Why would a photographer want to use a photo lab instead of printing at home, or use one of the those “Mega-Stores?”  

In the, not to distant past, you either took your film to  the lab for development, or for those of you that were a  bit more hardy, or couldn’t afford the lab, you ventured  into your own darkroom where you produced your prints.  Today, in the digital age many of you may have upgraded to > a “Digital Darkroom”, but many have also found that it not  only costs less to use a modern ‘Digital Photolab’, that  for the most part, you’ll also get better prints.

But cost alone isn’t the only reason to look into visiting  your local, or on-line digital photo lab. While many  fine-art photographers once did their own developing and  printing in order to maintain full control of the final  product - Today, they’d prefer to spend their time  shooting, as they’ve found that working with a good lab  produces the results they expect. They’ve also found that  today’s labs offer a much broader range of products and  services that go far beyond prints, including many  ‘novelty’ products such as mugs, mouse pads, T-shirts,  calendars and at some labs - Your image on a ceramic tile  or mural. 

As before, if you had your own darkroom, there were still  many ‘tricks of the trade’ that allowed a lab to produce  better results. Today is no different. A professional lab  ensures that all monitors are calibrated, with a  colorimeter, eliminating the scourge of every pho-tographer  that’s been unable to get their prints to match what’s on  their screen. And on to the actual printing, which is the  bread and butter of the photo lab, not only do most labs  use higher-end pigment based printers, but they utilize a  wide variety of specialized papers for better results. 

Their printers and software are also calibrated/profiled  for each of these different types and brands of paper, in  order to produce brilliant images in a multitude of sizes,  which most home printers (and many mega-stores) cannot do. 

No longer do you drop off your film, with a couple of  instructions, and hope for the best. Today, the  relationships between photographers and their lab have  grown, as you now have a larger range of control over how  your images are produced. As an added bonus, most can also  take your slides, negatives and prints and reproduce them  too. 

Visit That Photo Shoppe (your local Digital Photo Lab) for all of your digital lab needs. 512 Commercial Ave, Anacortes, WA 98221 

www.thatphotoshoppe.com