Fran Posted December 1, 2004 Share Posted December 1, 2004 On several occasions, I've done proof prints for high-resolution images at the Kodak kiosk at Walmart. You can print up to 8x10. If an image is very large, I'll create 8x10 images from crops of the original at full resolution. At $4.78 each, I don't think I could produce it in my office as well, as cheaply or as quickly. Now, if they only did 16x19... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ecastillor Posted December 1, 2004 Share Posted December 1, 2004 her in mexico, there are digital fuji labs that will charge you around $3 us for a 15x10 print... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim Nelson Posted December 1, 2004 Share Posted December 1, 2004 Hehe, our Walmarts in this city are too scary! I prefer the comfort & security of my home. I have an Epson that will do up to 13x19 and while its not really fast the print quality is perfect & I'm sure an 8.5 x 11 full color print would cost me less than $4.78. Not to mention the hassle to get in the car, drive to a store, etc...gas isn't cheap you know! How do you know that your printed Walmart colors are going to match your final output? What kind of color calibration do you use, if any? So far I haven't ventured into that. I just try to match up my printer profile to my screen as best as possible, but I would love to get the Pantone kit soon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrators Jeff Mottle Posted December 1, 2004 Administrators Share Posted December 1, 2004 Yup I do the same here with my local KODAK dealer. They have a $500K dry process photographic device and they can output anything from a 8x10 to a 20x30 in 3 types of paper, including metalic. The costs only run from $2.80-$35 MUCH cheaper than my inkjet can do and much better quality. This particular company even has an desktop application that allows me to submit the order directly to their machine and I can arrange a courier delivery or I can go an pick them up. The best part is they are HUGE into color calibration so I know as long as my prints are tagged correctly on my end, they will look exactly as I expect. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RyanSpaulding Posted December 1, 2004 Share Posted December 1, 2004 Just did an 11x17 at CopyMax on thick and nice paper for $2.81 *thumbs up* Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fran Posted December 1, 2004 Author Share Posted December 1, 2004 Hehe, our Walmarts in this city are too scary! I prefer the comfort & security of my home. I have an Epson that will do up to 13x19 and while its not really fast the print quality is perfect & I'm sure an 8.5 x 11 full color print would cost me less than $4.78. Not to mention the hassle to get in the car, drive to a store, etc...gas isn't cheap you know! How do you know that your printed Walmart colors are going to match your final output? What kind of color calibration do you use, if any? So far I haven't ventured into that. I just try to match up my printer profile to my screen as best as possible, but I would love to get the Pantone kit soon. I've never had photographs come back on Kodak paper that looked funky unless there was something wrong with the camera. I trust Kodak output and the printed output looks as I expect it to. I send the proof prints to the client with the digital images if they are arranging the final output. If the print house's output doesn't match Kodak's, I'd say there is a problem with the print house. In fact, since I calibrated my monitor to the Kodak output, my Epson output is better and scanned physical samples are much truer. Sorry if I've wasted bandwidth with useless info. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim Nelson Posted December 1, 2004 Share Posted December 1, 2004 Waste!? There's enough bandwidth for everyone! So did you calibrate it by eye, or did you use some other method? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IC Posted December 2, 2004 Share Posted December 2, 2004 All sounds a bit too '1 hour photo' for me. (Mediocre film-fantastic soundtrack!) We have great little outlets that I know from all the repro stuff I do for architecture. Over the last few years, they've really embraced high quality digital work-and it's cheap too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrCAD Posted December 2, 2004 Share Posted December 2, 2004 in india (well atleast in my city) its really cheap for kodak photo prints..I pay upto $0.50 for 8x11 and $1.30 for 13x17....prolly the business is huge here ??... really dunno why its cheaper meher http://www.drapefx.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fran Posted December 2, 2004 Author Share Posted December 2, 2004 All sounds a bit too '1 hour photo' for me. (Mediocre film-fantastic soundtrack!) Not sure what you mean by that. If it looks good it is good. And I'm very picky. We have great little outlets that I know from all the repro stuff I do for architecture. Over the last few years, they've really embraced high quality digital work-and it's cheap too. I haven't had to do large output in a long time, so I don't really know what's available in the surrounding area. There certainly isn't anything within an hour's travel time where I live. If I need to see high-quality output fast, I couldn't see that happening in my area. Since Walmart is 10 minutes away, and I need oven mitts and throw pillows anyway... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eric Posted December 2, 2004 Share Posted December 2, 2004 Fran, I have to admit, that's a great idea. My little Canon printer will spit out amazing prints. However, it sure does drink the ink!! Last week I had (3) 24"x36" color prints made for a client. Each print was $72 (before my discount). While I was sitting in the car on the way to my wife's family's house for Thanksgiving, I was browsing through the Wolf Camera catalog. I noticed they were advertising 24"x26" poster prints for, I believe, $39. I'm sure they would look every bit as good as the $72 prints my printing company produces for me. However, I just called to look into it, and the $39 (which is actually shown at $49 on their website) is only for film enlargements from slides or negatives. It was around $100 for digital files. I'm glad to see someone else has looked into the possibilty of using "Kodak" printing methods. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Cassil Posted December 2, 2004 Share Posted December 2, 2004 In fact, since I calibrated my monitor to the Kodak output, my Epson output is better and scanned physical samples are much truer. Hey Fran, would you mind sharing how exactly you calibrated your monitor to Kodak output? Did you just take an image that was printed and eyeball your monitor to match it or did you go through something a little more precise? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Cassil Posted December 2, 2004 Share Posted December 2, 2004 Yup I do the same here with my local KODAK dealer. Hey Jeff, do you know how I can find a "KODAK dealer" in my area? It sounds like the Wall Mart idea will work for up to 8x10 but to get something bigger I need to find something else, is that right? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Devin Johnston Posted December 2, 2004 Share Posted December 2, 2004 Actually Walmart will print up to 36x48 for $31.96, if the quality is the same as my printer I'm going to consider using them for jobs that arent time critical. The company I use right now has a printer that prints images using a chemical photographic process but it costs $14.35 per square foot. If the final product looks as good it's worth it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fran Posted December 3, 2004 Author Share Posted December 3, 2004 Tim and Brian - I just matched the output by eye. Actually, the default color settings for my monitor were very close. Then it was a matter of tweaking the gamma a little bit in the display driver settings. Devin - I'll have to look into larger output from Walmart! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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