I'm amazed..

[TamiAz]

I finally sent some of my images to be printed at a professional lab and I'm a amazed how good they look..:mrgreen: I was tired of spending time editing my pictures and then have them look like crap when they were printed. I also wanted to see if my monitor was calibrated correctly.. I can't believe I waited so long!! I will never have my pictures printed at Costco again!!

 

[Steve5D]

I finally sent some of my images to be printed at a professional lab and I'm a amazed how good they look..:mrgreen: I was tired of spending time editing my pictures and then have them look like crap when they were printed. I also wanted to see if my monitor was calibrated correctly.. I can't believe I waited so long!! I will never have my pictures printed at Costco again!!

I did that some time back and, while the "pro" lab prints were better, they were only marginally so, and hardly enough to justify the increased cost...

 

[TamiAz]

I finally sent some of my images to be printed at a professional lab and I'm a amazed how good they look..:mrgreen: I was tired of spending time editing my pictures and then have them look like crap when they were printed. I also wanted to see if my monitor was calibrated correctly.. I can't believe I waited so long!! I will never have my pictures printed at Costco again!!

I did that some time back and, while the "pro" lab prints were better, they were only marginally so, and hardly enough to justify the increased cost...

I wish I could show you the prints I got from Costco. They were really bad. They were super contrasty (is that a word??)..My son's jeans looked as black as my daughter's black leggings. The difference is night and day.

 

[wyogirl]

The difference between the labs I use and Wal-Mart is HUGE! Wal-Mart prints are all wrong on the color... kind of a blue/green cast to them.

 

[Steve5D]

I finally sent some of my images to be printed at a professional lab and I'm a amazed how good they look..:mrgreen: I was tired of spending time editing my pictures and then have them look like crap when they were printed. I also wanted to see if my monitor was calibrated correctly.. I can't believe I waited so long!! I will never have my pictures printed at Costco again!!

I did that some time back and, while the "pro" lab prints were better, they were only marginally so, and hardly enough to justify the increased cost...

I wish I could show you the prints I got from Costco. They were really bad. They were super contrasty (is that a word??)..My son's jeans looked as black as my daughter's black leggings. The difference is night and day.

I wish I could remember the lab I tried. They were definitely good but, like I said, far more expensive than Costco, and the quality just didn't justify it. I've sold more prints, that were printed at Costco, then I could shake a stick at. The profit margin is healthy, to say the least...

 

[AlanKlein]

So which labs did you use?

 

[wyogirl]

I use ProDPI and MPixPro and sometimes I use Millers.

 

[tirediron]

Don't forget that it's not just the initial appearance that will be different, but the longevity of the print as well. Costco, Wal-mart, et al probably do not use the same quality archival paper and inks that professional labs do. Those products, even if they look decent at first (and the ones in my area sure don't!) will fade and deteriorate much more quickly than the professional prints.

 

[thefacesofnj]

I believe it all depends on who is working in the lab. I have sent 8x10's to Walgreens on a few occasions because I didn't want to wait nor spend the money to have a reputable company print for me. Same photo, same lab 2 different workers. One came out impeccable and the other one was lack thereof. I used to develop 35mm film for a retail store when I was in high school and one of my jobs were to boost or decrease contrast and brightness depending on the photo. I don't know if Digital images get the same kind of treatment as film did 12 years ago but that may also be part of the problem.

 

[amolitor]

It also depends on the kind of pictures you're printing.

The cheap places will do all manner of "correction" as the default and only option. If your pictures already have pretty saturated colors, and a full tonal range with a more or less "normal" looking histogram, the cheap places will probably be fine.

Just try to print something dark and moody, something bright and airy, something undersaturated, or god forbid, something black and white. The computer will make a total hash of it a good part of the time. Being able to click a 'do not color correct this thing, damn your eyes' button is pretty valuable.

 

[flightless_beaker]

I finally sent some of my images to be printed at a professional lab and I'm a amazed how good they look..:mrgreen: I was tired of spending time editing my pictures and then have them look like crap when they were printed. I also wanted to see if my monitor was calibrated correctly.. I can't believe I waited so long!! I will never have my pictures printed at Costco again!!

I did that some time back and, while the "pro" lab prints were better, they were only marginally so, and hardly enough to justify the increased cost...

I wish I could show you the prints I got from Costco. They were really bad. They were super contrasty (is that a word??)..My son's jeans looked as black as my daughter's black leggings. The difference is night and day.

I used to work in a lab like that (instead of Costco, it was at a local drug store). We used chemical processes but when we printed, part of my job was color correcting. You can be at the mercy of someone behind the counter using their subjective judgement and they really may not know what they're doing or how colors are supposed to look. Also, another problem could be is the chemicals aren't mixed right. I was 17 when I learned the chemistry and sometimes didn't do a good job. If one part was even a bit off or if there was a slight cross contamination, it would throw the colors off. I'd rather spend the extra money to use a professional lab than a Costco or WalMart.