On Tue, December 7, 2010 22:41, mark@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote: > Well just a thought or two. First with the discount places its catch as > catch can there. Most of the time it depends more on who happens to be > running the equipment at any given moment. That really wasn't that much > different than the film days. Once in a while you find someone at one of > those places for a while that really knows what they are doing. If so you > might get great work at a bargain price. More likely you will get just > average work with good equipment. Sometimes that's good enough and the > price difference makes it worth while sometimes to see what you get. Why would that be? I'm not having their operator making any corrections, just running my file into their printer. If some operators don't do a good job of maintenance, that would make a difference; but that's a matter of bothering to do their job, rather than a matter of actual skill. It would be interesting, if somewhat expensive, to get the same file printed 10 times over 10 weeks, say, at different times of day, just to see how much difference there is. Wouldn't have to be a huge print to be interesting, either. That would be an interesting test. Trouble is with the operator you may tell them not to correct, but do they actually do what you tell them? Are they trained in the equipment to follow the directions or do they just let the auto correct run because the prints they ran before yours needed it and the prints they run afterwards need it. Do they know how to turn it off? How long has it been since they recalibrated a monitor? I was in a nameless camera chain store that had an operator say "Gee this film turned out funny." I took a quick glance over and knew what happened, but just waited to see what they came up with. The manager asked, "What kind of film is it?" The response was "Provia 100F". The manager said, "That's a slide film." Well the less than trained operator goes, "Well that's what it says." Poor training is nothing new, and with digital at least the results are not unrecoverable, but you may not get the best from a file. Maybe its not the absolute best, but sometimes for something quick it maybe good enough. > Now for the pros, you have another consideration and that's perception. When that becomes an issue, I hope that the difference between $22 and $49 for a print will not be something I have to worry about. I have actually used prints from WalMart and Target for client wedding proofs, in particular. I don't do weddings, but the extra few bucks for a print for a better print I am going to sell is money well spent. The extra few bucks are going to be passed on anyway, and I want the highest practical quality. I certainly understand other approaches. Lots of things come into play in any situation. Sometimes speed is far more important than waiting for a print that's slightly better. That's something we all have to decide for ourselves.
