Time to canvas-ize some photos!

November 28, 2011 11:09 AM

Looking for advice/tips on printing photos on canvas. Anyone have a service they like?

Inspired by a few friends' wall hangings, I'd like to print some of my photos on canvas. I'm looking for advice on:

* Recommended online services?
Kinkos, Mypix2canvas, others?

* Photo prepossessing tips
Do they just want the pics as raw as possible or is it expected to have the photo pre-tweaked? (My source images are 14 or 21MP pre-crop.)

Thanks.

posted by bodega to media & arts (7 answers total)

White House Custom Color. All of my professional photographer buddies swear by them.

Prepress: Tweak your photo to your heart's content; what you send is what you'll get printed. Send a JPEG at the highest quality and resolution possible. Make sure your monitor is displaying accurate color; if you're working in Photoshop, use Adobe RGB or sRGB and embed the ICC profile. If that stuff sounds like gibberish, don't worry; they've got fantastic customer service and will help out with any questions.
posted by bhayes82 at 11:22 AM on November 28, 2011

I had a 16x20 canvas printed through Canvas on Demand last Christmas, and it turned out great. I just sent the unaltered image from my BIL's DSLR.

I used a Groupon deal [paid $40 or so]; this vendor seems to show up on those daily deal offerings once a month.
posted by chazlarson at 11:45 AM on November 28, 2011

Believe it or not, Costco's Giclée printing is excellent and the framing and stretching is equally excellent and made to last a very long time. The person who ran all of Costco's photo services—someone I know personally—spent a very long time researching and working with various vendors, including the guy who invented Giclée printing, Jack Duganne, before choosing a process and vendor.
posted by bz at 1:30 PM on November 28, 2011

Seconding the aforementioned WHCC and the subsequent recommendations of bhayes82.

The person who ran all of Costco's photo services—someone I know personally—spent a very long time researching and working with various vendors, including the guy who invented Giclée printing, Jack Duganne, before choosing a process and vendor.

No, he did no invent giclee printing. Wikipedia:

Giclée, is a neologism coined in 1991 by printmaker Jack Duganne[1] for fine art digital prints made on ink-jet printers. The name originally applied to fine art prints created on IRIS printers in a process invented in the late 1980s but has since come to mean any high quality ink-jet print and is often used by artist, galleries, and print shops to denote such prints.

Anyone who claims he did might be incorrect about other issues as well. Or is simply lying ("I asked the guy who invented it!") to sound more awesome.
posted by Brian Puccio at 5:23 PM on November 28, 2011

(Gliclee also sounds more impressive than "inkjet".)
posted by Brian Puccio at 5:24 PM on November 28, 2011

Brian Puccio: Good points. I was repeating what I was told but that's no excuse for spreading a falsehood. I do think it is fair to say that Duganne was an early pioneer in the use of canvas on Iris printers, though.
posted by bz at 8:29 AM on November 29, 2011

I ordered prints on canvas from imagekind a few years ago and was very happy with the quality & price. Definitely google for a discount code if you go with them, you might be able to get a good deal! As far as prepress goes, I just adjusted the image as usual (small exposure/white balance tweaks) and was happy with the prints.
posted by nerdcore at 6:37 PM on November 29, 2011