Printing digital images using 3rd party

[Bunter1815]

Hi folks

I recently gave up on having a colour printer at home because keeping the inkjet nozzles in tip-top condition became a major nause and in the end nothing I did to the printer could get rid of the banding I was seeing on prints. It was a 5 year old printer so maybe I was being a little hasty to go mono-laserjet for document printing at home and putting my digital image printing entirely in the hands of others, but that's where I've ended up.

Using the site below

http://www.photoscientia.co.uk/Gamma.htm

I have adjusted my monitor (Viewsonic VP920) to give a gamma of 1.8 and I can usually see the shades of grey frequently present on photography/monitor websites (dpreview for instance). I've also checked that the luminance is about 100 lumens (ISO 100, F8, 1/15th gave zero EV with my camera, 40D, pointed at a blank white screen). But I have not calibrated it with a Spyder or similar.

I've been slightly disappointing with the images I've had printed by a local photography shop. All images which I've had printed have had an sRGB colour profile. The results are not particularly consistent but I would say on the whole that greens tones lack depth, and, holding the print alongside the monitor in general the prints lack "punch" (definition/dull). Paper is Fujifilm Crystal Archive Paper.

I guess my main question is whether this problem is likely to be solved by getting my monitor calibrated? From days when I had wet film D&P (a few years ago now) I'm aware that the processing is frequently set up to automatically adjust contrast and colour balance etc.. If that were still true today it would defeat the tweaks I'm giving in Photoshop, and also make monitor calibration pointless. So do printers still use automatic settings on their printers? Bear in mind I'm getting these prints done by what I consider an enthusiasts photography shop (not a national chain). Finally, can anyone recommend a good place to get images printed?

Many thanks in advance for any advice and help with this.

Cheers

Bill

 

[photon]

So do printers still use automatic settings on their printers?

Oh yes, and it's usually the default option.

I used Aldi recently. Cheap, cheerful and quick, but not many options. Their upload software has an option for no "optimizations", though other customers report receiving prints with a warming filter applied.

Samsphotolab: no message from the upload software that the transfer had been completed and the acknowledgement email arrived 10 days later! Prints should be here soon.

Loxley: further downsized and sharpened my prepared files.