Any Recommendation of Photo Printing Shop?

[Jia Wang]

Hii Jia Wang,

How much is per 4R printout at Shalom Colours ?

Hi Karyinn,

4R prints from film negatives is 45cents, while digital printouts is 50cents. That's the standard for Fuji digital labs...

The shop gives 10% discounts for regular customers.

BTW, the boss of the shop is a photographer for the Lianhe Zaobao. He won the Best News Photo Award two years ago for a photo he took of the Esplanade opening ceremony fireworks...

 

[Karyinn]

Is the boss himself doing the printing??
I think most of the fuji lab charge quite high price thou...

 

[coke21]

Hi All,

Can you recommend me a reputable photo printing shop?

Most of the time, i sent my digital picture to peninsula for printing. But their quality sometimes good sometimes bad. Imagine, most of the time, i will print 100 shots in a time. If the colour turn out terrible. That mean i will have to spend another round of unnecessary money for reprint . :cry:
I want to a shop which develope quality prints. I thought of sending them to RGB at Beach road for printing. But one copy cost 58Cents, is so kindof expensive. Do you have other shop which print 40 - 50 cents each?
I dun think is my digital camera fault or my skill fault. As previously i play around with SLR camera. I am using Sony P9
please advice me.

Where do you stay? If you are in the East you can try Digipro at Marine Terrace. Its pretty good. No complaints. PM me if you want the address.

 

[alwayschampion]

Hi All,

Can you recommend me a reputable photo printing shop?

Most of the time, i sent my digital picture to peninsula for printing. But their quality sometimes good sometimes bad. Imagine, most of the time, i will print 100 shots in a time. If the colour turn out terrible. That mean i will have to spend another round of unnecessary money for reprint . :cry:
I want to a shop which develope quality prints. I thought of sending them to RGB at Beach road for printing. But one copy cost 58Cents, is so kindof expensive. Do you have other shop which print 40 - 50 cents each?
I dun think is my digital camera fault or my skill fault. As previously i play around with SLR camera. I am using Sony P9
please advice me.

Don't accept the photos which turns out bad, refuse to pay. Pay only those which comes out good.

 

[Karyinn]

;( it's not easy to reject those bad printout.
I rejected before... they said that's the best result they can give ;( :angry:

 

[hoppinghippo]

hahahah alwayschampion, you live up to your nick lah, you really did that before? what did the shop owner say?

I think its difficult to reject cuz in the first place unless you specify a specific standard the lab has to achieve and the lab agreed that it can and will, then you have a case. else you can't go there ask them do their best, get back the print and say nope, not good enuff, dowan to pay and don't expect them to dunk you in their frontier machine and develop you.

 

[Azure]

Don't accept the photos which turns out bad, refuse to pay. Pay only those which comes out good.

:nono:
I do caution against being so rude. Unless you did specify AND provide a sample print (as a basis of comparison), you have no case. Read the gentler part from Hoppinghippo's post.

Karyinn - there are quite a few Fuji FDI labs that offer good rpices to Clubsnappers. Both KT and Grace are examples. Whilst Fujifilm Singapore does recommend the Frontier labs to price at 50 cents/4R, I'm sure many astute labs will realise that it is ridiculous to compete with other labs so high.
Some do compete on remarkable value-add, like Beautiful Memories, at that price. And I must concede that there are folks who'd pay that kind of price. I've done so, only because BM gave me an unmatched value-add for that particular series of prints. Most labs do not offer what I got from them, if any at all.

If you are one who want to print on Frontier and Fuji Supreme paper, then I suggest that you test out a small number, say 10 prints; and include amongst them a testing "calibration" print. Tell the lab to print "...without corrections or adjustments, no resize...". With the test print, bring it home to match against the brightness and colors on your monitor screen and adjust the latter to get as close as you can to the output. This will give a rudimentary calibration of your monitor*. Adjust the remainder of your images before you send for printing and you should be quite alright.

You may of course ask the lab to adjust for you... but I'm sure every thinking individual like you and me acknowledge the fact that every pair of eyes see the same color differently. As such, what may be OK or pleasant to the lab staff may not be to you, or to a third person. This is something that many people tend to forget, hence my agreement to what Hoppinghippo posted.

Hope this helps you. If not, you may always PM me.

* - not everyone is that able or willing to splurge $$$ on Spyders and Eye-Ones.... calibration gears. I know I don't.

 

[junyang]

Beautiful memories is using lustre paper, while your other photos were printed on Glossy..

 

[TME]

Beautiful memories is using lustre paper, while your other photos were printed on Glossy..

U still got time to post ar?

 

[Azure]

Beautiful memories is using lustre paper, while your other photos were printed on Glossy..

They do have glossy paper. Request for it.

 

[junyang]

maths sure fail.... 10 marks and 35 marks no difference..... haha

U still got time to post ar?

 

[engineermunn]

Regarding what Azure mentioned earlier about calibration, I've heard that it is possible to take note of the ICC calibration readings of the machine that does the lab printing. With the info, one can use the readings to set on your own PC for better results. Is that true?

 

[Karyinn]

Good Morning Guys,

That time, i told the lab that the photo color was terrible. (before that.. i printed a copy at Photo friend) that's why i can tell that's a difference. The face look like Vampire.. so pale..
I told the shop the colour is not good, and i have a copy to show them. That lady dun even want to see my copy and said that's the best result.
Then i have no choice lor ... :cry:

 

[Azure]

Regarding what Azure mentioned earlier about calibration, I've heard that it is possible to take note of the ICC calibration readings of the machine that does the lab printing. With the info, one can use the readings to set on your own PC for better results. Is that true?

Oh yes, you can always request for the lab's ICC profile. For Frontier labs, you can download the generic one (works for about 50% of the labs???) from Dry Creek. Maybe someone can post the URL...

However, caution here... the Frontier profile does not work with some FDI labs - probably cuz they dun calibrate their machines daily. I've sent the same test print to 2 Frontier labs already that've given me way off output, ICC profile notwithstanding. The same print came out identical at BM, KT and DigiPro. And yes, it was printed NNNN.
(For a further understanding of the markings behind your FDI prints, see here

 

[Karyinn]

What is the different between lustre paper and Kodak or fuji paper??
What is frontier? How can we tell if the printing shop is using good machine?

 

[Azure]

What is the different between lustre paper and Kodak or fuji paper??
What is frontier? How can we tell if the printing shop is using good machine?

Lustre is the "semi-gloss" matte paper for Fuji. Fuji, like Kodak has different papers, different grades, etc. Suggest you try and find one that you like. I use Fuji's CA Supreme, which happens to be pretty thick and heavy, the way I like it.

Frontier refers to the special machines used solely in Fuji FDI labs (Fuji has FIP and FDI labs). They are fast, darn sharp and good... purportedly the best around. It certainly is expensive. As a norm, Frontier/Fuji FDI labs are supposed to use exclusively Fuji Supreme paper.

Kodak labs, on the other hand, have a range of printing machines - Noritsu, System 88, Kodak's... and some of them do offer you non-Kodak paper. Some Noritsu 2901 operators have given me pretty decent prints (like Siren and Foto Station)

Konica labs use mostly Noritsu or older Konica machines, though a few I've seen use the Konica QD21 (like Pro-M), which in the hands of a good operator can closely rival Frontier printing... But I will add that I find their general quality very poor, 25cents/4R notwithstanding

Agfa labs... I do not know of any using D-Lab2 machine save for Konota and HotPrints. Personally I find the Agfa over-sharpens my test images, something I've posted last year about. That creates annoying artifacts for me. But that aside, D-Lab2's are even more expensive than Frontiers. Agfa Digital paper-wise, I don't see any diff versus Fuji Supreme.

Hope this answers you, Karyinn

 

[Karyinn]

Wow you are Expert. :bigeyes: i gain so much knowledge..

Seem like Frontier machine provide the best quality compare to Kodak Lab...
Does Grace and KT use Frontier machine?

 

[alwayschampion]

It just like buying apples. You will buy the good ones and leave the bad ones.

I do agree with some suggestions like bringing a good develped photo and use it as a comparison. There are a few incidents which I printed 1/2 pieces without the service charge (higher costs per piece of course) which needed the customer to pay upfront. I do so, when I collect the photos (argh^) No comments but to walk away.

Collect some friend's photos from various labs and compare shall give u a raft idea..

 

[Karyinn]

I will send some prints to KT and ask Michelle to print ... :devil:

 

[engineermunn]

However, caution here... the Frontier profile does not work with some FDI labs - probably cuz they dun calibrate their machines daily. I've sent the same test print to 2 Frontier labs already that've given me way off output, ICC profile notwithstanding. The same print came out identical at BM, KT and DigiPro. And yes, it was printed NNNN.

Thanks Azure. So you're saying that KT would have the same ICC setting as the one at Digipro? IN that case, I can use the setting for Digipro from Dry Creeks?
KT is the one at Chinatown point right? Full name is Kim Tian or something?
If that's the one, then it's really darn close to my office!

cheers,