I have taken advantage of the offer L-Type made to Luminous Landscape. I am familiar with their work, I purchased the William Neil Retrospective and was impressed from the beginning. I thought I would document my experience with my first order. I used the link from Luminous Landscape to the landing area on the L-Type website. I used WeTransfer to upload the 4 image files. I prepared Tiff files from "flattened" .psd files. The files were from a Canon 5DS-R and ranged from 58mg to 100mg. WeTransfer process was clean. I think more information would be helpful from WeTransfer to get the needed order data over to L-Type. I received a email back from WeTransfer saying the files had be captured and sent on to L-Type. I then received a memo from L-Type with my order number asking for more information. This included normal information regarding name, address, email, credit card information. I attempted to complete this on the L-Type website but was not able to do so. I emailed L-Type and asked for a link so I could complete and pay for my order. L-Type responded with a link and all information requested was completed. I received a paid invoice from L-Type.
One thing to remember is that you are dealing a time change to the UK, so most communications lagged by one day, actually less if you are a early riser. Now I await notification of delivery details.
I will add additional experience as it occurs.
Today, August 13th, I received a notification my prints were ready and on their way. It will be interesting to see how long it will take from the UK. I will review the results and post my opinions.
Today, August 21st, I received my order. It arrived in a flat heavy box adorned with the appropriate Customs Sticker. The box had a few marks and dings on it but they were superficial. Inside the box was a heavy black L-Type envelope, inside this was a heavy made to order plastic wrapper, inside this were my four prints, A3 size on Luster paper. Also inside was a small envelope with samples of the other papers that they use. The photos were undamaged by their journey. I cut open the plastic wrapper and examined each print. Upon initial view the first two looked very nice, the third was a surprise, it was as though it was on not processed correctly and was washed out. The forth also looked very nice. I went to the folder that contained the images that I had prepared and saw in the "preview" on my MAC that two of the images looked the same way as the third. I opened the folder with Adobe Bridge and all the images were OK. I opened the images in Adobe Photoshop and they were all fine. I had prepared them all the same way, flattened the master photoshop files and resized these to the L-Type recommended size and saved them to the L-Type folder I created. Still a mystery, because the Fireworks photo that appeared the same as the Dawn Lake Picture (the picture that is washed out) but it was just fine.
I then did a comparison with the same images that I had sent that I printed. They were also done in the A3 size but of course on different paper, Canon Pro Luster. The L-Type luster paper was much heavier and the finish different. I found differences that I expected from their process that were positive. I also found that the reflected luminosity from the photos I printed was more to my taste, more of what my minds eye saw when capturing the scene.
I composed a email back to L-Type giving them the information I had gathered and asked if there was something more I should do when preparing images for them in the future. I received an automated response back from them within 2 minutes with a new incident number and their promise that they would be in touch me as soon as possible.
August 23, 2018
I have had several communications with and from L-Type in the last two days. Their Support Team response has exceeded my expectations. We have discussed many things, color spaces, differences in the coating between their papers and the papers I used to compare the prints, the problem with the Alpha Channel that I neglected to remove from my .tiff file that caused the washed out print. I have also downloaded the icc profiles for their papers so I can soft proof my images with their profiles. They are working on their process so they can detect extra channels prior to producing the print. They provided much more information that I asked for especially in the area color spaces that they are capable of, not technical detail but quick information for me to understand. The concerns I had with the washed out print should be resolved, I am also placing another order with them to compare their other papers with similar inkjet papers that I use. This will end my report of my first order with L-Type using the the Luminous Landscape landing pad and their processes for printing, shipping, observed quality, and support communications.
Max
