I was surprised to find that the first two visits took me to printers who produced the same quality of print that my current supplier would produce (photobox). My third visit was to a printers called 'snappy snaps', the name of which made me think of quick 'snappy' prints that would be of a similar quality that I'd seen. I was pleasantly surprised. They are professional printers, they have many printers of varying size, with the ability to print very large. We looked at some of my prints, which I was told were printed using 'laser' printers, whereas they print using chemicals producing purer colour and improving the look of monochrome. The offer a free review service where look at colour, size etc I also negotiated a student discount I'm having a few photo's printed in order to compare.
I had a couple of images printed to compare with my current print choice. The image below of Lincoln Cathedral firstly printed using Photobox on Fujicolour crystal archive, the second image was printed by the local lab 'snappy snaps' on Fujicolour crystal archive supreme. The obvious difference is the colour and temperature. The yellow of the stone had previously been reduced by altering the temperature using the white balance slider in Lightroom, in the second print it looks much more natural. The technician at 'snappy snaps' spent time looking at the image before printing, checking size, colour etc and showed me what it would look like before printing with an on screen preview including the different border widths. The 'magenta' level was also slightly reduced,
Again the first image below was printed using Photobox. The image is slightly warmer than the second print, the 'magenta' was reduced slightly. There is less of a dramatic difference between the two image, but the colour is certainly an improvement.
Photobox:
In conclusion, both options offered very good paper and print quality, the main difference is the service gained from using the local lab, the pre-print discussion was invaluable, a personal service that will be invaluable as I progress through the courses.
I had a couple of images printed to compare with my current print choice. The image below of Lincoln Cathedral firstly printed using Photobox on Fujicolour crystal archive, the second image was printed by the local lab 'snappy snaps' on Fujicolour crystal archive supreme. The obvious difference is the colour and temperature. The yellow of the stone had previously been reduced by altering the temperature using the white balance slider in Lightroom, in the second print it looks much more natural. The technician at 'snappy snaps' spent time looking at the image before printing, checking size, colour etc and showed me what it would look like before printing with an on screen preview including the different border widths. The 'magenta' level was also slightly reduced,
Again the first image below was printed using Photobox. The image is slightly warmer than the second print, the 'magenta' was reduced slightly. There is less of a dramatic difference between the two image, but the colour is certainly an improvement.
Photobox:
- very good value
- good quality paper
- 'shrink to fit' can result in unequal borders
- what you send is exactly what's printed, ie no pre-print discussion
Local lab
- good quality paper - slightly better than Photobox
- negotiated student discount
- pre-printed discussion, colour change, size etc, before and after saved for learning log
- print any size
In conclusion, both options offered very good paper and print quality, the main difference is the service gained from using the local lab, the pre-print discussion was invaluable, a personal service that will be invaluable as I progress through the courses.
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