I haven’t been real impressed with Costco, and I’m looking for a new photo printing service. I divided my Disney World photos into approximate thirds, then sent off to three different places. Today I judge the first batch…
I chose www.shutterfly.com because I had a $10 certificate to use there, simple as that. Everything was fine with the ordering process here, prints are 0.15 each for 4×6, and the process of getting prints was simple enough. It’s very user friendly, there are a lot of photo products to choose from, and I can see why it’s popular.
They were the first to deliver my photos – a BIG plus in my book. In fact they’ve beaten the other places by at least 2 business days on this end, as they’re the only ones I’ve received!! Got my photos out and am satisfied with the quality of both paper and the look of my prints.
Except one thing: I purposely sent through a “needs color correction” photo just to see how they’d process it (I did this with all 3 places) and it came back looking sepia tinted. Seriously – it’s monotone brown/reddish
(above is my image – color fixed up at about what I had expected)
So what’s my verdict?
* Easy to use, fast, value priced, lots of photo book and other product ordering options
* Wouldn’t trust to “auto correct” photos for me
I would order again (vs Costco) because they were faster and I liked the quality better. But knowing that I have to make sure each and every image is where I want it color/correction wise is a down side for me. I like my photo processor to fix up the minor color stuff. I also don’t like the lack of sizes, paper options, and other “advanced” features that other photo sites offer.
I still have batches of photos from my last Disney trip in limbo, so I’m looking forward to your reviews.
I’ve used Shutterfly a few times. LOL, one too many 50 free print offers from Archiver’s. I like their quality and prompt shipping, as well. I’ve always used the auto correct on Picasa, prior to having Shutterfly print, so I’ve never experienced their version of ‘auto-correct’.
I haven’t used Costco for photos in quite a long time. Frankly, I prefer my local Walgreens over Costco, as far as prints go. If I need a batch of photos quickly, that’s where I go. But, I know that my Walgreens makes better prints than the Walgreens near my friend’s house, where I tend to crop. Go figure.
I still use Photoworks because I’ve always worried about quality. But someday I may branch out.
Does any place auto correct? I’ve never heard about it …. would that mean that each and every photo that came into that place would have to be looked at and judged by somebody? Seems an impossible feat to me. I use shutterfly quite often …. did you know you buy a prepay for photos ahead of time and the price is like 10 cents each and when you are ready to order you just pay for shipping. I think last time I did it I got 200 prints for $20 and they didn’t expire for 2 years. You can use as few or as many as you want.
Thanks for the reminder – I did see the “next time, preorder prints” offer but hadn’t checked it out. Sounds like a good deal.
There is software (I’ve seen “Kodak image something a-rather”) out there that I think a lot of places use, there are also places that do indeed manually look at your images. http://www.scrapbookpictures.com offers that service for an extra fee.
It’s funny – I really like the quality at my Costco but when we were traveling last year I printed some things at the local Costco where we were and was highly disappointed int he results. I guess there is a lot of variation. I asked at mine (where the girl sees me walk in and pulls my prints before I get to the counter) and she said they are vigilant about calibrating their machines.
Also an experience with Autocorrect – I used to leave it turned on and didn’t really notice a difference. Then I started printing small photos for minibooks by making a collage of two or three photos and printing it as a 4×6 (so that when I cut it up I would have miniature prints). Autocorrect made a mess of those – I guess because the two halves of the photo were so different. Now I leave it turned off by default.
Thanks for the reviews!
Thanks for the review – I’ve never tried Shutterfly
Great point!!! There is so much available, and so many options… it can be really overwhelming.