Recommendations for online printing, A3 size?

I take predominantly landscape photos with my SLRs, and although I usually just view them on screen, I've had a few recently which I think would work well as decent sized (A3 or thereabouts) prints. Has anyone got any recommendations for online printing services for this kind of work? There are thousands of places out there which offer such a service, but I don't know which ones are any good.

DSColourlabs have always worked well for me. I've had a lot of 16"x12" prints from them for camera club competitions. They are outstandingly cheap and very good.

Andrew

---

Flickr photostream

DSCL are the best. I've been using them for years. It is best if you download and use their colour profiles, pre-scale your images and then select the 'pro' paper/printing options when uploading the files.

---

Flickr Stream

Thanks! I see DSCL offer 3 different paper types, Lustre, Gloss and Pearl. Which have you tended to go for?

I usually get them printed on gloss, but it is largely a personal preference. Get some 6 x 4 printed on each paper and see which one you prefer.

Recently they were doing a half price offer on pano prints - I had some shots printed as three 20 x 10 inch print sections. A few minutes with a trimmer and some spraymount gave me 50 x 70 cm prints at £2.60 each and you have to look hard to see the joints

---

Flickr Stream

I've usually had them printed on lustre paper - looks great to me. I agree that you should use their colour profiles, pre-scale your images and select the "pro" option.

kh1234567890 - spray mount, eh? Rather you then me. I've destroyed a few prints using that - never again. I'm way too ham-fisted to spray mount reliably.

Andrew

---

Flickr photostream

kh1234567890, interested to see from one of your images on Flickr ('Simon Bridge') that you're doing stitching. That's something I'm planning to explore myself, with a view to enabling larger prints. Have you had any really high resolution images printed by DSCL,and if so, with what results?

DSCL will print up to A0 (at a price). I've done a lot of stitching but have never braved splashing out for a really big print. If you are thinking of playing with panos and hi res stitched images have a look at Autopano Giga - that's what I use. Well worth it for hassle free stitching.

---

Flickr Stream

Loxley Colour

---

Ken
“We must avoid however, snapping away, shooting quickly and without thought, overloading ourselves with unnecessary images that clutter our memory and diminish the clarity of the whole.” - Henri Cartier-Bresson -

+1 for DSCL. The paper choice depends on final use - the pearl looks extremely arresting (it's shiny enough to be almost metallic) but it doesn't suit all subjects and it's unforgiving of anything that's not tack sharp. The Lustre is safe but a little ordinary. Gloss is somewhere in between.

If you're doing something special, both DSCL and Loxley will do you prints on fine art papers. There are not cheap but they are spectacular. Try some postcard-sized ones first to see what suits you.

---

Flickr

I use DSCL lustre for both colour and B&W

---

Alan


PPG
Flickr

+1 for Loxley Colour... not quite as cheap as DSCL, but belting quality...

Best

---

Bill

BillWardPhotography
Instagram
Facebook