Costco Pictures ! ARGGH!

[jra111]

When ever I get pictures done at Costco it is hit or miss. Usually it's about 2 stops too bright and anything resembling a high light is blown ,But this time I went to print a picture and the colors and brightness are way off. The manager tells me that all auto corrections are off unless for special request. Does any one else hve this problem ? The top is printed at home on HP all in one and the bottom is Costco . Costco's sky is purple and the picture too bright and the skin is red ,not actually as red as ti shows but really red . I love Costco prices and convienence.

Help?



--
Warning !
All my photos will have 1 or more of the following,
Softness,OOF,Under Exposure,Over Exposure,
and a poor attempt at Photoshopping.
http://www.pbase.com/jra111

 

[photomik]

I get the same problems even if I note with special instructions.

At first it's the splotches (dark spots at nose, mouth, etc). Lately, color problems or color gradation issues.

No more Costco!

 

[pipspeak]

What do you expect at Costco? The place piles 'em high and sells 'em cheap. And pays its staff close to minimum wage.

Any pics I want good prints of I take to my local pro photo store where I know they'll be professionally printed by someone who actually knows about photography. It'll take a week and cost more, but I'm sick of exposure problems (and scratched negatives when I used film)

When ever I get pictures done at Costco it is hit or miss. Usually
it's about 2 stops too bright and anything resembling a high light
is blown ,But this time I went to print a picture and the colors
and brightness are way off. The manager tells me that all auto
corrections are off unless for special request. Does any one else
hve this problem ? The top is printed at home on HP all in one and
the bottom is Costco . Costco's sky is purple and the picture too
bright and the skin is red ,not actually as red as ti shows but
really red . I love Costco prices and convienence.

Help?



--
Warning !
All my photos will have 1 or more of the following,
Softness,OOF,Under Exposure,Over Exposure,
and a poor attempt at Photoshopping.
http://www.pbase.com/jra111

 

[hockeynut]

Look at Dry Creek and see if they have your Costco's printer profile.
If so, try a test print using that profile in your workflow.

When ever I get pictures done at Costco it is hit or miss. Usually
it's about 2 stops too bright and anything resembling a high light
is blown ,But this time I went to print a picture and the colors
and brightness are way off. The manager tells me that all auto
corrections are off unless for special request. Does any one else
hve this problem ? The top is printed at home on HP all in one and
the bottom is Costco . Costco's sky is purple and the picture too
bright and the skin is red ,not actually as red as ti shows but
really red . I love Costco prices and convienence.

Help?



--
Warning !
All my photos will have 1 or more of the following,
Softness,OOF,Under Exposure,Over Exposure,
and a poor attempt at Photoshopping.
http://www.pbase.com/jra111

--

' We sleep safe in our beds because rough men stand ready in the night to visit violence on those who would do us harm. '

• George Orwell

 

[elshagon]

I can see from your posted pics there is something going on with the Costco printer. Needs to be calibrated? who knows...I've never had a problem at my Costco, but guess I'm lucky, as the people who work at the one I go to seem very good at what they do. Even if you use Costco's profile I can't imagine why the second photo you posted has color which is so off.

 

[Ken Fox244188]

Look at Dry Creek and see if they have your Costco's printer profile.
If so, try a test print using that profile in your workflow.

The prior comments in this thread about Costco paying its employees "near-minimum wage" is so far off the mark it is ridiculous. Wall Street doesn't value Costco stock highly exactly because they pay their employees, in salary and benefits, more than most other retailers. My own experience with Costco's workforce, especially in their photo minilabs, shows Costco employees to be happy in their work and very competent.

Gratuitous denigration aside, you won't get good work out of any lab unless you do your homework. In this case, it means using a profile-aware imaging software package like PS, using a profiled monitor, and then "soft proofing" your output with the profile of the minilab you are using. Every US Costco I have encountered has their profiles for both Lustre and Glossy paper available for download on the drycreekphoto.com website. If you go to this website you can view detailed instructions about how to soft proof and how to convert your image files to what is optimal for the printer(s) at the Costco in question. You have to do a little bit of work to get optimal results, such as converting profiles for files destined for the printer, and making sure the resolution (DPI) are correct. Then, it helps to tell the staff at the Costco lab that you have profiled your image files and you don't want any further image corrections as you have already done them.

The odds are that if you do this you will get excellent output for all of $2.99 per 11x14 and about $2 for an 8x10, far more than you are paying for.

I am new to my 20D, but I have printed many many 11x14s at Costcos using image files from my C-8080 Oly which I've replaced with the 20D. The quality of the prints from Costco has been excellent.

There is no question that if you don't bother to profile your monitor (and hence don't get true color corections in your imaging work product) that on chance alone you might get lucky and have better results with your desktop printer than with a lab, any lab. That would be 100% luck and reflects more on your lazyness or ignorance as regards color profiling, than it serves as a reflection on a particular photo lab, at a Costco or elsewhere.

Ken

 

[hairman_61166708]

I usually go to a Costco near where I work to get pictures printed. Because I use the Dry Creek Photo profiles I ask them to turn off ALL auto correction (Mountain View, CA. Costco). My pictures come out fantastic. I am very pleased with the results,

One time my pictures all turned out brighter than I had expected and one of the things that auto correction does is to generally make a picture brighter. I went back and mentioned this to them and they reprinted all my pictures at no extra cost with auto correction off and the pictures turned out as I expected.

If I go to the Costco near my house my pictures come out differently. They are all brighter than they should be. They say they turn off all auto correction off by default. From the results I get from this Costco (Dry Creek Photo indicates both of these Costco's use the same Noritsu printers) I have a suspicion that auto correction is enabled and the employees are just giving me a bit of lip service so that they don't have to go the trouble of "customizing" an order.

 

[NESTOR]

I usually go to a Costco near where I work to get pictures printed.
Because I use the Dry Creek Photo profiles I ask them to turn off
ALL auto correction (Mountain View, CA. Costco). My pictures come
out fantastic. I am very pleased with the results,

One time my pictures all turned out brighter than I had expected
and one of the things that auto correction does is to generally
make a picture brighter. I went back and mentioned this to them
and they reprinted all my pictures at no extra cost with auto
correction off and the pictures turned out as I expected.

If I go to the Costco near my house my pictures come out
differently. They are all brighter than they should be. They say
they turn off all auto correction off by default. From the results
I get from this Costco (Dry Creek Photo indicates both of these
Costco's use the same Noritsu printers) I have a suspicion that
auto correction is enabled and the employees are just giving me a
bit of lip service so that they don't have to go the trouble of
"customizing" an order.

 

[nrb32049]

When ever I get pictures done at Costco it is hit or miss.

Try another Costco store; I have found that there is a difference that can be attributable to either the equipment or the employees operating that equipment. I found one that gave me consistently good results and that is the only Costco that I now use for my printing needs. I have also gotten to know the employees there and they know me by name. You can't beat the $.19 per 4x6 or $.59 for a 5x7.
--
Norm

 

[snoopy166670]

did you know that in some states, including california, you can upload your photos to your local costco and pick them up the next day? they just started this service...check it out at costco.com and click on photo center. prices are the same or almost the same. you'll see that they also have a link to printer profiles and offer the option of back printing.

drycreek hints that if you use a CD at the kiosk, all auto adjustments are turned off but that if use a flash memory card, auto adjustsment are turned on automatically. the logic being flash card pictures are probably straight from camera and probably need some tweaking whereas it assumes you've already done some post-processing if you've put the file onto a CD.

i've had the same files printed from the same CD printed on the same day with different results. one gal says she turns OFF auto adjustments and they turned out great but she says the other operators may turn it ON. those were way too contrasty and dark. i've found it is the staff that is inconsistent.

I usually go to a Costco near where I work to get pictures printed.
Because I use the Dry Creek Photo profiles I ask them to turn off
ALL auto correction (Mountain View, CA. Costco). My pictures come
out fantastic. I am very pleased with the results,

One time my pictures all turned out brighter than I had expected
and one of the things that auto correction does is to generally
make a picture brighter. I went back and mentioned this to them
and they reprinted all my pictures at no extra cost with auto
correction off and the pictures turned out as I expected.

If I go to the Costco near my house my pictures come out
differently. They are all brighter than they should be. They say
they turn off all auto correction off by default. From the results
I get from this Costco (Dry Creek Photo indicates both of these
Costco's use the same Noritsu printers) I have a suspicion that
auto correction is enabled and the employees are just giving me a
bit of lip service so that they don't have to go the trouble of
"customizing" an order.

--
snoopy

 

[Boomanbb]

go to my local Costco during a non-busy time and discussed with one of the employees who seemed to have her stuff together, exactly what I was looking for. She took me to the display and showed me how they turn the automatic controls on and off. There are about four or so check boxes that need to be unchecked. Then I consistantly use the same employee to print my work. She now knows exactly what I want.

Also, I had no luck with the DryCreek profiles, even though this machine was recently profiled. My best results happen when I convert to the srgb profile at the last step and save as jpeg quality 10 - 12

Ben

 

[fotocellar]

ruined my negatives. Never develop anything at Costco. Prints are fine.

 

[Melanie Kipp]

I was getting some of my 4x6's printed at WalMart ( no CostCo's here ). 24 cents ea.
Picked up one of these little gems ysterday:
http://www.epson.com/cgi-bin/Store/PictureMate/pmHome.jsp

and am blown away with the quality. 29 cents ea makes it fine for me. The price of gas to get to and from the WalMart makes the price difference per print very little.

When ever I get pictures done at Costco it is hit or miss. Usually
it's about 2 stops too bright and anything resembling a high light
is blown ,But this time I went to print a picture and the colors
and brightness are way off. The manager tells me that all auto
corrections are off unless for special request. Does any one else
hve this problem ? The top is printed at home on HP all in one and
the bottom is Costco . Costco's sky is purple and the picture too
bright and the skin is red ,not actually as red as ti shows but
really red . I love Costco prices and convienence.

Help?



--
Warning !
All my photos will have 1 or more of the following,
Softness,OOF,Under Exposure,Over Exposure,
and a poor attempt at Photoshopping.
http://www.pbase.com/jra111

--



http://www.caughtintimephotography.com
http://www.pbase.com/melaniekipp

 

[GCam]

Costco uses Noritsu mini-labs(which have improved slightly in the last three years); Walmart and Sams use the Fuji Frontier mini-lab which is the best with the possible exception of the AGFA. All of them are used by pro labs, so you should be able to get the same quality from any of the labs. The difference is in how far the staff is willing to go to assist you, and whether you are using their profiles. The samples shown look like there is a chemistry problem, most likely with the bleach fix. If it gets weak, or low, the whites start turning red first, then at its worst, the entire print will have a red tint, sometimes by as much as 20 to 30 points red. gc

 

[RayL]

I size and optimize all my images then save on CD as tiff (NO compression)and have NEVER had a problem with Costco. In fact a 12x18 for $3 keeps me from buying the Epson 2200.

They might need to clean the machine?

 

[PhotoMan187881]

I derive a great deal of pleasure doing my own printing. I use a Canon i960 ink jet printer and now an Olympus P440 dye sub. When the prints come out of the dye sub printer, I am VERY PLEASED! Don't deprive yourself of the greatest pleasure.....doing it yourself. Photo Man.

 

[biflic]

I've had Costco do several hundred prints for me and have only had a problem once, I brought it to their attention and they promptly reprinted the photo for me.

Also, from what I remember reading Costco treats their employees better than just about any other retailer.

 

[jra111]

I use PS 6 and put them on a cd when IM done. Im going to try another Costco and Im going to try Sam's. I still dont understand why my HP printer prints it pretty close but costco is completely different . If that does'nt work I guess I will just do DVD slideshows and find a Pro place for enlargments. Thanks for all the input it helped alot.
Joey
--
Warning !
All my photos will have 1 or more of the following,
Softness,OOF,Under Exposure,Over Exposure,
and a poor attempt at Photoshopping.
http://www.pbase.com/jra111

 

[kstaab]

I have the opposite problem. When I brought a picture to my local photoshop to print for an invitation, It was totally off. I usually use Costco but this print needed to be a special size and I needed 80 copies. When I picked up the prints, the colors were all washed out and the picture was overall too bright. I specified that I wanted no corrections done as I had already photoshopped the print to where I wanted it. I brought them in a print that I did on my $80.00 HP 5550 (with the photo cartridge installed) and it blew their print away. The re-did the batch and the results were a little better but not as good as he one I did on my home printer. They argued with me that my printer was off and not there equipment.

When I bring a disk to Costco for printing I always get my prints back just like the way they looked in Photoshop. I haven't had a problem with them yet!!!

--

Ineptitude: If you can't learn to do something well, learn to enjoy doing it poorly

 

[dtown]

My prints from Costco have been great at two different stores.

I think you have the auto correction thing backwards. My understanding is auto corrections are ON unless you request they turn them OFF. That being said I have never asked them to turn auto correct off.

Dave

When ever I get pictures done at Costco it is hit or miss. Usually
it's about 2 stops too bright and anything resembling a high light
is blown ,But this time I went to print a picture and the colors
and brightness are way off. The manager tells me that all auto
corrections are off unless for special request. Does any one else
hve this problem ? The top is printed at home on HP all in one and
the bottom is Costco . Costco's sky is purple and the picture too
bright and the skin is red ,not actually as red as ti shows but
really red . I love Costco prices and convienence.

Help?



--
Warning !
All my photos will have 1 or more of the following,
Softness,OOF,Under Exposure,Over Exposure,
and a poor attempt at Photoshopping.
http://www.pbase.com/jra111

--
Dave