FAQ
For questions about turnaround, rush services, payment, etc., please read 'Policies' below.
What is "True Photographic Printing"?
True Photographic Printing is a wet, chemical-based process that requires darkroom techniques and yields true silver gelatin photographs. Many places people get their photos printed at no longer use true photographic printing techniques. Often they offer inkjet or thermal prints.
Some distinct advantages of True Photo v. Inkjet:
- Continuous Tones. Inkjet Printers creat tones by applying small drops of ink on a paper's surface in multiple layers, which can lead to inconsistent results. True photo printing uses a laser light source, exposing a silver gelatin layer within the paper to produce a true continuous tone from shadows to highlights.
- No Ink Bronzing. Ink pigments reflect light, resulting in unwanted glare across your print, sometimes called bronzing. This is most noticeable in the black areas. With true photo, your image is created in the paper itself, not from layers of ink, so there are no unexpected reflections.
How should I prepare my files?
Please bring us 8-bit files that are at least 300 dpi at print size. We accept JPEGs, TIFFs, and PSD files. For accurate color, files MUST be in sRGB color profile. Please note that Adobe RGB is NOT sRGB, and will not yield accurate color.
A note about resolution: In order to produce a quality 4x6 print, we need a file resolution of 6" x 300 dpi=1800 pixels width, and 4" x 300 dpi=1200 pixels height. Therefore we prefer a file resolution of about 1800x1200 or higher for optimum 4x6 prints. A quality 8x10 print would need an image file with a resolution of 3000x2400 or higher. We can print from low resolution files, but the results will be less than optimum.
Color Space
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If you are using a phone, we suggest that you do not try to adjust the color or density of your images. We look at and correct each photo as we are printing them. If you are using a digital SLR camera, we ask that you shoot your images in the sRGB color space, as this is native to all digital cameras and is the color space in which our digital printers are calibrated. If you shoot raw files and convert them in Photoshop or any other program, we advise leaving them in sRGB instead of converting them to Adobe RGB or any other color space. Customers requesting prints with no corrections, do so at their own risk; redos will be at an additional charge.
Policies
1. Typical turnaround is 1-2 days. This is not always possible, particularly during the Holidays. Some services may take longer.
2. Rush services are usually available. When available, additional fee may apply.
3. We do not alert our customers when orders placed in store are ready. When you drop off, we will give you a due date. We do however send notification emails for web orders placed on the Online Kiosk and Rock Your Headshot.
4. $10 is the minimum order amount.
5. Quantity pricing is only for duplicate prints from the same file or negative.
6. We accept Visa, Mastercard, American Express, and Discover, but we do not accept checks.
7. We ask that you pay up front. For jobs billed by time, we ask for a deposit up front, and the remainder can be paid upon completion.
8. If for some reason you have an outstanding balance, it must be paid in full before we begin work on a new order.
9. As much as we love our customers, we must limit our consultation sessions to 15 minutes, due to our small staff. We hope you understand.
10. We are unable to reproduce copyrighted images without a release from the owner of the copyright.
11. Orders left here for longer than 30 days will be disposed of.
12. Submitting any film or media constitutes an agreement that if your film or media is damaged or lost due to any cause, including negligence or other fault, liability is limited to the replacement of an equivalent amount of unexposed film or blank media.
Guarantee of Quality
Here at The Photoshop, we take great pride in our work. We thank you for entrusting us with your images. We do our very best to ensure that we have produced the very highest quality prints and photo products. However, if you are not completely satisfied, please let us know. We will reprint them at our expense. We welcome your comments on our service. Thanks again.
