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Feb. 6, 2006
In my last report I highlighted the reasons why I prefer to make my own prints at home—freedom to print what I want, when I want it; higher print quality; and longer-life enlargements. That doesn't mean I do all of my own printing, as there are occasions when I turn to a local digital minilab or online processor to take care of my printing projects.
The digital minilab down the street from my office in NY City is my first choice when I need lots of 4x6-proof prints made for a story in a hurry. Ok, the price per print (40 cents per 4x6 from a digital file) is steep compared to online photo labs that might only charge 15 cents per 4x6-print, and it's actually a bit higher than the 30 cents a print average that I get from several desktop printers. But the lab is convenient and can hand me back 100 prints or more in less than an hour—a feat that would take me far longer on my own. Plus, when a print turns out funny, the staff happily reprints it for me.
Not long ago, I relied on several pro labs in the metro area to turn my best photos into 11x14-inch or larger prints. The image quality was much higher than from a minilab (which usually didn't have the equipment to make such large prints in the first place), and prints lasted longer than those I made using 13x19-inch ink jet printers. But image quality and longevity issues with ink jet printers changed with the arrival of several letter-sized and 13x19-inch printers from HP and Epson (see The Great $499 Printer Shoot-Out), so it's been a while since I turned to a pro lab for anything. And if I want to make a 16x20 or larger print, I'll choose an online photo processor before I try a pro lab.
Why go online instead of doing it myself or having a local mini- or pro lab do the job, especially when it comes to making big prints? The first reason is value. Currently, no local or pro lab can hold a candle to the low prices found online. For example, most pro labs would charge me $50 or more for a 16x20—inch “machine” print. (A machine print is one made by a silver-halide based photo printer without the intervention of a trained darkroom technician or use of a high-end light-jet or pigment printer.) Custom prints cost way more. On the other hand, a 16x20-inch poster print made online can cost as little as $18, and may be similar to most machine prints made on high-quality, silver-halide based printing paper. At www.kodakgallery.com, you can also print dozens of photos on one large collage poster.
Lower price per print is just one of many reasons to have photos printed—and even stored—online. Another is convenience. It may be your only option when there's no digital lab (or photo kiosk) nearby and you don't want to make your own prints at home. But unless you have a fast, broadband cable modem or DSL connection to the internet, most of the benefits of printing online will be wiped out by the inconvenience and agonizing time spent uploading images via a slow dial-up connection.
If you don't want to wait a few days for prints to arrive from an online lab, check to see if any local labs (or large retailers such as Wal-Mart, Target, Sam's Club, etc) will print out images uploaded to their home website. If so, you can choose the prints you want in the privacy and comfort of your own home or office, save a few pennies per print over what the lab might charge you if you walked in with a memory card or CD-ROM full of images, and then pick up your completed print order the next time you visit the store or minilab. I call this “Click Up and Pickup” photo printing, and growing numbers of minilabs are now offering this service to remain competitive with the bigger online sites.
However, your local minilab, or even the best ink jet and dye sub printers can't match the wide variety of printing options you'll find at most online photo sites these days. These sites offer dozens of specialty printing services that let you put your photos on coffee mugs, tiles, mousepads, photo-books, clothing, and even shower curtains. While you're at it, why not retouch your photos a bit, convert them to sepia-tones black and white prints, or have photos converted to old-styled paintings and printed on large sheets of canvas (starting around $90)? Photo book offerings are also available, with hardcover, 20 page albums coming in at around $30. Some even let you print borderless panoramic photos across two pages.
Finally, you can also store images for free in your own personal galleries at most online photo labs. The labs hope you'll share them with friends and family, who in turn might buy prints or specialty items of their favorites. Either way, it's worth looking at the following online photo labs to see what they have to offer.
Shutterfly: www.shutterfly.com
Kodak EasyShare Gallery: www.kodakgallery.com
Snapfish: www.snapfish.com
Photoworks: www.photoworks.com
EZ Prints: www.ezprints.com
Sony Imagestation: www.sonyimagestation.com
Target Photo Center (Yahoo! Photos): www.target.com
Wal-Mart Digital Photo Center: www.walmart.com/photo-center
Costco Photo Center: www.costco.com/PhotoCenter/PhotoCenter.aspx
Ritz Camera Centers: www.Ritzpix.com
Walgreens Photo Center: www.walgreensphotocenter.com
CVS Drug stores: www.cvs.com/CVSApp/cvs/gateway/digitalprints
Searsphotos.com: www.searsphotos.com
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