Do you print your photos at home do you take them elsewhere ? (1 Viewer)

[Citizen87645]

A photo forum might be a good idea, but sometimes the ego tripping is insane in those places. That's why I like it here - nice and quiet .

1- Is the quality consistent between stores of the same name? Is a Walgreens a Walgreens a Walgreens?

IME consistency is usually the main issue in any chain (i.e. the person operating the machine). I think it's all rather automated, but when there's a problematic image it's handy to have a technician who knows what's what. But the best thing is to just try a place.

2- Has anyone compared the quality of prints between stores? I guess I could do a test run otherwise myself, take a sample of pictures to Walmart, Walgreens and a couple of others to see which comes out best. But is whatever difference might exist between their processes worth the time and expense of a trial run?

I've used several different places - Costco, an online service catering to professionals, Kodak/Ofoto, etc. I finally gave up on Costco because of poor consistency. I took some to a regional "one stop shop" chain out of convenience and was very pleased. More expensive than Costco but saves me a drive. So yes, there can be great differences between places, so it's worth it to test them out. This was true even in the film days.

4- I am guessing it is best to send the full resolution files?

You'll have differing opinions here. Most of the chains will only take JPEGs, so if you do any post processing (which you should always do in lossless) you won't be giving the place "full res" anyway. Personally I follow the export requirements of the online service I've used (WHCC) - 300 ppi, Level 10 JPG. I know some people have balked at this, but I've been pleased with the results.

3- Are the internet services better? Which ones?

I can't say I've found an internet service I've been entirely happy with. WHCC is the closest, but there's more of a process with them to get set up. Not really a place for the casual shooter. So currently I'm just going with the local chain for the everyday kind of stuff.

 

[Scott Merryfield]

I have not tried any of the local chains for prints, since I've been printing my own 4x6 photos. However, I have used a couple of online places for enlargements. Ofoto was pretty decent -- although there was a cropping error on a 16x20 enlargement I had done recently, but I'm not certain if it was their mistake or mine.

I've heard good things about mpix.com and may try them next.


I know what you mean. I lurk at a few sites to do research on equipment, but I don't have the courage to post. Some of the members at those sites can be brutal.

 

[Jimi C]

"1- Is the quality consistent between stores of the same name? Is a Walgreens a Walgreens a Walgreens?"

I work for Walgreens. We literally have windows based pc's plugged into printers. Granted, we use Multi thousand dollar Kodak color thermal printers, or most of the stores do. The company started getting into the Digital print thing about 3 years ago with all Fuji equipment but had serious reliability issues. We then switched to the same Kodak setups that Walmart uses and while the different in print quality is negligible the ease of use and reliability is vastly improved. We usually have a piece of hardware fail about once a month per store. Still better than the Fuji equipment which would erase peoples photos and lose orders everytime the printer ran out of paper.

 

[Citizen87645]

Cool! An insider! I was curious why WHCC switched to Kodak from Fuji and perhaps this is why.

 

[Holadem]

Thanks Cameron (and others). I will running a few test prints today at Sam's Club. We will see that goes.

--
H

 

[Holadem]

Matte or Glossy? :b

--
H

 

[Citizen87645]

I tend to prefer glossy.

 

[Scott Merryfield]

I prefer glossy, also -- especially for smaller prints.

 

[Marty M]

I also only have my stuff printed on glossy. IMO, matte finishes makes the print more muted.

 

[Holadem]

I've yet to print glossy from Sam's Club (it takes a day or two), but I've been stunned by the quality of the matte prints I made there, espcially compared to the local Walmart (not as much pop) and Walgreens (hideous green tint).

--
H

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

I did the math on one of those photo printers and it's actually cheaper to upload them to CVS. ~$.15 prints and the quality's about as good as film prints.

 

[Aaron Reynolds]

Hi guys.

I ran photographic labs for 17 years. In the last 5, I had been totally digital at my custom lab.

Chemical printing is much cheaper than digital printing in terms of costs; digital printing can last a lot longer (depending on the printer, ink and paper used). Inkjet, from a good printer, can deliver a result significantly better than chemical can produce.

The chemical format is not inherently better -- my own experience is that you can get a much better result from inkjet, for a lot of reasons that I can get into if you really want to hear about it. But the reason you're seeing better results from a lab than you're getting at home is because the labs basically know what they are doing.

 

[gvw]

I really enjoy printing my pictures at home. I use photoshop CS2 on a regular basis for corrections and just graphics in general and it's allot of fun, although I think it would be cheaper to have them printed somewhere else

 

[DaveF]

(bump)

For you home printers, what's your printer? I'd like an all-in-one (photo / normal printer, scanner / copier. no fax). I'm finding useful reviews very difficult to come by. And ideally the scanner would equal or better my wife's older Epson Perfection 2580.

For our hundreds of wedding photos, my wife uploaded to Target.com and did in-store pickup. She's also taken CDs to get prints from BJ's (a Sam's competitor), which uses Qualex for prints. Both gave good prints, so service in all cases was abysmal.

I'd like to start doing individual prints at home, to cycle fresh pictures around the house and at work.

 

[Scott Merryfield]

I have a Canon i860 printer that works very well for photo prints, but it's not an all-in-one. Cartridges are reasonably priced, and the printer was about $90.

I have a separate Canon N670U scanner, and an HP Laserjet 1100 that we use for day to day printing. The Canon printer's only used for photos, and the rare occasions where we need a standard color document.