Printing Pictures

[ahorne]

I'm trying to get into photography, I've taken pictures of some friends, and I've got a few families from my church wanting me to do Christmas pictures for them. I'm not charging yet, so I can't afford much, but I'd like to get some of the better pictures I take printed at a decent quality so I can start keeping an album of them. The Kodak kiosk I've used in the past isn't great, but it might be because I don't know what dpi or what size to save the images as before I print (I've noticed on Facebook that large files end up with a lot of grain)?

Any ideas/suggestions?

[Murtasma]

What's wrong with the prints you are getting? What printer do you have? Do you have a monitor and printer callibration tool? What size prints do you want? What camera are you using?

[ahorne]

Well I've only printed a few, but the color was off compared to my computer screen, and they were almost grainy looking...Not bad, but not clear. I was using a Kodak kiosk in CVS, I dont have the money for a photo printer right now. Mostly I want 4x6's to put in an album

[ahorne]

Oh, and my camera is a Canon Rebel XS

[prince]

Never print at Kiosk... doesn't matter which one. All are crap. try some good labs like Mpix, Shutterfly, Ritzpix.. and there are more but I have only used these..

[OsmosisStudios]

Originally Posted by prince

Never print at Kiosk... doesn't matter which one. All are crap. try some good labs like Mpix, Shutterfly, Ritzpix.. and there are more but I have only used these..

Actually, it does matter

If the kiosk sends the order to a proper photo printer, then things get a little different. But if it's the kind that produces images right away, then yeah, steer clear.

[ahorne]

have you tried uploading to Kodak's website and printing from there? I was looking at that, but I didn't want to do that if it's no good, because I'll have to pay shipping too...

and if you have, are the "professional" prints actually any better than the regular ones?

And how do I know what size, dpi, etc the files should be when I upload them to the website?

[command-s]

Personally I'd do 2 things.
1. Callibrate my monitor again with a good quality calibrator e.g. Gretag Macbeth or Huey Pro.
2. Find a printshop that other photographers use more than just a kiosk! Get the yellow pages out or speak to other photographers to ask where they go in your area to get their prints done.
Hope that helps.