Lab tests
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12 pro labs put through their paces
Online print lab services Get brilliant results without the effort of a home inkjet and show off your shots like never before ON TEST
number of inks to achieve a wider colour gamut than home inkjets, with higher resolution, finer detail and smoother gradations. Giclée inks and papers also tend to be archival so offer fade-resistant results. We noted the prices (including VAT) for each lab and examined the quality of the results – trust us, you’ll love seeing your shots produced this way. Finally we also looked at the speed of delivery and the standard of packaging used to keep your work safe and sound on its way to you. We used speedier courier services for all our orders, although each of the labs listed also offers regular postage at lower rates than the courier services.
envelopes in airports or those that churn out prints using tired machines run by spotty kids on the high street. These are to be avoided if you want top quality. Then there are expert services; those tailored to professional photographers, artists and enthusiasts wanting the highest quality reproduction of their images for use in shows, competitions or simply for enjoying framed at home. Those are the labs we’re looking at in this issue: the higher strata that deals in superior archival papers and where experienced printers take an interest in giving your pictures the best finish possible, offering advice and colour correction as part of the service when required. To test the labs over the page we examined the simplicity and range of services available when ordering and made both full colour and black & white prints at A3 (or similar) size using both standard wet-tank silver halide processing on glossy or lustre papers as well as fine art, gallery standard giclée inkjet printing. The latter is a process that uses large-format printers and an increased
Home inkjet printing can be a wonderfully satisfying process, assuming you have the right equipment, skills and the time to do it – but all too often it’s a frustration. Getting the crop and colours right in a print often takes experimentation and all the time you’re using up expensive ink and paper. And then you have to clean clogged heads, or fix some other malfunctions. Wouldn’t it be easier to get an expert on the job? Well, yes actually, and it doesn’t need to cost the earth. Online printing has come a long way in the past few years with broadband connections making it quicker to deliver your files, prices falling, quality rising and plenty of sumptuous fine art archival papers to enjoy your work on. There’s also been a resurgence in people wanting ‘proper’ wet-processed silver halide paper for that distinctive look and feel of professionally produced prints. But if you want the best, it’s important to pick the right labs and there are two very distinct kinds of print services out there. First are those you find via stacks of
Online printing has come a longway in the last fewyears…withprices falling and quality rising
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Issue 13 | Photography News
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