Advice on printing photos

[Tom3]

I posted a comparison:

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3287/3123744246_3b1311acf6_b.jpg

This is between an Epson Artisan 800 and Walgreens: Walgreens sucks! it's definitely more low res and the colors are blown out in comparison.
If you go to a real lab, you will get very good results though, but walgreens, kinko, etc you will not.

However, home printing is very expensive if you do a lot

 

[bikefreax]

I just had an 11x14 and a 16x20 done at Sams club. Gauranteed in an hour but the printer screwed up and i had to wai ta day. They did not charge me for the 11x14. They did a nice job and it was less than $7 for the 16x20.

 

[NATO]

Hey I might actually be able to add something to this thread. Some background I repair photo machines (among other things) for a living. First off the prints will last longer and be cheaper if you send them out. Now as for quality, it all depends if the guy who is running the machine knows what he is doing, and if he has been staying on top of his chemicals.

First off look at the machine in the behind he counter, if it says Nexlab, or Drylab. It's a big fancy die sub printer, personally I don't get my prints made on these. If the kiosk that you plug your media card into is where they print out, yea it's being made on the same thing you could get at home.

Now if it says something like, AGFA d.Lab 1, Fuji frontier ### (330, 340, 570, etc.) Noristsu QSF, or something like that then it's a real photo machine chemicals and all.


Ok this is company (Walgreens) specific but I would be highly surprised if everyone didn't do these. Ask the guy to show you the "Reference strips" and today's "test strips" he should be able to produce them. The reference strip was run on a known good chemical batch, the test strip should have been run on the machine early that morning. Look at the color of paper and the test boxes, they should be either the same or extremely close. If it's way off then your pics will be off as well (some correction can be made through the caliberations they are suppose to run daily but they will only do so much). Also the calibrations only work on the prints, they do nothing for film. If he said they weren't run yet, or can't produce them I do not get my photo's processed there. This whole thing will probably having him look at you like you are from outer space, but the way I see it is you worked hard on these pictures, they should be done right.

Anyway, sorry for the long winded response, hope this helps someone.

Edited to add:
Be sure you look hard at the yellow test box, it should be a healthy yellow if it looks mustardish then there stabilizer is under powered and you prints wouldn't last overly long. This is important for archival photos

 

[Tom3]

that's great info, thanks!

on noticeable difference, besides the color with the walgreen prints is that the resolution seems much lower as well; on the other hand, when you scan the two pictures and look closely: you can clearly see the Epson pictures being lines with gaps in between and this is not the case with the Walgreen ones.
Any idea why?

 

[NATO]

that's great info, thanks!

on noticeable difference, besides the color with the walgreen prints is that the resolution seems much lower as well; on the other hand, when you scan the two pictures and look closely: you can clearly see the Epson pictures being lines with gaps in between and this is not the case with the Walgreen ones.
Any idea why?

Certainly, the printer you have at home is one of 3 types, Ink jet, Dye Sublimation (doubt full), or that funky tri colored film type whose name eludes me at this moment (hey it's almost 1 am here). Basically the gaps are more than likely due to the fact that the motors are are moving more than they are suppose to, For the price of the artisan 800 I doubt very seriously that epson put in very high quality stepper motors, if they even use steppers at all. so it is moving the paper farther than it is suppose to leaving the gaps. It makes pictures by spraying ink onto the paper then moving the paper forward and spraying another line of ink.

Now lets pretend that your Walgreens has an AGFA d.Lab in it. It produces prints much differently. first off it take light sensitive paper and shines the image on to it. To give a reference of the image quality it uses a system that could be used to do a 52 inch Hi-Def TV. like having a 52" high def TV and reducing it down (with the same number of pixels) to be on a 4x6 print. I also does a slightly better job than a High def TV by eliminating the Anodes and Cathodes on each pixel by a system called MDDM but that's just a side point. Now that's all well and good until the you have to make the image on the print visible, to do this it runs the print through a series of specially timed and calibrated chemicals. If these chemicals are either to strong or too weak it will not develop the image correctly. If the photo sensitive paper had been exposed to light previously (many times they will have a wrist watch on in the dark bag and hit the light button), what is commonly referred to as fogging the image will be wrong. However the paper is usually easy to spot as the paper rarely fogs uniformly over the entire print.

Now if you walgreens has a Fuji, or noritsu, they use a tricolor laser system to flash the image onto the paper. This system slowly burns out over time and after some time has to have the laser heads replaced. That maybe the issue with the resolution. As AGFA's use a different (it's typically not an issue unless something is seriously broken).

If you could tell me some more info about the particular walgreens (email me through the board) I could provide more specific information.

 

[Tom3]

the Artisan is an inkjet; I would assume that leaving gaps between each lines would produce a brighter image (due to the paper being white), but the prints are definitely the best I've seen on home printers (having tried quite a few) by quite far.
The resolution on the walgreens machine is definitely not as good, but the picture is 'full', without gaps when scanning with a high resolution. I'll check which machine they have when I go back.

 

[bikefreax]

I haD SOME DONE AT OUR LOCAL Sams club yesterday and they have the Fuji printer. I am impressed for the price. Less than $7 for a 16x20 and less than $3 for an 11x14. Plus you get them in an hour.