Photography Thailand Forum

[Marc Schultz]

I decided to make the subject of photo printing in Thailand a separate discussion board now here on the Forum. It used to fall under Camera Talk, but really I feel it is a broad enough subject to be on its own. So I thought I would kick off the new Photo Printing discussion board with a post about current photo print prices.

If you have ever printed photos in the Lad Prao digital lab district (on Phaholyothin Road opposite of Central Lad Prao shopping mall) then you already know it is some, if not the lowest cost printing available in Asia. At the moment it seems like they opened up too many stores there, and there is not enough business for all of them, so they are starting to really compete on price. If you though the prices before were inexpensive, well they are now even 30-40% lower than before.

What I do now, to help ensure I get a good print, is I ask them to print two copies of each large print I make. I have them print one according to the way I have saved the file and I tell them to print a second copy of the file using the print technicians adjustments. I do this because the prices of larger prints are nearly half of what they were before (they are now down to 54 Baht from 90 Baht on a 20" x 30" print on Fuji glossy paper). And by doing this I pretty much ensure I get at least one print of the 2 where the colors and exposure are just right. Sometimes I choose the one that was printed from my file settings and sometimes I choose the one printed from the technicians file settings. And I get an extra print out of it in the end which I can use for something else if I want for almost the same cost as before for one print.

It's a great opportunity for anyone who is interested in making some large prints at the moment.

[Kees5]

Contrary to most people here it seems, I do my own printing. I haven't found many labs in Thailand that give me the quality i want. I live near Sattahip, Which makes it not practical to use a BKK lab. I bought a Epson 3850 about 18 months ago, and love it.

There's a learning curve, and yes, it is more expensive, but i can use archival materials, and control every step of the process. The output quality of the Epson is fantastic, I enjoy the papers (My favorite at present is Epson Velvet, which look like a grainy sketch paper.

My size limit is 23.5x 16.5", but if I want anything bigger, I go to Bloom, a prolab using bigger Epson printers. The operator speaks fluent English, is very knowledgeable, and produces consistent high quality output.
He's currently located in the basement of the Galleria Building on Silom Road. He prints many of the photographic exhibitions around the country and also gets orders from abroad.

[David Salmanowitz]

Kees--I agree, printing yourself will have you spoiled. More control and a lot less aggravation. Trying to make adjustments on how you think the printer will do it differently each time can be an exercise in frustration. With a monitor perfectly calibrated it is all sort of thrown to the window when the printer screws up. Printing out of Lightroom really makes it easy BTW. For those members in the USA believe it or not one of the best places to have prints made is at Costco. They have invested lots of $ in their printing operation, and one can go online and get profiles for the paper they are using at individual stores.  http://www.drycreekphoto.com/icc/