Selecting a photo printing shop/service

I'm going to take a couple of photos off to get them printed at a print shop
or service. I've never done this before, and have 2 questions:

1) What sort of equipment is used by competent print services, and what is
to be avoided? I'm assuming there's a range of equipment in use, some of
which gives much better results than others. Is any of it of the
"ohmahgawd, you use *that*! Run away!" type?

2) What do I need to do to my image in Photoshop to help get a printout that
matches my screen? CMYK or RGB? (I've never used CMYK!) sRGB or Adobe1998?
My monitor is calibrated, so do I just ensure there's an embedded colour
profile?

I suppose I could just walk into the shop in the local shopping centre that
has a big "Kodak" sign out the front and a sign saying "Digital camera
photos printed here!", and hand a disk over and see what I get. I'd rather
walk in there with a few intelligent questions and some idea of the process
(and therefore product) I'll be paying for.

"Derek Fountain" wrote in message
...
I'm going to take a couple of photos off to get them printed at a print
shop
or service. I've never done this before, and have 2 questions:


In an ideal world you'd use the same colour profile as the machine...not
always practable.

If you know that the images are to be printed on a Fuji Frontier machine
(ask first) then you can download colour spaces (profiles) to your PC from:

http://www.drycreekphoto.com/Frontie...ristol-Kynshm-
Gls.icc
(For Gloss finish prints)

http://www.drycreekphoto.com/Frontie...ristol-Kynshm-
Mat.icc
(For Matt finish prints)

For best results Frontier machines like to have the files presented at
300ppi at the correct physical size (i.e if you want a 7 x 5 print, crop and
save the image as a 7x5 at 300ppi.) When you save the file in PS you'll have
the oppyurtunity to set the file size on a sliding scale of 0-12. Set it at
6. You'll notice no discernable difference setting it higher than that.