Where to get photos printed?
 

I'm new to the world of DSLR. Have a couple of shots I want to get printed approximately 12"X15".

Do you just go to places like shoppers drug mart like where I used to get photos developed, or is there a certain place to get quality digital prints? I live downtown btw.

Also would I be able to print good quality prints at this size?? I have a Canon T1i (15.1 megapixels)

You could try Custom Colour Labs. My work uses them as a vendor and Warren is really good. http://www.customcolorprolab.com/ that's their website :)

Another really good place is http://www.gkingphoto.com/index.htm

We have had several prints done by them for friend's stores/projects and they were all very happy with the result.

How picky are you with the colour & quality of the prints? Gastown Photo is pretty decent for the price. For cheap prints, Costco is hard to beat, but I haven't been since they switched to a really cheap paper. London Drugs uses Fuji's higher end paper, but they are a bit expensive. I hope your monitor is calibrated, or else your colours will be off.

I won't say I'm super picky with the color and quality. My girlfriend just really liked some shots so she wants them printed and then framed to put in our living room. But I'd want something that's pretty decent quality.

How can I check to see if my monitor is calibrated?? I have a MacBook Pro that I got a few months ago and haven't ever touched any of the monitor settings.

Thanks for all the quick responses.

The default setting for the Macbook Pro, or almost any LCD screen is a bit too blue. I have the 17" 3.06 GHZ Macbook Pro with the matte screen and was quite surprised how blue the screen was out of the box. Do you have the glossy screen or the matte screen? To do a colour calibration on your monitor, you need to buy a hardware calibration device. If you really want your colours to match, I'd take the file to either Custom Color or G. King and sit down with them and have a proof print done. Then you can be sure of the colour. Of course, this does raise the cost of the prints.

I have the glossy screen... thanks

The one big problem with glossy screens is that they give the illusion of blacker blacks & a higher colour saturation, so keep that in mind.