, gradation levels giving best shading etc. 
Ensuring that I have correctly selected the type of paper - "glossy photo" if I am printing on gloss etc. - this determines the amount of ink deposited and so the depth of colour, durability and colour fastness.
Another thing that often causes grief to workflow is colour space - matching the colour space the photo was taken in with that used in editing, your monitor's colour profile and the whether the printer handles colour management or uses the editing software's colour management. Mismatches in any of these steps can cause the image to look quite different to how it may appear on your computer monitor and lead to disappointment with the printed result.

I use the sRGB colour profile on my camera, Photoshop is set to "preserve colour space" so uses that colour space when editing, my monitor is set to the same colour profile (sRGB) and the printer uses the software's colour management so mostly the prints look pretty much like the image on my monitor - that is unless my son has been gaming and set the gamma differently :sigh:


----------



## Mack (Nov 8, 2004)

Projected images and printed images are, as you know different mediums. Printing an image that looks good on screen won't have the same effect when printed.

I brighten my images for printing by 20% and push up the colours by 10 to 20% and increase contrast by 10% and the all important sharpning by I like to stay below 5%.

Yes you need to calibrate your monitor but the printed image will still be different. 

I have always found epson paper to be good. But another consideration is matt or gloss. Again a huge diffenence in vdu vs printer, whatever you choose will have a dramatic effect on the finished article.


----------



## zuluclayman (Dec 16, 2005)

yup - as Mack says an image onscreen will look different - no backlighting on the printed image :laugh: 
Many computer users have their monitors set way too bright (same with TV's) they are often left at the factory/shop preset which is designed to look really enticing - bright, bright supersaturated colours - not conforming to any of the industry standard colour profiles (most monitors have a brand oriented/proprietary profile that is installed with the drivers etc)
As for paper - yes go with the paper designed for use with your printer - Epson for Epson etc - even within brands there are varying qualities - in Epson there is quite a difference between their standard glossy paper and their Premium Glossy - the old story: you get what you pay for. I like matt for some images - some colours seem to deepen in intensity on matt papers. I've used the Canson art papers too and they can be really nice but sometimes cause problems for the printer - doesn't want to feed properly and that can be a pain when each sheet costs $5-6


----------



## DonaldG (Aug 23, 2007)

I find that Kodak premium gives a deeper black but takes much longer to dry before you can handle it without smudging.

I have recently changed from Epson cartridges to a Continuous Ink Supply System (CISS), using pigmented inks not dyes. Reason:
My Epson photo printer R800 produces first class prints but takes 8 cartridges at c£15 each. (8x15= £120). Each Epson Cartridge holds about 30mls of ink
The CISS system cost me about £130 but came filled with bottles of ink that held about 300ml each. Individual 300ml bottles of Pigment ink are very reasonable cost too...

The type I am using is from: here
I am sure that a Google or eBay search will bring up various suppliers but do research you needs with respect to using Pigment or Dye inks... There are pros & cons to both!


----------



## InkGirl (Aug 31, 2011)

I'm using Printer Epson Stylus Photo P50. It's pretty nice, as 4 me. Pictures are looking professional. 
It's a link where I bought it. Printer Epson with ciss Buy Epson Stylus Photo P50 . Hope I helped you)


----------

