Just got an MPIX Print

manaheim · Sep 29, 2008

Damn.

They do spot-on work. Really nice, and incredibly fast.

I was a little nervous about allowing them to make color corrections as they saw fit, but it was an experiment to see what it came out like, so I went with it.

Absolutely spot-on perfect, and such a bright sharp image as well. Hands-down the best print I have ever seen. Reasonable prices too.

I'm gonna send them an order for about 20 images tonight I think.

Hoo boy. 'course now I feel like I have to chuck all the other ones I have and start over. :lol:

JerryPH · Sep 29, 2008

lol... do they provide you with a profile at all, or they adjusted it themselves (which is what I think you said)?

manaheim · Sep 29, 2008

They didn't... I'm new to this printing stuff, but I thought that they used the profile embedded in the image. (I know thats how Whitehous Custom Color does it)

What I'm actually really hoping is that my monitor is corrected properly, so they just opened the image up and went "oh, yeah... nice" and printed it.

I actually tried this place because there was an interesting article about them in Modern Photography or whatever the heck that magazine is called. Sounded compelling, so I tried it. Glad I did.

rubbertree · Sep 29, 2008

I really like MPix and have had several batches done through them.
However, I was not impressed with my last order. The clients wanted an 8X10 B&W of their baby printed on the metallic paper. I love their metallic paper, btw, but had only ever had color ones printed. All the color ones came out perfect but the black and white one was about 2 stops underexposed. I was not impressed with that at all. I reordered it in the True Black and White and it was true to my screen, but they really wanted it in metallic. I had to lighten the image and send it again and finally it came back to me right. I don't know if that is a just an issue with BW on metallic? Because color always turns out perfect.
One other thing, I had high key print done of a conch shell on a white background and the print had a black speck right on a white spot! grrrr! I know stuff like that happens, but it was in the same order as the BW metallic so I was not happy.
I have an order going to them this week of a family shoot, they want metallic, and one is a BW. I'm nervous.

manaheim · Sep 29, 2008

^^^ did you complain to them? I'd bet they would reprint it for free.

I'm not familiar with the effects of metallic paper. I should check that out, just to see.

bikefreax · Sep 30, 2008

I had some issues with my first order with them, my fault, and they did re-print them for free for me. They are great to work with. Looking forward to when I have money to have more printed.

ksmattfish · Sep 30, 2008

Mpix has suggestions for calibration in their FAQ. If you email them they will send you more specific calibration and profile info.

If you ask for "correction" you are asking the person running the machine to use their judgment to print the photo as they think it looks best. Their opinion may be different than the photographer's opinion. If you properly calibrate your monitors you should be able to order prints with no corrections, and they'll come out just as they looked at home/office.

I've been using Mpix for prints since I bought my first DSLR, and while I haven't really been keeping track it seems to me that I've had less problems with them than the full service, walk-in labs I used before. I calibrate my monitors every few weeks, and I can normally order with no corrections. When I have asked for corrections most of the time I've been happy, but occasionally the lab tech does print it differently than I would have.

Kodak's metallic paper creates an effect that can't really be seen on a computer monitor. It might require some personal testing to figure out how what appears on the monitor will look best on metallic paper. I've ordered several prints on it, and decided it's just not my flavor.

bigalbest · Sep 30, 2008

http://www.thephotoforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=135099

I love mpix and their metallic paper is awesome.

manaheim · Sep 30, 2008

^^^ oh yeah, I remember that post.

JerryPH · Sep 30, 2008

manaheim said:
What I'm actually really hoping is that my monitor is corrected properly, so they just opened the image up and went "oh, yeah... nice" and printed it.

I actually tried this place because there was an interesting article about them in Modern Photography or whatever the heck that magazine is called. Sounded compelling, so I tried it. Glad I did.

Sounds like something I will try the next time I want prints! But the thing is:

1 - It is good that your monitor is calibrated, this is important.

2 - You (or they) need PRINTER profile files to match your profile to their printers for proper output. Since they are a commercial place, I would assume that they apply their printer profiles to your pics for final results.

Hey, as long as you are happy, thats all that counts!

manaheim · Sep 30, 2008

JerryPH said:
Sounds like something I will try the next time I want prints! But the thing is:

1 - It is good that your monitor is calibrated, this is important.

2 - You (or they) need PRINTER profile files to match your profile to their printers for proper output. Since they are a commercial place, I would assume that they apply their printer profiles to your pics for final results.

Hey, as long as you are happy, thats all that counts!

Yeah, I dunno... this is what makes me nervous. I think the next order I do I will try with the "don't correct my pictures!" option and see what it does.

All I know currently is I technically *allowed* them to make adjustments... I just don't know if they actually did. However, when I hold the picture up right next to my monitor? Dead on. It's like a little slice of heaven on a print.

bikefreax · Sep 30, 2008

If you e-mail them they will send you a calibration kit which is a picture and a CD with the picture on it. Open the picture and adjust settings to get it to look like the picture they sent. Pretty easy. I can tell a difference.

Johnboy2978 · Sep 30, 2008

They will email you a printer profile. They sent me one when I started with them, but after I calibrated my monitor, I never had any more issues. The prints look great and it is a very quick turn around. I've also had them print an album for me on a project and was very pleased with it. I got an email recently that they are now offering leather albums.

PeteLanglois · Sep 30, 2008

I've used MPIX before and the only time I had a problem with the prints I called and they reprinted for free.

manaheim · Oct 9, 2008

bah... so I went kinda mpix crazy and had a bunch of stuff printed...

I'd say about 3/4 of it has come out good, but I've had a couple problems. I had one print that was quite a bit too dark. One quick email and they re-printed it and had the fixed one back to me before the order I had in queue was back. That was good... I actually think they were still off by a touch, but good enough.

But now I just got an order where the ENTIRE ORDER was way too bright... I emailed them to talk to them about it, but I don't want to get into this situation of wasting their time and money because I happen to be picky and they're making their own determinations on what is right in my images. bah.

After the last experience I suggested we just go with the option of NOT having them look at the image to see if they felt it was right, but they insisted that we should keep allowing them to make corrections. Clearly that's not going to work out.

I dunno what to do now. I was really excited about them, now I'm a little frustrated.