Labs That Allow Me To Embed Profiles?

[CarolynC]

Hi Guys - Digital Dog mentioned in an earlier post I started here that Pictopia was a lab that allows you to embed their icc profile.  Can you please name some other labs that do this so I can shop around a bit?  I'd like to compare prices, etc.  It's a little overwhelming trying to find good labs like this on Google.

Thanks.  

[digitaldog]

You might also see about Nancy Scans in NY.

http://www.nancyscans.com/fine-art-exhibition

[CarolynC]

Thanks Andrew.  I don't see anything on that site about online ordering like Pictopia has or any of the other labs I've looked at like WHCC, MPix, etc.  Are there really SO few labs that allow you to embed profiles? 

[digitaldog]

You may need to email or call John at Nancy scans. I don’t know for a fact they allow you to convert and embed to their output space but they are very progressive in terms of color management so I expect that’s doable.

There are few really good, pro labs that understand color management. They would rather push large volumes of files through as sRGB. Its a workflow to benefit them, not necessarily you. But they usually charge less (you get what you pay for).

[Scott Martin]

Digital Pro Lab is another fantastic option with surprisingly cutting edge color management. Call Phil Canter to discuss. www.digitalprolab.com

Smooth granger rainbows and maximizing color saturation without sacrificing image detail is a fun challenge with silver halide work. Do a test sending some evaluation images out to several places.

Ideally you'll find a vendor whose results are even better than what you can get with your own custom profiles so that you don't have to bother with it. Good labs incorporate a fairly complicated calibration/profiling/blackbalance/laser alignment process and have process control to watch the results. If you're making your own profiles then you can't monitor those other things and simply can't be as confident that you'll get optimal results as a lab that's doing all of that. It's the lab's job to do all of that and labs that do are worth supporting.

As always, you should discuss your color management options with any vendor because the process can vary depending on the workflow software used in house.

[CarolynC]

Digital Pro Lab is another fantastic option with surprisingly cutting edge color management. Call Phil Canter to discuss. www.digitalprolab.com

Thank you very much for your suggestion, I'm going to give them a try.

[maverick]

An inexpensive lab that allows profile embedding is Adoramapix.com. They do a good job, and their color management matches mine quite well, unlike some others. Labs catering to professionals and serious amateurs either allow embedding, such as Calypso Imaging, or do not require it, such as West Coast Imaging. Both of the latter two labs are much more expensive than Adoramapix. The main drawback to Adoramapix is that they only take files less than 40 MB.
I find prints from Calypso Imaging come back too dark, unless I brighten them up in levels about 1.30. However, this doesn't seem to be necessary with prints from WCI.
More about dark prints in a separate post.