In article , Ken Hart
wrote:

Before going to a photo kiosk I PShop all RAW
images, and crop to a 2:3 ratio. I save to jpeg.

The quality of the Kiosk prints are mediocre even
if I turn off the kiosk's offer to "sharpen" &
"auto-adjust" the images.

Are these just ink-jet prints & is it possible to
get a better quality?

It's possible that they are actual "wet" photos- depends on the
equipment used.

it's not a 'wet photo'. kiosks are inkjet prints, possibly dye sub but
that's unlikely. even photo labs who print from film no longer use wet
photos for all sorts of reasons, including that digital is faster, less
expensive, offers a wider range of adjustments and produces higher
quality results.

It may be possible to get better quality. First, you need to define what
you mean by "mediocre". If the business is regularly checking their
equipment and running test prints, then it's a matter of adjusting your
images to get the best results from their equipment.

except that's a moving target.

If your prints from the kiosk are consistently too light or too dark, or
lean toward a particular color, then you need to compensate. Auto-adjust
can be fooled if the image has a preponderance of a particular color, or
is very light or very dark.

he said he disabled auto-adjust.

Are you certain that your own workflow is correct? Is your monitor
giving you exactly what the camera captures? Try photographing an 18%
gray card, then comparing the image on screen to the actual card for
starters.

that won't do anything, other than waste money.

the solution is a colour calibrated workflow, however, it will need the
profile for the kiosk, which is unlikely to be available.

another problem is the kiosk is unlikely to be maintained very well (or
at all) so even that won't necessarily solve the problem.

the best solution is to not use a kiosk at all, but rather an actual
lab who can provide the necessary information (i.e., profiles and/or
specific settings), or better yet, adjust to the customer's desires,
what a pro lab actually is for.

I could explain how I calibrate my workflow, but since it involves film
and a darkroom, it won't apply to you. Except for the gray card.

not even the grey card applies.