Where do you get your digitals printed?

I was wondering about peoples experiences with stores that print digital photos.

I would like very good prints. Also if anyone knows how large any places can go with prints that would be great.

In my area I have a choice between Walgreens, Echard, CVS, Walmart, Kmart, and BJ's.
any info on those stores and the quality prints they produce would be great.

try Costco's. They do a great job.

RockoT said:

I was wondering about peoples experiences with stores that print
digital photos.
I would like very good prints. Also if anyone knows how large any
places can go with prints that would be great.

In my area I have a choice between Walgreens, Echard, CVS, Walmart,
Kmart, and BJ's.
any info on those stores and the quality prints they produce would
be great.

Click to expand...

--
http://www.mikegoebel.com
http://www.belmontstudio.photoreflect.com

I use Ritz Camera (Washington DC area) and they have always provided me with fast, accurate and well-done prints at reasonable prices.

I simply walk in, pop in my cd, do all the work at the kiosk and come back an hour later.

Enlargements, profiled shots; the works.

Good luck!

Gary

RockoT said:

I was wondering about peoples experiences with stores that print
digital photos.
I would like very good prints. Also if anyone knows how large any
places can go with prints that would be great.

In my area I have a choice between Walgreens, Echard, CVS, Walmart,
Kmart, and BJ's.
any info on those stores and the quality prints they produce would
be great.

Click to expand...

If none of these local places work for you, try Printroom.com. But make sure you download their profile to soft proof your images. Once I did that, the prints I got from them were nearly identical to my monitor. Good quality & fast service. IMO
Pam--
Hoof Pix Sport Horse Photography
http://www.hoofpix.com

Your satisfaction will depend heavily on the way that a particular lab operates. If you have seen my recent posts about Costco, in my area there is one that is awful and one that is great.

If the lab is using a Fuji Frontier, and they don't have a profile, you can have it done for free at DryCreek.com ; actually that is a pretty good starting point to find labs in your area.

Try any of them, have a chat with an operator or manager. Ask them about profiles and what they do when things are marked 'profiled'. If they give you a good answer, then give them a try because it is a good sign.

If you are happy with the results, even if it's a chain, make a friend of the staff. And if you do not feel welcome asking questions, take your work somewhere else.

If you are notin a big hurry, WHCC.COM does great mail-order work, free shipping, minimum order only $12, an 8x10 is $2, less than one print at some so-called pro shops.

RockoT said:

I was wondering about peoples experiences with stores that print
digital photos.
I would like very good prints. Also if anyone knows how large any
places can go with prints that would be great.

In my area I have a choice between Walgreens, Echard, CVS, Walmart,
Kmart, and BJ's.
any info on those stores and the quality prints they produce would
be great.

Click to expand...

I'm with Pamela on this one. I send my stuff to Printroom.com. They do do great work, return my photos quickly, and they can print up to 20" x 30."

Couldn't be happier with them.

unbound said:

RockoT said:

I was wondering about peoples experiences with stores that print
digital photos.
I would like very good prints. Also if anyone knows how large any
places can go with prints that would be great.

In my area I have a choice between Walgreens, Echard, CVS, Walmart,
Kmart, and BJ's.
any info on those stores and the quality prints they produce would
be great.

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

--
---
Ray Flanagan
[email protected]
http://www.the-flanagans.org/ray
---
For me, the joy of photography is not about taking
great pictures. It's getting the chance
to take pictures at all.

I'd also highly recommend http://www.mpix.com -- they're part of Miller's.

Incredibly fast -- the two orders I've placed so far were both placed on a Friday and I received them on Monday using the standard $5 shipping.

I was also impressed that my orders were packaged very well and shipped in boxes instead of pasteboard envelopes.

I don't think there's a minimum order.

My local Sam's is good, with knowledgable people, and good output using the drycreekphoto.com profile -- but what I've gotten back from Miller's is simply stunning in comparison.

-- Lew

unbound said:

If the lab is using a Fuji Frontier, and they don't have a profile,
you can have it done for free at DryCreek.com ; actually that is a
pretty good starting point to find labs in your area.

Try any of them, have a chat with an operator or manager. Ask them
about profiles and what they do when things are marked 'profiled'.
If they give you a good answer, then give them a try because it is
a good sign.

If you are happy with the results, even if it's a chain, make a
friend of the staff. And if you do not feel welcome asking
questions, take your work somewhere else.

If you are notin a big hurry, WHCC.COM does great mail-order work,
free shipping, minimum order only $12, an 8x10 is $2, less than one
print at some so-called pro shops.

RockoT said:

I was wondering about peoples experiences with stores that print
digital photos.
I would like very good prints. Also if anyone knows how large any
places can go with prints that would be great.

In my area I have a choice between Walgreens, Echard, CVS, Walmart,
Kmart, and BJ's.
any info on those stores and the quality prints they produce would
be great.

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

--
Any DSLR beats unexposed film.

I currently use printroom.com because they support color profiles and do a good job at a fair price. I am going to follow Lew's advice and also try http://www.MPIX.com since Millers is kind of an industry standard for pros. They seem to offer some services that printroom doesn't such as faster turnaround, metallic paper, and canvas.

I'd shy away from the consumer places that you mentioned in your original question.

OK, I just signed up for an mpix account, uploaded a test image, and placed an order for a print on metalic paper with matboard. I was very impressed with their web site, the ease of the whole process, and the cool cropping tool! I can't wait to see what the final print will look like when it arrives in a couple days. Overall, so far, I'm VERY impressed with MPIX!

I plan to continue to use Printroom.com for selling my images since they have an excellent system set up to sell to end customers and they handle all of the credit card hassles and order fulfillment hassles. But, for prints I'm ordering myself for a customer, I'm more impressed with mpix' ordering system so far.... hopefully the prints will look as good as I'm expecting.

============================

Zippy DooDah said:

I currently use printroom.com because they support color profiles
and do a good job at a fair price. I am going to follow Lew's
advice and also try http://www.MPIX.com since Millers is kind of an
industry standard for pros. They seem to offer some services that
printroom doesn't such as faster turnaround, metallic paper, and
canvas.

I'd shy away from the consumer places that you mentioned in your
original question.

Click to expand...

Zippy DooDah said:

OK, I just signed up for an mpix account, uploaded a test image,
and placed an order for a print on metalic paper with matboard. I
was very impressed with their web site, the ease of the whole
process, and the cool cropping tool! I can't wait to see what the
final print will look like when it arrives in a couple days.
Overall, so far, I'm VERY impressed with MPIX!

I plan to continue to use Printroom.com for selling my images since
they have an excellent system set up to sell to end customers and
they handle all of the credit card hassles and order fulfillment
hassles. But, for prints I'm ordering myself for a customer, I'm
more impressed with mpix' ordering system so far.... hopefully the
prints will look as good as I'm expecting.

============================

Click to expand...

Zippy,

Does Mpix provide a profile? That's the only way I got prints from Printroom.com to match my monitor was to download and softproof with their profile. Pls. let us know how the Mpix print looks when you get it

Pam
Hoof Pix Sport Horse Photography
http://www.hoofpix.com

Why don't you set up an account and order an 8x10. That way you'll know for sure.

Pamela E said:

Zippy DooDah said:

OK, I just signed up for an mpix account, uploaded a test image,
and placed an order for a print on metalic paper with matboard. I
was very impressed with their web site, the ease of the whole
process, and the cool cropping tool! I can't wait to see what the
final print will look like when it arrives in a couple days.
Overall, so far, I'm VERY impressed with MPIX!

I plan to continue to use Printroom.com for selling my images since
they have an excellent system set up to sell to end customers and
they handle all of the credit card hassles and order fulfillment
hassles. But, for prints I'm ordering myself for a customer, I'm
more impressed with mpix' ordering system so far.... hopefully the
prints will look as good as I'm expecting.

============================

Click to expand...

Zippy,
Does Mpix provide a profile? That's the only way I got prints from
Printroom.com to match my monitor was to download and softproof
with their profile. Pls. let us know how the Mpix print looks when
you get it

Pam
Hoof Pix Sport Horse Photography
http://www.hoofpix.com

Click to expand...

--
http://www.mikegoebel.com
http://www.belmontstudio.photoreflect.com

I had to go back and forth with cust svc a couple times, but they sent me a profile for the Endura paper and one for the Metallic paper. I wouldn't feel comfortable sharing these, better to just get them from the MPIX people.

Truth be told, though, the order I sent out without a profile matched my monitor as well as I could expect. And when I soft-proofed using their profile there was very little difference with the soft-proof, a little change in shadows but that was about it. (I use a Spyder profiled monitor)

As Mike said, send them a couple test prints and compare. I suspect you will be pleased.

-- Lew

Pamela E said:

Zippy DooDah said:

OK, I just signed up for an mpix account, uploaded a test image,
and placed an order for a print on metalic paper with matboard. I
was very impressed with their web site, the ease of the whole
process, and the cool cropping tool! I can't wait to see what the
final print will look like when it arrives in a couple days.
Overall, so far, I'm VERY impressed with MPIX!

I plan to continue to use Printroom.com for selling my images since
they have an excellent system set up to sell to end customers and
they handle all of the credit card hassles and order fulfillment
hassles. But, for prints I'm ordering myself for a customer, I'm
more impressed with mpix' ordering system so far.... hopefully the
prints will look as good as I'm expecting.

============================

Click to expand...

Zippy,
Does Mpix provide a profile? That's the only way I got prints from
Printroom.com to match my monitor was to download and softproof
with their profile. Pls. let us know how the Mpix print looks when
you get it

Pam
Hoof Pix Sport Horse Photography
http://www.hoofpix.com

Click to expand...

--
Any DSLR beats unexposed film.

Hi Pamela,

MPIX didn't provide me with a profile and didn't have much in the way of documentation on their web site.

It wasn't until after I placed my prder that I remembered my image was in Adobe RGB color space, so it'll be interesting to see what I get back since I presume they may assume sRGB.

Millers is a reputable company, so I'm sure we can make this work. It'd be nice if MPIX had more documentation on their site so that we wouldn't have to do several initial trials to figure out what works best.

I'm out of town at the PPA conference in Biloxi for a few days, but I'll try to report back on results of MPIX when I return.

............Zippy

is great at its price. The thing i like most is mpix uses Kodak paper which , in my opinion, gives better skin tone for portrait. The downsize is it's so slow to upload picture and there is no CDs option to print. I have lots of files above 40MB....

Zippy DooDah said:

I plan to continue to use Printroom.com for selling my images since
they have an excellent system set up to sell to end customers and
they handle all of the credit card hassles and order fulfillment
hassles. But, for prints I'm ordering myself for a customer, I'm
more impressed with mpix' ordering system so far.... hopefully the
prints will look as good as I'm expecting.

============================

Zippy DooDah said:

I currently use printroom.com because they support color profiles
and do a good job at a fair price. I am going to follow Lew's
advice and also try http://www.MPIX.com since Millers is kind of an
industry standard for pros. They seem to offer some services that
printroom doesn't such as faster turnaround, metallic paper, and
canvas.

I'd shy away from the consumer places that you mentioned in your
original question.

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

I think their parent company, Millers, will accept a CD of your images for printing.

michael said:

is great at its price. The thing i like most is mpix uses Kodak
paper which , in my opinion, gives better skin tone for portrait.
The downsize is it's so slow to upload picture and there is no CDs
option to print. I have lots of files above 40MB....

Click to expand...

You can call and ask.

Also, ezprints.com is good too. I use ezprints.com to print for landscape or street photography pic.

In all, I like both ezprints.com and mpix.com Depending on each type of print, i use the right one.

Zippy DooDah said:

I currently use printroom.com because they support color profiles
and do a good job at a fair price. I am going to follow Lew's
advice and also try http://www.MPIX.com since Millers is kind of an
industry standard for pros. They seem to offer some services that
printroom doesn't such as faster turnaround, metallic paper, and
canvas.

I'd shy away from the consumer places that you mentioned in your
original question.

Click to expand...

want the enlargement over 16x20, then i will try Millers. Thanks for the tip.

Zippy DooDah said:

michael said:

is great at its price. The thing i like most is mpix uses Kodak
paper which , in my opinion, gives better skin tone for portrait.
The downsize is it's so slow to upload picture and there is no CDs
option to print. I have lots of files above 40MB....

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

Well, I got my mounted test print from mpix.com today. Random thoughts...

1) Packaging was superb... they even shrink wrapped the mounted image to protect it. mpic gets an A+ here!

2) Their turnaround time was also very good... they shipped within 24 hours of my online order.
3) The Kodak metallic paper is beyond superb. Very impressive

4) they need to give full details about and provide color profiles for soft-proofing. My test print looked awful. I don't understand why they don't just put the freakin profiles on their web site for download. When I complained today, they sent me an "e-surface" profile. Unless I've missed it, they also fail to tell you they use sRGB color space. Printroom lets you embed standard color profiles and they'll print based on the embedded profile; mpix does not do this (as shown by my test print).

5) Mounting job was awful. Three of the four sides were not trimmed properly and about an 1/8th of an inch of sticky board material was left showing. Really amateurish. I complained and they said they'd re-print for free.

6) customer service is only fair. They did respond via email fairly quickly, but they don't seem to want to answer more than one question at a time. In my first email I asked 2 questions and they answered one. In my second email I had a question to their reply and then asked my second question again (that had gone unanswered the first time). They ignored my 2nd question again. I decided to just let it drop... I'll probably not use mpix again.

Printroom.com's color management seems far superior to mpix.com, but I wish they used the cool paper that mpix does: Kodak. The Kodak photographic paper really is better (except for their awful inkjet papers).

While at a pro photographers conference in Biloxi the past couple of days I ran into several people who tout the benefits of white house custom color (www.whcc.com). So, I may try them next. I saw a ton of large 24x30 canvas prints WHCC had done and they were very impressive. whcc had a booth at the conference tradeshow and the rep I spoke with was helpful and nice. One pro photographer (the one with all the canvas prints) said whcc is very good with phone support and held his hand to get started and resolve any initial setup issues.

Epson 7600 sitting 4 feet to my left.

RockoT said:

I was wondering about peoples experiences with stores that print
digital photos.
I would like very good prints. Also if anyone knows how large any
places can go with prints that would be great.

In my area I have a choice between Walgreens, Echard, CVS, Walmart,
Kmart, and BJ's.
any info on those stores and the quality prints they produce would
be great.

Click to expand...

The Epson 7600 is a very nice printer, however, it only simulates photo quality with half-tone dot patterns which would need to image at 4000 dpi to duplicate the same image crispness, highlights and shadow detail of the printers used by places like Millers/mpix or whcc.com or printroom.com which provide a true continuous-tone via red, green and blue lasers.

Brandon Hamilton said:

Epson 7600 sitting 4 feet to my left.

Click to expand...