There are days when I look at my monthly bill from the lab and I
wonder if I could print my own for less money. I don't consider
myself a second-rate hack at printing, so I think "sure, why not?"
I'll tell you "why not."
1. Calibration. I never have to worry about calibrating the
printer/paper/ink. No small feat there.
2. Second set of eyes. Most of my people pictures are
color-corrected by the lab. It doesn't hurt to have a second set of
eyes sitting in front of a calibrated monitor (to the printed output)
fix the error of my ways. Some days I'm a little more heavy-handed
with some processes then others. The lab does a fine job of
equalizing everything to a "look".
3. Time and material wastage. There is no way I could attain 100%
correct results with my own printer.
4. Archival qualities.
5. Scaling. I never have to scale my images to the final print size.
Their uprez engine is much better than anything I have on my
computer.
6. Time savings. No contest! All I need to do is build my order and
upload over the DSL connection. Stuff arrives in two days all purty
and cut to proper size. The ordering software is cat's meow. I built
a 300 image wedding proof book, bound, with custom cover, order
forms, etc., in just over half an hour. In a few days, not only will
I have the proof book in the customer's hands, but the images will
all be online for reprint orders from all the relatives. Those online
orders I never have to spend one second with--the sales price (minus
costs) is applied to my lab account. How much easier does it get?
7. Surface modifications, mounting and other such options. I can't
afford to invest in the stuff to do it myself. Not to mention the
space needed for most of those things.
8. The exitement of getting packages from Fed-Ex. I know, cheep
thrills.
9. Capital investment. What I save in the equipment investment can
be better spent on cameras, lighting, backdrops and marketing. Or
even a vacation. My pricing model covers all reprint costs anyway,
why tie up my own money?
10. Print quality. It took me years to find a lab capable of
producing such high-quality work--order after order. Just today I
got back another set of 8x10s, 5x7s and wallets (third reprint order
of this specific image) that just knocks me over every time I look at
them. I compare to the original JPEG and think "wow, I took that?"
Now, granted, this is specific to wedding and portrait work where
volume and turn-around time is important. There are cheeper pro-labs
out there (WHCC for example), but the tradeoffs aren't worth it.
For the large art-prints, I do have an issue. Costs of megaprints are
sky high. By the time I get the options I want the cost of a 24x30
or 30x40 could pay for a printer in short order. One 30x40 art-print
can cost me as much as $220. However, I have to look at the quantity
of megaprints that I'm selling and ask myself if the cost savings
justifies the commitment? I ran the numbers a few months ago and
determined that I could justify the printer IF I inhouse printed ALL
of my prolab printing. Ugh. And lose all the benefits that I
outlined above?
A couple of days ago I ventured into a local printshop. This place
has a high-end pigment inkjet printer capable of 6-foot wide, by
roll-length pictures. Hmm. Sweet! Ok, let's start looking at the
output samples they have. Not-so-sweet. Why is it that they
laminate most of the pictures? We won't even talk about paper
options... I kindly thanked them for their time and slowly backed my
way out the door.
AG
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