Professional quality digital prints

I've been trying out various online digital developing services. My wishlist, in order of importance:

  • digital aspect ratio -- I'd prefer not to have white borders, and as I am intentional about positioning the subject within the frame, I don't want to have to crop all of my photos.
  • good support for uploading images from Linux
  • matte finish

There aren't many options out there which fulfill this list, but PhotoWorks.com looked promising, so I uploaded a small batch of prints to try them out. They claimed to have a sophisticated colour balancing system, and the title of their prints page contains the text "Professional Quality Online".

We were disappointed after receiving the prints to see that many of the colours were overbalanced. Skin tones looked pasty and the contrast was adjusted to the extent that many colours were just plain wrong.

I wrote to their customer service department, commented on the colour balancing of the prints I had received, and asked whether it is possible to disable their balancing so that the prints come out closer to how they appear onscreen. The response I got wasn't quite what I expected, though:

    I am sorry you were not happy with your most recent order. Please
    note that we do print the images as they are with a slight color
    correction with the printers we use. However, we are in no way a
    professional lab nor do we advertise as such.

Ok, thanks for the tip. I guess I'll try elsewhere.

Posted by Jason Hildebrand <jason@opensky.ca> Tuesday Dec 20, 2005 at 10:31 AM
Comments

It sure seems strange, that they are claiming "Professional Quality", then saying that they are not a professional lab! I wonder what would happen if the files you sent included a ColorSync profile. In theory, those profiles are supposed to keep colors consitant, from camera/scanner to screen to prints, so that what you see is what you get. If the profiles are right, you should be able to scan a print, then print it again, and get the same result (less generational losses down the analog hole, of course) Colin Lastname period Firstname at Gmail dot com P.S. Your website doesn't believe that I have JavaScript enabled, even though I do. I'm using Icab, which is much more standards-compliant than most other browsers, and includes tools for pointing out fuzzy code. Take a look at the url above if you want to learn more.

Posted by: Colin Pye on Tuesday Sep 21, 2010 at 11:50 PM
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Professional quality digital prints

I've been trying out various online digital developing services. My wishlist, in order of importance:

  • digital aspect ratio -- I'd prefer not to have white borders, and as I am intentional about positioning the subject within the frame, I don't want to have to crop all of my photos.
  • good support for uploading images from Linux
  • matte finish

There aren't many options out there which fulfill this list, but PhotoWorks.com looked promising, so I uploaded a small batch of prints to try them out. They claimed to have a sophisticated colour balancing system, and the title of their prints page contains the text "Professional Quality Online".

We were disappointed after receiving the prints to see that many of the colours were overbalanced. Skin tones looked pasty and the contrast was adjusted to the extent that many colours were just plain wrong.

I wrote to their customer service department, commented on the colour balancing of the prints I had received, and asked whether it is possible to disable their balancing so that the prints come out closer to how they appear onscreen. The response I got wasn't quite what I expected, though:

    I am sorry you were not happy with your most recent order. Please
    note that we do print the images as they are with a slight color
    correction with the printers we use. However, we are in no way a
    professional lab nor do we advertise as such.

Ok, thanks for the tip. I guess I'll try elsewhere.

Posted by Jason Hildebrand <jason@opensky.ca> Tuesday Dec 20, 2005 at 10:31 AM
Comments

It sure seems strange, that they are claiming "Professional Quality", then saying that they are not a professional lab! I wonder what would happen if the files you sent included a ColorSync profile. In theory, those profiles are supposed to keep colors consitant, from camera/scanner to screen to prints, so that what you see is what you get. If the profiles are right, you should be able to scan a print, then print it again, and get the same result (less generational losses down the analog hole, of course) Colin Lastname period Firstname at Gmail dot com P.S. Your website doesn't believe that I have JavaScript enabled, even though I do. I'm using Icab, which is much more standards-compliant than most other browsers, and includes tools for pointing out fuzzy code. Take a look at the url above if you want to learn more.

Posted by: Colin Pye on Tuesday Sep 21, 2010 at 11:50 PM
Trackbacks