Quick question about printing

[Ross]

Hello All,
I am trying to find a good online or local in Houston printer for portrait pictures. First, are portraits normally matte finish or glossy? I prefer glossy for almost everything, but i would imagine with portraits you might want a degree of softness?

Anyways, I think mpix.com will only do matte finishes (especially talking about B&W printing, but color too). Correct me if i'm wrong here.

Anyone have any recommendations of glossy printing places either online or in Houston?? Also, what format is best? I normally do all jpg stuff, but for this project i have been doing stuff from RAW into TIFF files.... that ok ? What is best?

Thank you!
Ross

[LoungeLizard]

For my every day stuff, I use Costco. They do a fine job (at least the one by me), have printer profiles available on dry creek for soft-proofing, are reasonably priced, and fast.

I preffer matte finish on everything...just me.

[Badge]

You could try Humble Camera, they will print it however you want it. Their printing on canvas looks real good

[suzyjazz]

Costco does great for me. Their matte finish is called lustre. I always use lustre for enlargements. May switch to doing lustre on everything though, I like it.

Nice pic BTW!

[ndsimm]

another vote here for costco, they have done a few of my smaller weddings and a lot of my prints and do a great job and the profiles they supply assure a color match...

[Ross]

hmm.. looks like the prevailing word is to go with Costco. I've never been to Costco, but i'm up for the adventure :) I will test them out. Do they do glossy at all, though?

Thanks guys!
Ross

[AjP]

I never used Costco before and have a questions for you guys who use it. Do u use personal membership and business, when you printing big valume like 300-600 pics???? thx

[jeffkohn]

Costco's matte finish isn't really matte, it's more like lustre/satin. A true matte finish on fine-art paper is different, there's no shine at all to the paper.

I tried a couple of enlargements at Costco and the quality is OK, although it's disappointing they can only print 10x15" here in Houston (some of their other locations have the Noritsu printers which can do 12x18", a more useful size IMHO). Don't assume that the minilab prints are better than what you can do at home though; the latest inkjets will give you better resolution and wider color gamut; and with archival pigment inks the print life is even better.

Since the example of what you want to print is B/W, I do not recommend Costco for B/W printing. You just can't get really good B/W results from a color printer. The Fuji/Noritsu mini labs are no different from consumer inkjets in this regard. I tried it and even when using the Dry Creek profile the print came out with an ugly green cast, very disappointing.

If you want B/W prints you need to find a lab that can do true B/W prints. I know MPix/Miller and West Coast Imaging can do them, and there may be some others though I don't know about locally. It might be a little more expensive going this route compared to Costco but the results are worth it.

[ndsimm]

Costco does print glossy although all of my prints have been the lustre finish
here is the link to the profiles...scroll down to the Houston area stores and select the one closest to you (I am close to the Gessner Store near 249)
http://drycreekphoto.com/Frontier/Pr...rofiles.htm#TX

I use a business membership, I had a personal membership but the cost is the same for a business one and it helps me for tax purposes....

[blonboy]

http://www.colorenlargement.com is what I use.

[GSM]

I can print upto 13X19 B&W or color. on the following papers. gloss,luster, cotton rag, canvas . gloss and luster are usually (epson/illford), cotton rag fine art paper (epson velvet fine art /Red River Aurora) and Epson canvas. You can email me for questions/samples. I can produce netural B&W, warm, cool and sepia toned prints from my B&W setup.

There are longevity issues and in B&W color shift issues. If you use glossy paper on a pigment ink printer like epson 2200 there is bronzing. Usually people print on luster and avoid gloss paper when dealing with pigment ink set. Pigment inks lasts longer than dye based inks but exibit lower color gamut and saturation. If you are selling pics I would not recommend dye based print. Printers and ink set are getting better as time passes.

I hope this helps and I will share my knowledge if you have specific question(s)

[kimberley]

I use a small local lab. Armadillo photo supply, they use all Epson printer and do a great job, in my opion. They are reasonable and have a quick turn around, I use them for a my large portraits, I use matte, so I dont know if they use glossy or not but you can ask.

[Ross]

Originally Posted by GSM

I can print upto 13X19 B&W or color. on the following papers. gloss,luster, cotton rag, canvas . gloss and luster are usually (epson/illford), cotton rag fine art paper (epson velvet fine art /Red River Aurora) and Epson canvas. You can email me for questions/samples. I can produce netural B&W, warm, cool and sepia toned prints from my B&W setup.

There are longevity issues and in B&W color shift issues. If you use glossy paper on a pigment ink printer like epson 2200 there is bronzing. Usually people print on luster and avoid gloss paper when dealing with pigment ink set. Pigment inks lasts longer than dye based inks but exibit lower color gamut and saturation. If you are selling pics I would not recommend dye based print. Printers and ink set are getting better as time passes.

I hope this helps and I will share my knowledge if you have specific question(s)

very tempting. PM sent to you.

Just a quick question for you MPIX users == is it possible to select B&W paper for just the B&W images and the color paper for the color images? It looks like I can just pick one paper for the entire order???

Thanks,
Ross