Putting Your Shots Onto Canvas or Print

If you've never tried them, I suggest DSCL
Great service, great quality easy to order if you download the kiosk thingy and I've now had enough larger (18x12) to recomend them for larger sizes too
Give some prints a try and see how they look before committing to canvas?
Pretty sure 18x12 is their largest size, apart from panarama size
I think they are really great for price, quality and speed of delivery (my latest order from Thursday around 8pm arrived in Scotland today at 9am
 
Badger8 said:
I am considering putting a few of my shots onto Canvas or print. I've been thinking about canvas, but, and this might be in my head, that you always lose a lot of quality!
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It's not in your head. Canvas always struck me as the most inappropriate medium for most photographs. I suppose it's down to taste, but black levels are crap, detail is usually harmed by the heavily textured surface and they're difficult to clean.

Just my opinion.
 
DSCL do great prints and Trade Canvass Prints (forum advertiser) do great canvasses plus they do a TP discount - I had a 36" x 24" canvas done by them and the image quality and product quality were excellent.
 
Right, I'll jump in and give some advice seeing as I do my own prints (along with a few other chaps on here)
The quality depends on the company, most use RIP software to maximise their print speeds and as such, this means around 300DPI which appears rubbish and almost too saturated, it depends on the canvas used and the resolution. I've literally printed off a 30x40 this morning on 2400DPI and the quality is perfect, blacks are rich and show good definition, the weave on the fabric itself causes a lot of quality problems but if you use a higher GSM canvas and ideally a pre glossed fabric then the results are just as good as glossy photo paper! Plus they're very easy to clean - as long as the company has used a varnish (I've been using a satin effect varnish which takes 8 coats to make it completely UV and water proof)

Hopefully that helped you make your decision etc :)
 
Basically some cheaper canvass rolls have deep dimples which causes the ink to settle and blob so you're left with an over saturated rich photo so a lot of tweaking is required, even the colour settings need to be different on each printer etc :)
 
Tim, before you make any orders, contact the companies direct and tell them what you require, you do not want 300DPI and overly saturated canvas, ask them what ink is used whether it's Dye, UV etc, Solvent (Solvents are good but they stink when you're printing!)

If you get stuck, copy in some of the URL's on here and we'll have a look :)
 
Flightphoto said:
Tim, before you make any orders, contact the companies direct and tell them what you require, you do not want 300DPI and overly saturated canvas, ask them what ink is used whether it's Dye, UV etc, Solvent (Solvents are good but they stink when you're printing!)

If you get stuck, copy in some of the URL's on here and we'll have a look :)
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Thank you Dave thats really kind.
 
Also, don't feel shy to ask them what printers they use. Some maybe a bit cagey about it but at the end of the day, you need to find out what you're paying for, there's quite a few companies on eBay using old designjet 450's that just won't fit the bill these days - these printers were mainly designed for CAD and colour graphics, not imaging etc!
 
Pookeyhead said:
It's not in your head. Canvas always struck me as the most inappropriate medium for most photographs. I suppose it's down to taste, but black levels are crap, detail is usually harmed by the heavily textured surface and they're difficult to clean.

Just my opinion.
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This.

I've yet to see a photograph on canvas that looks good.

Lots of labs are offering floating acrylic, aluminium etc and these look stunning.
 
Badger8 said:
I am considering putting a few of my shots onto Canvas or print. I've been thinking about canvas, but, and this might be in my head, that you always lose a lot of quality! Can anyone recommend a decent company?

:clap:
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canvas is rubbish for detail which is why it is good for low resolution images.
 
Whitewall do some fantastic alternatives to canvas although having said that, their canvases are pretty good too. I've had some large (50"x25") prints done, mounted on dibond/aluminium and they are just superb. I've also printed onto Metallic paper and then had it framed and again am over the moon with the quality.

Can highly recommend Whitewall
 
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