In many labs these days the only people who look at your prints are the Dispatch team. Strange as it seems, that makes sense – it’s your files they’re printing, and something has to give if you want low prices.

But it doesn’t make sense at Queensberry. We critique everything we print, including Print-Ready. The difference is we see the image files with Full Colour Service (because it’s our job to colour correct them) whereas we don’t see Print-Ready work until it’s printed.

But why review Print-Ready work at all? Print-Ready means you edit your images yourself, and we don’t modify them. We just print what we’re given, right?

It’s not that simple.

We can’t afford to put a client’s prints into an expensive album, ship it to them and then have a debate about who’s to blame for the printing.

It’s not just about print quality either. We need to check for other things that can spoil an album, such as alignment, cropping and panorama problems. Otherwise we risk converting a few wasted prints into a major expense, with neither party wanting to wear the cost.

All the issues I’ve mentioned are the photographer’s responsibility under Print-Ready, which is why we charge for any reprints necessary to fix them. (To save on cash and frustration, see our own checklist.)

But equally important, we have our own standards to maintain. People are paying for the very best when they choose a Queensberry album. And many of our staff have spent a lifetime in this industry and deservedly hold their heads high. What should we do if they come to us and ask, “Is this OK to put in one of our albums?” It happens.

That said, there’s no implicit “We’re right and they’re wrong” here. You might not like our colour correction policy, for example, or the characteristics of our equipment, and that’s OK. There’s no “blame” attached to differences of opinion or taste. And yes, we do get it wrong sometimes.

But in a quality-focused organisation we can’t ask staff to compromise our own standards. And after all, their goal is the best possible outcome for your clients.

Cheers, Ian

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