Do You print? I do.

sattiganal

if you want to control your prints you need to adjust image size to printing media. if a standard 35mm frame has a 3:2 proportions than in order to print full image (w/o cropping) on 16x20 media you either have to crop your image or get 16x24 print media.

Oh ok. Thanx for the response. If I don't want to crop, is there a way I can scale the image with some reliable tool (of course scaling may not suit all dimensions) to achieve the 3:2 factor?

adamz

unfortunately you can't choose your print media (I mean you can, but it's pricey). so the two options you have:
- send your files and add no cropping - once you receive your images back on print you will see you have some free white space - you can cut it if you don't like it
- open the simplest photo editing tool, i.e. picassa - set the crop to 16x20, and just stretch it as much as possible to know how your picture will look like once you receive it

Lawson

Yes, I print a lot, using all sorts of high quality Epson papers on an Epson Stylus Photo R3000 printer...does a fabulous job!

sattiganal

unfortunately you can't choose your print media (I mean you can, but it's pricey). so the two options you have:
- send your files and add no cropping - once you receive your images back on print you will see you have some free white space - you can cut it if you don't like it
- open the simplest photo editing tool, i.e. picassa - set the crop to 16x20, and just stretch it as much as possible to know how your picture will look like once you receive it

Thanx adamz. I think I can live with some free white space. Let me try it and I'll let you know how it goes.

NSXTypeR

Just to revive this thread, there's a review from the NYTimes about printing.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/07/travel/where-to-print-those-vacation-photos.html?_r=0

Snapfish is okay at best, but very cheap, but I think for outright quality they recommended mpix and Adorama.

Shutterfly seemed to be somewhat better than Snapfish but below mpix and Adorama.

Walgreens apparently is okay too, but my experience with them is that their paper is cheap and the printing quality to be inferior to Shutterfly.

flight3

I hope this tip doesn't get me kicked out of here :-\" ...BUT Canon has been placing their Pixma Printers on sale for a little bit at different stores. I bought the Pixma Pro-100 for $100, normally $350-$400 and it came with 50 sheets of 13x19 luster paper. Earlier this week I saw it on sale for $48!! Crazy...now the catch is that it is so cheap AFTER a mail in rebate. For those that have a little patience and extra cash, I'd say those printers are a good deal. For those who might want to start printing for themselves, they definitely aren't a bad deal.

sevencrossing

At the risk of teaching my granny ....
Do check ink price when buying a bargain printer

spraynpray

Begin rant:

From my direct experience, check the warranty AND THE SUPPORT LIFE. I bought a Canon printer which went wrong one month out of warranty and they refused to repair it as it was out of warranty and their policy was to only replace failed units during warranty. All that money? Wasted. All those resources from our planet? Wasted.

I laid out those facts to Canon 'customer dis-service' and got blanked. I'll never buy from them again. Anything.

Rant over.

sevencrossing

Also check is there a local repair station that will repair your printer when it is out of warranty
If you have an Epson these guys are brilliant

http://azzta.co.uk/index.php?route=news/category&npath=2

NSXTypeR

Begin rant:

From my direct experience, check the warranty AND THE SUPPORT LIFE. I bought a Canon printer which went wrong one month out of warranty and they refused to repair it as it was out of warranty and their policy was to only replace failed units during warranty. All that money? Wasted. All those resources from our planet? Wasted.

I laid out those facts to Canon 'customer dis-service' and got blanked. I'll never buy from them again. Anything.

Rant over.

Yes, I've noticed that Costco stopped selling black ink for my home printer, some ancient HP thing. It uses 56 black ink and 57 color ink. I certainly don't print photos at home but I can see how that could be a concern. They would definitely benefit consumers if they unified their print cartridges, but the print companies would certainly not do it... for profit reasons.

MikeGunter

Hi all,

One of the things missing in the article and that is available in many of the online processing centers is the ability to download a ICC profile for the site to match your file for printing. That should help a little in getting proper color to the file you're printing.

My best,

Mike

NSXTypeR

I just got 50 free prints from Snapfish, they made me pay for shipping only, which came out to some $3 and change. The print quality was actually okay, much better than Walgreens and around on par with Shutterfly.

ThomasHorton

I used to print back in the film days. Since moving to digital, not so much. Because it is so easy to display the digital image on the screen, I become hyper-critical when considering printing. "Is this digital picture I took, really worth printing, or can it remain on my hard-drive?"

Often, I decide to keep it digital. Anyone else print a lot less when shooting digital? And if so, what are your reasons for going paperless?

Symphotic

I used to print back in the film days. Since moving to digital, not so much. Because it is so easy to display the digital image on the screen, I become hyper-critical when considering printing. "Is this digital picture I took, really worth printing, or can it remain on my hard-drive?"

Often, I decide to keep it digital. Anyone else print a lot less when shooting digital? And if so, what are your reasons for going paperless?

I haven't thought of this, but now that you mention it, I am the same. When I was printing film, I could only see my images through a loupe as negatives or slides, and I didn't look with anywhere near the critical eye I use now before I went to print. Now, I only print either what I think is exceptional or what I am specifically asked to print. Having said that, to my eye, when printing is done with a high quality printer, paper, inks, and careful color calibration protocols, most things look better in print than on a monitor.

Why go paperless? If I take a lot of pictures of a certain event, I can make an automated slide show with music that is entertaining and the pictures change fast enough that the imperfections of the individual shots are not noticed.

NSXTypeR

I used to print back in the film days. Since moving to digital, not so much. Because it is so easy to display the digital image on the screen, I become hyper-critical when considering printing. "Is this digital picture I took, really worth printing, or can it remain on my hard-drive?"

Often, I decide to keep it digital. Anyone else print a lot less when shooting digital? And if so, what are your reasons for going paperless?

It's interesting to hear your opinions. I got into photography way after film was dead, and even then I'm young enough that I never printed any sort of photos regularly. I like having the photo printed and I love going through my parents' old albums. Now that we've gone totally digital, we nearly never print anymore. My parents complain that my photos can't be enjoyed because my photos are on my hard drive, and my parents can't access them that way. So in a way, they're worthless to them (unless they can access it).

Back in the film era, there's no way to see the photos unless you printed them out, or looked at the negatives. We never shot slide film, so projection wasn't an option for us either.

Personally, I like printing out photos, just not the massive poster sized ones because I'd have to pay to get it framed and such.

Interesting how you guys think about the printing process.

Symphotic

...We never shot slide film, so projection wasn't an option for us either. ...

This brings back memories.

I shot more Kodachrome slides than anything else for years. I used Ektachrome slides for work photography. The only time I ever used a projector was at academic and professional conferences when I was a speaker. You could always tell the other conference speakers on the airplanes because they would have big boxes with the slide carosels taking up the space in the overhead compartments.

I didn't own a projector, but did have a slide viewer (a box with a slide mount frame, a back light, and a big lens.) We printed from slides because they were easier to evaluate than negatives.

Having said that, my Father and Grandfather would often gather the family together to show slide shows with projectors. My father would show slide shows of our family Summer vacations, so we could re-live them in the dark of Winter. My Grandfather's slide shows of his travels to post-war Japan as a Chemistry professor greatly influenced my interest in both chemistry and Japan. (I became a chemist, learned Japanese, and eventually got a job managing an optical spectroscopy instrument company in Japan.)

The days of a family sitting in a darkened living room watching slide shows of the family vacation or the day at the beach are long gone. Now the closest thing is a youtube video that people watch one at a time on their smart phones.

NSXTypeR

...We never shot slide film, so projection wasn't an option for us either. ...

This brings back memories.

The days of a family sitting in a darkened living room watching slide shows of the family vacation or the day at the beach are long gone. Now the closest thing is a youtube video that people watch one at a time on their smart phones.

Wow, cool to hear that about how your grandpa influenced your decisions. Do you currently live in Japan?

I eventually found a way to get around the photo issue. I've uploaded the photos to a hard drive and we have a video streaming box to look at the photos. The one problem is that I have difficulty updating it because I'm at school all the time and that hard drive is at home. But, we end up setting up a slide show and watching it on the 50 inch TV in my living room.

But, I still enjoy printing them out.

Symphotic

.... Do you currently live in Japan?
...

No, I came back to the US, but travel to Japan frequently.

alexander_lewis

Generally, I only print my favorite pictures.

NSXTypeR

Just a bump to this thread, does anyone have any opinions or have tried printing photos from Amazon?

Just curious.

retread

I do not do my own printing but have it done for me. http://photosynthesisia.com/ is a mom and pop type store. She has a PHD in graphic design and they do top quality work at very affordable prices and are easy to work with. I recommend them highly.

WestEndFoto

Does anybody think that there is a better option than the Epson P800 (that fits on a table)?

starralazn

whoa amazon does printing now... i guess they're trying to take over everything

NSXTypeR

starralazn said:

whoa amazon does printing now... i guess they're trying to take over everything

They're into cloud storage too, and I think they offer unlimited storage if you're a Prime subscriber.

starralazn

@NSXTypeR yeah i know about their unlimited storage... just printing seems.. unusual in a way haha.