Definitely agree with your findings and question.
I would say that they've improved over the last YEAR. My results
have been inconsistent in the last two batches to really get an
excellent average over the last six months.
What I'm unsure of is if they have the entire process automated or
if they have a live person actually doing the leveling for the
images. I believe as far as levels and images being too dark, it
seems to depend upon either the individual images (much like a
simple button auto-level doesn't work for all pics) or it depends
upon the individual that may be doing the leveling (no one sees the
same "good" image).
In the last six months, I had a couple of batches produced by
ImageStation/Ofoto, and one of them was just so close to being "on"
already that Ofoto needed to make very little adjustment. The
prints were great --- but still not subjectively better than what I
could have done on my own. The second batch I actually complained
about as the pics were too contrasty and lacked enough magenta and
yellow, coming out too brownish in skin tones of most of the shots.
So, I still hold that for many uses, their results of Ofoto can
definitely do the job, especially if you have not image editing
skill or just want to have the images rushed out to you when you
don't have the time or the equipment to do it yourself.
Gil- The last time I tried OFOTO I was somewhat dissapointed
in the results. The pictues were too dark and it seemed they
played with levels quite a bit ( hightlights were overblown ).
Frankly, I've attained better and more cosistent results
with my Epson printer. I agree though that the OFOTO
prints have the photo lab glossy look to them.
Has anyone noticed an improvement at OFOTO lately? Have they
made changes within the last half year?
