What File Do You Provide For the Lab?

[Robert M28897]

For those of you that have labs print your files, how do you prepare your files for printing? Do you do much post-processing prior to giving them to the lab? Or do you simply provide the file from the camera -- if so, what settings do you shoot at to ensure the lab produces what you want i.e. Org, Org, Std? Do you tag them with a particular color space? Or do you simply provide a reference print and ask them to match it?

I have been doing much more people and portrait work lately, and am just coming to grips with doing color management properly. Particularly since upgrading to XP recently, I have been having a devil of a time printing effectively on my Epson 1270. I've finally invested in a Spyder to calibrate my monitor properly, and will probably purchase a profile for the 1270 and a couple of papers. But I want to start working with labs for certain enlargements (I have one in Boston that does exceptional work with the black and white and color film stuff I give them, but I'm not sure how digital-savvy they are) so any recommendations on your workflow would be much appreciated.

As one final note, if anyone has had luck getting good prints from Frontier machines at Wal-Mart, Ritz or elsewhere, I'd love to hear about it.

Thanks in advance,

Robert

 

[Mike Flood]

Robert;

I would suggest that you do a search for keywords like "Frontier" or "Color Matching" etc. to find the extensive amount of previous threads on the subjects you are interested in. You'll likely find the answers you seek and maybe some you didn't expect.

For those of you that have labs print your files, how do you
prepare your files for printing? Do you do much post-processing
prior to giving them to the lab? Or do you simply provide the file
from the camera -- if so, what settings do you shoot at to ensure
the lab produces what you want i.e. Org, Org, Std? Do you tag them
with a particular color space? Or do you simply provide a
reference print and ask them to match it?

I have been doing much more people and portrait work lately, and am
just coming to grips with doing color management properly.
Particularly since upgrading to XP recently, I have been having a
devil of a time printing effectively on my Epson 1270. I've
finally invested in a Spyder to calibrate my monitor properly, and
will probably purchase a profile for the 1270 and a couple of
papers. But I want to start working with labs for certain
enlargements (I have one in Boston that does exceptional work with
the black and white and color film stuff I give them, but I'm not
sure how digital-savvy they are) so any recommendations on your
workflow would be much appreciated.

As one final note, if anyone has had luck getting good prints from
Frontier machines at Wal-Mart, Ritz or elsewhere, I'd love to hear
about it.

Thanks in advance,

Robert

--Mike Flood

 

[Jim DeLuco]

Mostly it will depend on your lab and they will help you decide the preparation based on the equipment they have.
--Jim DeLucoDeLuco Photographywww.delucophoto.com

 

[Thomas41622]

Robert,

What I do with my files is this...

I retouch and adjust the files in PS6 and when I am done I copy the file and flatten it as a TIFF cropped at 250ppi (per lab instructions) and save it in my "lab folder". After I am done I burn a CD and send it off to the lab. As for color and density, my lab corrects that for me (although they did send me a digital shirly and 8x10 print to "calibrate"...so I think I am at least in the ball park). They charge .50/file for color correction and they seem to do a good job.

If you get into sending large numbers of files (say from a wedding) you may want to look into ProShots (version 4.3 is the latest). It may streamline your workflow. Pictage is another but I think they are experiencing "growing pains".

No experience yet with Frontier. BTW my lab is CPQ in Cleveland TN 1-800-537-8399 or http://www.cpq.net

Good luck!

Thomas --Thomas

 

[Idclick1]

\Why don't you make your own profiles for the 1270 it is not that hard to do ? Have you ever printed color photos in a darkroom?
It about like doing that.
Bob Neil

For those of you that have labs print your files, how do you
prepare your files for printing? Do you do much post-processing
prior to giving them to the lab? Or do you simply provide the file
from the camera -- if so, what settings do you shoot at to ensure
the lab produces what you want i.e. Org, Org, Std? Do you tag them
with a particular color space? Or do you simply provide a
reference print and ask them to match it?

I have been doing much more people and portrait work lately, and am
just coming to grips with doing color management properly.
Particularly since upgrading to XP recently, I have been having a
devil of a time printing effectively on my Epson 1270. I've
finally invested in a Spyder to calibrate my monitor properly, and
will probably purchase a profile for the 1270 and a couple of
papers. But I want to start working with labs for certain
enlargements (I have one in Boston that does exceptional work with
the black and white and color film stuff I give them, but I'm not
sure how digital-savvy they are) so any recommendations on your
workflow would be much appreciated.

As one final note, if anyone has had luck getting good prints from
Frontier machines at Wal-Mart, Ritz or elsewhere, I'd love to hear
about it.

Thanks in advance,

Robert

 

[Jim DeLuco]

For those of you that have labs print your files, how do you
prepare your files for printing? Do you do much post-processing
prior to giving them to the lab? Or do you simply provide the file
from the camera -- if so, what settings do you shoot at to ensure
the lab produces what you want i.e. Org, Org, Std? Do you tag them
with a particular color space? Or do you simply provide a
reference print and ask them to match it?

I have been doing much more people and portrait work lately, and am
just coming to grips with doing color management properly.
Particularly since upgrading to XP recently, I have been having a
devil of a time printing effectively on my Epson 1270. I've
finally invested in a Spyder to calibrate my monitor properly, and
will probably purchase a profile for the 1270 and a couple of
papers. But I want to start working with labs for certain
enlargements (I have one in Boston that does exceptional work with
the black and white and color film stuff I give them, but I'm not
sure how digital-savvy they are) so any recommendations on your
workflow would be much appreciated.

As one final note, if anyone has had luck getting good prints from
Frontier machines at Wal-Mart, Ritz or elsewhere, I'd love to hear
about it.

Thanks in advance,

Robert

Sort of a follow up on this topic...when to print your own jobs..when to send to the lab. I've decided in my own mind at least that Digital is not "cheaper" than film because of the amount of time I have to spend in front of the computer. If I charge for my time, I may loose money on some jobs if I'm not careful. It's ok as a learning experience but boy, this is not how I want to spend my time.

In trying to cut down on the amount of post processing I personally do, I've decided that it's cheaper for me to have the lab print anything but my own proof sheets. I can proof a job to a customer immediately after the job and send the images to the lab for printing within an hour of the customer leaving the studio. At $3.25 per 8x10 (corrected), I can't match that cost if I do it myself (and include my time in the equation). My direct cost for an 8x10 is about $1.50 (paper, ink and depreciation). Add my time to that (i do have to monitor things and reprint if the printer glitches) and it's not worth it.

I have to admit, though, it's alot of fun to be able to blow my customers away with immediate proofing.
--Jim DeLucoDeLuco Photographywww.delucophoto.com

 

[Rinus Borgsteede]

I cannot be bothered to print my own on an inkjet unless it is a quick proof or a single large print. I take mine to get proofed on a Frontier. I write the camera files to a disc as they come out of the camera and take them to the lab. They proof my stuff the same as if I had aroll of film. I do not give them any instructions other that "glossy and how many copies". They look like they were shot on film. When I need to do some work on them like correct perspective or a host of other things, I save as a jpeg, tiff or a compressed tiff and they do not care as long as they know you want an 4x6 print or whatever you specify. The frontier's native print resolution is 300 ppi but any file from small to large just like on any inkjet is automatically resampled to 300 ppi. You cannot see that in the print unless you started with a very low resolution like 640x480. They download your files through the Fuji software and give it the instructions for size. With a push on the keyboard, the files are qued into the miniprinter and when they come out you will not know whether it was from film or silicon. If you are going to save you files for further work, you might as well use a tif. If the disc is only for the lab, jpegs at a setting of 9 or 10 is more than enough and it writes the disc faster. The choice is yours.

Untill today I have not seen a great deal of acuracy coming out of the Frontier. My S1 files print great but my corrected files are way too high in contrast when processed by the Frontier. I suspect that that problem will be solved soon. They only have the frontier four weeks.
Rinus

 

[Ed Mercer]

For those of you that have labs print your files, how do you
prepare your files for printing? Do you do much post-processing
prior to giving them to the lab? Or do you simply provide the file
from the camera -- if so, what settings do you shoot at to ensure
the lab produces what you want i.e. Org, Org, Std? Do you tag them
with a particular color space? Or do you simply provide a
reference print and ask them to match it?

I have been doing much more people and portrait work lately, and am
just coming to grips with doing color management properly.
Particularly since upgrading to XP recently, I have been having a
devil of a time printing effectively on my Epson 1270. I've
finally invested in a Spyder to calibrate my monitor properly, and
will probably purchase a profile for the 1270 and a couple of
papers. But I want to start working with labs for certain
enlargements (I have one in Boston that does exceptional work with
the black and white and color film stuff I give them, but I'm not
sure how digital-savvy they are) so any recommendations on your
workflow would be much appreciated.

As one final note, if anyone has had luck getting good prints from
Frontier machines at Wal-Mart, Ritz or elsewhere, I'd love to hear
about it.

Thanks in advance,

Robert

I send my lab a reference print, do what ever retouching and sizing that needs to be done, save the work as a jpeg at 300dpi, and then I send it over my labs ftp site, if you have dsl and your lab has an ftp site, its fast and efficient.