Online Printing (Costco etc.) ????

[Sheldon Bowles]

Today I have taken a great leap forward! I have opened an account at Costco and I have sent via the web 11 photos to be printed as a test. These were large jpegs right out of the camera. The files were large, the prints I'm trying are 5 X 7

Okay, IF I put these photos through some basic Photoshop Elements stuff, crop, light levels, sharpen perhaps, a color correction, clone out a dust mark, you know --- the stuff you can do with one click --- then I need to save the file. To send to have a print made I can either save the file as it is (likely very very large) OR I can hit the save for the web button that will allow me to cut down on the physical size --- inches by inches --- as well as the information being saved.

Now, for a 4 X 6 or a 5 X 7 or an 8 X 10 or even a 16 X 20 how big a file should be saved to send to the online printer?

I don't know if I have expressed this correctly --- as is so often the case, I'm in over my head.

I look forward to any advice you can give. Many thanks.

[Kevin]

Sheldon,
I used Costco online for a 30x40 poster print. I just sent them a large, high quality jpg file and I believe they uprezzed it before printing. Came out great.

[Sheldon Bowles]

Thanks. I've heard good things about their poster prints. If I was going to do one I'd send as large a file as possible. What I don't know, is what to send for smaller prints. I guess I could just send an 8 gig file for a 4 X 6 but they take so long to upload. For one, that's fine, but for 50 ! ! Same for an 8 X 10. I doubt 8 gigs are needed. And does the file need to be at 100 percent or is cutting down to 800 X 533, or some such, okay. I don't want to send too little information and get back photos which are less than they might be, but on the other hand I don't want to either save too much on my hard drive as a send-for-printing file, or send way more than is needed.

I suppose there's always the try different things approach and see what happens.

Thanks Jeff. I appreciate your reply.

[Rudi]

Sheldon,

There is no hard and fast rule, and of course, if you start with a high-quality file, you will always get a great result. The amazing thing is, I have found that you can supply a pretty average JPEG and somehow most of these digital printing labs can still manage to turn out a great print out of it.

I would never go any lower than 150 dpi JPEG at around 75%. So, that means that for an 8 x 10 you will need a JPEG size of 1200 x 1500 pixels, saved at around level 9 (out of 12) in Photoshop. Of course, you'd be better off at 200, 240 or even 300 dpi, and make the adjustment (2400 x 3000 pixels for a 300 dpi JPEG). There is no need to go any higher than 300 dpi. The good news is that a 2400 x 3000 JPEG at 300 dpi should compress to a reasonable size. :)

If you only want 4 x 6 prints, then even at the max. res of 300 dpi, you're only looking at a 1200 x 1800 JPEG, not large at all. Hope this helps...

[Sheldon Bowles]

Rudi, this looks great --- exactly what I was wondering about. Can't say as I "get it" all on first read, but be assured if I have any questions I won't hestitate to ask.

Cheers !

[Rudi]

Just one correction, Sheldon. Above, I should have said "ppi" (pixels per inch) rather than "dpi" (dots per inch), but it really translates to the same thing. :) In Photoshop, when you click on "Image", then "Size", you will see how to resize it to what you want... Good luck, and feel free to ask questions if you get stuck.

[MiriamJ]

I do all my printing at Costco. The PPI information specific to your Costco printer can be found here at Dry Creek Photo: http://www.drycreekphoto.com/icc/using_printer_profiles.htm To learn what printer your Costco is using you can go here: http://www.drycreekphoto.com/icc/index.html

It's also worthwhile to download the profiles. Instructions on using the profiles plus other important links can be found on the second page.

The use of paper- and printer-specific profiles is the main reason I use Costco.

However, after much effort, I have been unable to find out what printers they use for their enlargements.

Bummer! :(

[Sheldon Bowles]

Thanks for this Miriam. I had a look. I can see I've got a lot to learn!

TGFPS (Thank God For Pixel Shooters)

[MiriamJ]

You're welcome. It's pretty well written. If you get stuck anywhere, give me a hollar.

[E.B. West]

Here's a help page from SmugMug where I keep my photos: http://ebinfl.smugmug.com/help/print-quality#minprintres.

They use a company called EZ Prints, but the info would apply to any printer, especially the resolution question. I've had a few prints made by them and they were very good so the info is good.

[Sheldon Bowles]

E.B. Thanks for this.

One question I'm not clear on is that there seems to be two criteria for quality. One is the pixels X pixels the smugmug page talks about. As I understand it if a photo was 100 pixels by 73 pixels it would show up on my computer screen as a small photo --- matter of fact, best I can tell the little photo that is your avatar when I right click and then look at properties, is 100 X 73. BUT if a photo was 800 by 600 pixels it would fill up far more of the screen.

Now, when I'm in Photoshop Elements, after I've fiddled with a photo, which for me means perhaps cropping and then hitting several auto-correct buttons and deciding if I think it looks better or not, then I go to Save For The Web. This allows me to alter two things. First the physical size --- I usually put in 800 for the big number, and if its not been cropped, I think the other side shows up as 533. Then there is a slider that determines if the picture that physical size is high or low quality and measures this as "k" of information being stored within the physical size. (At least that's what I think is happening.) I used to drop the slider until the "k" was around 250k but I've been told that this is far more information than a computer screen needs to show a picture and for web viewing 100k or so is just fine. So, that's what I've been doing, and it seems to work. Although when I cut the "k" down I can see on my laptop screen the picture has been degraded from when it was a couple of gigs of information within the 800 X 533 pixel size.

The smugmug site seems to deal with the first, but not the second, quality issue. Perhaps the assumption is that the photo is sent with as much "k" as possible for the pixel by pixel size. Which is fine --- but it takes awhile to upload and if I am uploadning, and storing, information that's not going to be used anyways in the printing process that seems a waste --- especially time if I want to send in 50 photos.

And, it seems, as best I can understand from previous posts here and elsewhere on Pixel Shooter, that if I was using Photoshop itself, and not Elements, there is a different way to save photos than the one I've been using in Elements.

And so, I read, I puzzle, I scratch my head (which, being mostly bald on top is an easy thing to do) and work away at trying to put age 25 ideas into my 65 year old brain.

Thanks to all who have been helping.

[Rudi]

Sheldon,

As I mentioned previously, my local digital printing place recommends that you send them JPEGs at about 70%, so that would mean that the slider should be about 3/4 of the way towards the "high quality" or "large file size" side of things (sorry, not familiar with Elements). Of course, if the files size that results is still relatively small and you can afford to increase the quality even more, then that is always a good thing. :)

I would recommend a minimum of 70% quality for printing. I am amazed at what my printing place can produce from JPEGs compressed at that quality setting, but would not tempt fate and send them anything of lower quality.

[Sheldon Bowles]

Thanks. I picked up eleven 5 x 7 prints from Costco this afternoon --- a trail. I just sent them 11 jpegs right out of the camera and they did some sort of auto correction (at least that's what the envelope says) and I'm very impressed with the results. If I was selling, I might want more specific things, but for fun and family photos these were excellent.

I'll try the same photos with the slider at 70 percent, or so, and do adjustments myself and see how those compare.

Thanks for the help Rudi, everyone ....

[netsoul]

I upload online to Costco too. It's so inexpensive and quick! Cheap too! Much cheaper than printing them at home.
The only problem I have is if I have an unusual size cropped photo, there is no exact instructions for fitting it on a page so unless you go in there and tell them, it will have like half a head cropped to the edge.

Thats why I bought the canon 9000 printer, it is better quality than costco prints, but for quick stuff and regular sizes I really like costco.

I forgot to say, I have actually had 4x6's made from the large size/greatly reduced photos from my smug mug album, because I forgot where I put the originals! lolol They turned out great, and also a few times I have resized photos to about half their normal size before working on them and I got a much sharper 11x15, with dpi around 130. [on photos where they just werent that top quality full size, I resize them to like 2500x1800 or so to work on] Works like a charm, and better than 300dpi from full size oroginal to 11x15.
Give one a try at home first tho...

[Guy]

I was reading this thread last Saturday and thought I would try a little experiment.

First off I tried to upload a shot and have Costco print one. I was a bit frustrated at first because the site said " max upload of 8 mb " when in fact the best I could do was 6. In any event I fired it off and ordered a 12 x 18" glossy to be printed from a jpeg file as they don't accept tif or raw. The cost was $2.99... Then I fired off the exact same shot to Lens & Shutter's ( local BC store ) on line service and requested the same thing. Because they work with either tif or jpeg I sent them the 23.4 mb tif version at a cost of $10.99. Either file format is the same cost. I picked them up and compared both side by side. The print I received from Costco has a distinct baby blueish colour to it in comparison to the L & S print which in my mind is closer to what was actually shot. Both are extremely detailed and I doubt the naked eye can see any difference , at least my eyes can't tell.

To be fair it was the shot I posted on this site of the clouds opening on the mtn. and that didn't contain a lot of colour difference. I'm going to do a second experiment with another shot that will have a lot of colour just to to settle the difference once and for all. I need to know if I'm really getting the extra $8.00 in finishing quality..... not that it's a bank breaker because either is still very reasonable in comparison to what things used to cost.

One thing that disturbs me is not being able to get a print larger than 12 x 18" done through either source. London Drugs will do a poster size print but only on poster type paper, not photo paper. Grrrrrrrrrrrr.

NOTE: I did not download either co's profiles and had them print what I see on my calibrated monitor.

[Paul Burwell]

Guy,

I recommend downloading the appropriate Costco profile for your location and than converting the file to that profile before sending the JPEG to Costco for printing.

In my experiece here in Edmonton, the colour matching is very close to what I'm expecting and it is impossible to beat the price.

I too wish they supported larger print sizes.

[Guy]

Guy,

I recommend downloading the appropriate Costco profile for your location and than converting the file to that profile before sending the JPEG to Costco for printing.

In my experiece here in Edmonton, the colour matching is very close to what I'm expecting and it is impossible to beat the price.

I too wish they supported larger print sizes.

Hi Paul....
I know the profile will help. That's why I mentioned in all fairness that I hadn't done it. The reason I didn't was because I was interested to see the actual difference between the two from my test shot right out of the box

[Sheldon Bowles]

Many thanks to all who have contributed to this thread.

Three cheers to my Pixel Shooters support group!