Your boutique print lab in Marin County, California.
Experience your work the way it was meant to be.
We're locally handcrafting fine art prints of your work. We have over 25 years of combined experience as full-time professional photographers and printers.
We make all fine art prints, canvas gallery wraps, and our exclusive Tamalpais Editions™ fully in-house, using high-quality materials, no outsourcing, no factories, no unskilled eyes.
Most photographers have never experienced anything like printing with us.
What we're all about
We optimize for quality, not throughput
Most photographers have never seen a print like ours. We will *personally* optimize your photo to achieve maximum detail in the print. We're experts in color, and our prints are faithful and vibrant, but not the poppy "enhanced" stuff you'll see from most consumer/prosumer labs. We can also hard proof, and keep custom print edits on file for you. We optimize our print process for quality, not throughput.
We're a boutique studio, and we don't have pressure to produce as many prints as possible. This allows us to print on maximum quality. We believe the best prints come from photographers who have an active, hands-on relationship with the printing process -- and after becoming addicted to that experience for many years ourselves, we're excited to share it with you.
We handle each file individually with care
We (Tung and Jeff, nobody else!) inspect all files prior to printing. If we think your image is pretty much ready to print at the size you've requested, we'll run some quick expert optimizations at no charge and print it for you.
We may ask you more questions than you're used to from other labs, because we care and want the best result for you. If we think your photo needs additional editing to print well at that size, we will let you know. We can either make the necessary edits for you for a fee, or you can make them yourself and send us the new file. If the issues are not resolved in the revised file, we will need to start billing for our consultation time, or we can print the image as is, upon your request.
Pricing info
You might be surprised to learn this: We're on par with most quality labs, even beating many of them. Shipping large art pieces is an EXPENSIVE (and not particularly sustainable) operation, both in shipping fees and materials. Even if the site says "free shipping", you're paying for it, so why pay for it if you can shop local instead? We can't match the race-to-the-bottom sites that use cheap factory labor with low-quality materials and craftsmanship, but if you've read this far, you're probably not comparing us to them, anyway.
We don't have any hidden nickel-and-diming for mirror wrapping, hanging hardware, etc. All included.
In other words, we'll bring you a better experience than the corporate labs, for a comparable price. For our current pro pricing guide, please reach out with your project details.
We keep it simple
We believe it's better to be experts in a few things, than to be mediocre at many things. So, we only focus on two options for paper prints -- premium lustre and premium metallic -- and one option for canvas gallery wraps -- premium glossy, which has a similar look to a lustre or semigloss print. We make all of our canvases with mirrored edges, gallery wraps made in house, rear dust cover, and D-ring and wire hangers, for NO EXTRA CHARGE. Our exclusive Tamalpais Editions come in just one finish.
We can also print to a museum-grade photo rag or canvas, and spray varnish for protection, on request.
If you think canvas prints are low quality,
think again.
Sizing and Payment
01.
Sizes
We can print up to 42x120" on photo paper and fine art paper, and 38x96" for premium canvas gallery wraps. For our special Tamalpais Editions™, max size is currently 24x36".
We will inspect your file to ensure it is good to go at the print size you've requested. If it's not, we may suggest a smaller print size or our professional editing.
02.
Preferred file formats
If you know what you're doing: 16-bit TIFF, Adobe RGB, 300dpi if above 12x18, 360dpi if below 12x18, let us know your sharpening process.
If you're not sure: just send us your highest quality, full res TIFF/PSD, and we'll take it from there. JPEG also acceptable. If all of your edits are done in Lightroom, you can also "Export to DNG", which allows us to tweak your pixel-level edits for optimal results.
03.
Payment
Once we've processed your order and determined that your file is ready to go, we will send you an invoice. We accept Zelle, ACH or checks, or credit cards (3% fee). If you have a reseller's permit for a sales tax exemption, please send it to us.
04.
Good to know
We add an additional white border to our fine art prints, for longevity and ease of matting/framing/mounting. Trust us on this one.
We hand-stretch our canvases IN HOUSE over strainer bar frames that we HANDMAKE IN HOUSE. We do mirrored edges, unless you request otherwise.
A few more things
01.
Shipping/delivery
Local pickup is preferred. Delivery and shipping are available for a reasonable fee.
02.
Turnaround times
Try to give us a week or two's notice, but we can often be quicker if you need us to be (especially for fine art prints). Please note, for very tight deadlines, a rush charge may apply.
03.
File checking
We (Tung and Jeff) inspect all files prior to printing, far more extensively than you will experience at most labs. If we think your image is pretty much ready to print at the size you've requested, we'll run some quick expert optimizations at no charge and print it for you.
04.
Editing services
If we find your photo needs additional editing to print well at your size, we will let you know. We can either make the necessary edits for you for a fee, or you can make them yourself and send us the new file. If the issues are not resolved in the revised file, we will need to start billing for our consultation time, or we can print the image as is, upon your request.
