Photography News 82 Newsletter

First test

PRICES: FROM £8.99

DSCOLOURLABS.CO.UK

Home printing is not practical for everyone and there are many advantages to sending out your shots out to a professional printer. We test one of the country’s longest-established pro printing services DS Colour Labs

DS COLOUR LABS was established in 1954 and has built an enviable reputation for quality of its work. It offers an extensive range of online photographic services, from film processing through to USB and CD presentation, taking all sorts of printing services along the way. Themassive range of print services includes passport and poster collages and large format and fine-art prints. There’s also book printing and a range of presentation, mounting and framing services that include aluminiumpanels, acrylic and canvas products. Services come at affordable and competitive prices with the promise of fast turnaround, too. It really is an impressivemenu of services and I picked four services to try. I started with DS’s fine-art giclée printing service. Here you can choose between Hahnemühle and Permajet papers with prints made using Epson Stylus Pro large format printers and Epson UltraChrome HD inks. I went for a print on Permajet TitaniumLustre 280 paper, one of the eight finishes on offer. Next, I went for what DS calls its competition print service, a service aimed at photographers submitting

individual images or panels to The Guild of Photographers, theMPA and the SWPP. The RPS or PAGB aren’t mentioned, but there’s no reason why the results can’t be used for their distinctions too. There’s a choice of print sizes and they can be window or flush mounted on 2mmcard, plus the option of ordering individual prints or a set of 20 images, so the service is definitely worth a look if you need a professionally finished panel. I went for a 10x10in print in a 20x16in windowmount. The last two services I picked out to try were large format C-type prints, on FujifilmCrystal Archive Pro Velvet paper and on FujifilmCrystal Archive Digital DP II Lustre. The latter is a well- known standard finishmuch favoured by social photographers, while the Velvet is a silky, deepmatte finish, which does not suffer from reflections. Getting files to DS online is a simple process; I resizedmy images to suit and outputted JPEGs in the sRGB colour space as advised on the website. The upload process is straightforward, with a bulk loader option for batches of pictures. The competition service is a tadmore involved, although not tricky, and you can add text, sepia, blue tone or gomono and there’s a zoomoption to fine-tune composition. I uploadedmy order on a Thursday and the prints arrived by courier on Tuesday – orders are sent out by Royal Mail or DPD courier, the latter from £10.99 – so within the production times on the DS website. I was impressed and very pleased with the results. Theymatched up accurately withmy on-screen images with no sign of any colour casts. The night-time Venice scene I'd printed on the FujifilmPro Velvet paper looked great and I loved the deadmatte finish with rich shadow detail. As for the window print, the cut quality, choice of card and finish was spot on. WC

SPECS ›  Prices For the services tested: SWPP 10x10in with 20x16 window mount £10.99 Permajet Titanium Lustre 280 A3 print £10.99 Fujifilm Crystal Archive Professional Velvet C-Type 20x16 £11.50 Fujifilm Crystal Archive Digital DP-11 C-Type 20x16 £8.99 Prices do not include postage and bulk discounts are available ›  A few sample prices of other services A4 matted print in 40x50cm mount from £11.99 Classic acrylic (5mm) 20x16in £74.99 Canvas print 20x16in £39.99 Classic photo book A4 landscape hardback £54.99 ›  Other services include Aluminium products, citiblocks, panoramic framing, multi-aperture framing, chromaluxe panels, photo books, mounting and laminating, calendars and wall planners, schools services, scanning and photo flyers Contact dscolourlabs.co.uk

TOP Moonrise, Horsey Windpump on Permajet Titanium Lustre 280 paper MIDDLE Venetian night scene on Fujifilm Crystal Archive Pro Velvet paper. This matte-finish paper does not have the intense blacks of lustre/gloss finishes, but the detail in the deep shadows is lovely BOTTOM Llandudno sea front (with rain added in editing) looked lovely on Fujifilm Crystal Archive Digital DP II Lustre

Verdict

It is easy to appreciate why so many photographers, enthusiasts and pros rely on DS Colour Labs for their prints, art prints and photo gifts. The huge range of services means almost every conceivable output need is catered for, the process of ordering and picture upload is dead simple and, crucially, the results are first rate. If you need a top- quality printing service, it pays to give DS Colour Labs a try PROS Wide range of services, great value for money, high-quality results, prompt turnaround CONS Nothing

ABOVE If you are using prints for contests, distinction applications or if you don’t have a mat cutter, DS Colour Labs offers a window mount and mounting service. This was done using the SWPP 10x10in print in a 20x16in window mount option

38 Photography News | Issue 82

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