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Online Photo Developer

coachingguy

coachingguy

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Feb 7, 2003
702
224
The Great White, Albeit Frozen North
Hey all,

I'm wondering if anyone here uses any of the online developers for their pictures? If so, who? I'd like to get a 20 x 30 or so collage print.

I shoot with a Canon 30D and have some pictures of Yellowstone and Montana I'd like to collage in a poster print. There's no one around where I live who would do a good job.

Thanks

Coachingguy
 
ezprints.com
mpix.com
adorama.com (great!)
The only two I have used and can recommend outside of Costco & Ritz.
 
compuwar said:
"Print what I sent": Adorama
Click to expand...

MPix is in this category as well, FWIW -- it is absolutely their expectation that you've bothered to color calibrate, etc, and that you did sharpening, color adjustment, and any other post-processing you were supposed to. But I just did the advanced mode color calibration on my iMac and printed test pages with small proofs of several images (2x 8.5x11 with maybe 20 photos across them) and when they came back nicely, I went ahead and ordered the big prints, and they were perfect.

I would be curious to send one of my prints to Delano unaltered on purpose and see what they do with it. :D
 
Aperture said:
I use WHCC and definitely recommend them + MPix.
Click to expand...


I've used White House Custom Color too (their lab is only about 90 minutes from here), for prints where I want to tightly manage color (they want an ICC) and some album creation. They are excellent, but very much oriented toward professional photographers. I started using them many years ago (they were called something else then), mainly for making slides from PowerPoint, back in the day before digital projectors. They had the only upload service anywhere (an Apache BBS using FTP) and they were (and still are) utterly reliable with excellent customer service and their proximity got me a 24 hour turnaround.

I've used Kodak for years too (it used to be Ofoto) because the ordering process and account management is simpler IMHO. They have a very intuitive web interface (you don't have to use their proprietary software) and they ship promptly. I have never been dissatisfied with prints from them, from 4x6 up to 20x30. The other Kodak feature I've used is the ability to share your online albums with people you designate and let them order their own prints. That's nice for snaps at family reunions, local little league games etc...those situations where you take a bunch of snaps at some event and people ask you for copies. I'm not a professional photographer and that situation is common for me. WHCC used to accept files via FTP only, but they now also have some sort of upload interface that is supposedly simpler and allows viewing the file and cropping for different print sizes like Kodak has. I haven't used it. And I always do my own cropping anyway.

Bottom line, if you're a professional photographer and making prints for a client, want to tightly manage your color, calibrate your monitor, send embedded ICC info, and make sure the prints are identical to your monitor output, WHCC is first class. KodakGallery is simpler, a little cheaper, and very high quality IMHO.
 
I recently had some prints made at made at my local walgreens (that I uploaded online... so I guess you could call them an "online photo developer"). Among my prints were a couple of black and whites. There is visible severe color smear in the pictures. I will never use walgreens again. They have the worst print quality I've ever seen.
 
anubis said:
I recently had some prints made at made at my local walgreens (that I uploaded online... so I guess you could call them an "online photo developer"). Among my prints were a couple of black and whites. There is visible severe color smear in the pictures. I will never use walgreens again. They have the worst print quality I've ever seen.
Click to expand...

I tried to get some prints made at Walmart a couple of years ago when I needed some same-day prints. They wouldn't let me have them without a copyright release because they looked "too professional". I offered to sign over a copyright release, but the real problem was that they thought I was stealing someone else's images.
 
I used Ritz, who I heard was okay but they never delivered my print! I went to Snapfish and was fairly happy with the end result. I've also had good luck at Costco Photo (in store).
 
Sometimes, if I need something quickly, I use Wal-Mart. I submit online, but don't pay online, and then they'll reprint them in the store if I don't like them. The time I had issues with a particular store's machine and I'd paid online, it didn't take more than one email to get the images printed at a different store. I've considered profiling the Frontier at a local store.
 
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