# Where do you print your photos?



## Jeepinmomma

If you own your own business or are a freelancer you take photos for people and they buy them, but where do you send them to get printed? Ive tried walmart and walgreens and i think they are crappy! I did a recent photo session for my brothers school pictures and i don't know where to have them processed at? Can anyone help< thanks!


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## Robin Usagani

why are they crappy?


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## bigtwinky

Never print at walmart or any pharmacy. They are not printers.   I've printed at a few and never liked what they did.  Not even in a pinch.  Last time I printed at walmart, their calibration was totally off, colours were bad.  Some images came out way darker.  Thought I would use them quick when I had to print stuff to show a friend.  When I got the same image, same file, printed at a lab a few days later, it looked normal.

The only one I have seen do a good job is costco.

I have 2 local print shots that I use. They are both camera stores with good labs. So look at your local stores and see if they can do prints or if they can refer you to good labs.

Online, I like WHCC for when i need to ship prints to the US.


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## Robin Usagani

I print mine at costco.. I just thought they will be similar to the other places OP mentioned.  The one thing I like about costco at least the one by my house, I always see the same few people work there.


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## Big Mike

I use a professional lab in my city.  Luckily for me, it's the head branch of one of, if not the, best labs in Canada.  

If you don't have a pro lab in your area, there are several good options for ordering on-line.


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## Bram

Why are the photos from a Walmart crappy? are you getting them printed on 4x6 from a PM2000? Because if you are these printers are amazing and have great resolution. Try maybe getting them printed on the 8x10 shinko printer then maybe you'll have better results.


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## DerekSalem

bigtwinky said:


> Never print at walmart or any pharmacy. They are not printers.   I've printed at a few and never liked what they did.  Not even in a pinch.  Last time I printed at walmart, their calibration was totally off, colours were bad.  Some images came out way darker.  Thought I would use them quick when I had to print stuff to show a friend.  When I got the same image, same file, printed at a lab a few days later, it looked normal.
> 
> The only one I have seen do a good job is costco.
> 
> I have 2 local print shots that I use. They are both camera stores with good labs. So look at your local stores and see if they can do prints or if they can refer you to good labs.
> 
> Online, I like WHCC for when i need to ship prints to the US.



Actually, Wal-Mart is not like the pharmacy companies (CVS, Walgreens, etc...). They use $100,000 Fuji printers in all Wal-Mart locations which is on par with most of the professional printing companies. Nothing wrong with getting prints at Wal-Mart but if you had problems you should complain about it...they should give you a refund and offer to print out more after a calibration.

Secondly, if you want a great printing service: Mpix. Mpix is a fantastic online printing service that I (as well as many TPF members) have used many times over and have always been pleased with. You can get any size you want and it's usually around the same price as everywhere else (or sometimes cheaper).


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## bigtwinky

DerekSalem said:


> Actually, Wal-Mart is not like the pharmacy companies (CVS, Walgreens, etc...). They use $100,000 Fuji printers in all Wal-Mart locations which is on par with most of the professional printing companies. Nothing wrong with getting prints at Wal-Mart but if you had problems you should complain about it...they should give you a refund and offer to print out more after a calibration.


 
Good comment.

I did complain, I did get a refund and a voucher for free prints.  They said they would look into their machine calibration, came back a month later, same crap.

Might just be a local walmart issue, but I've heard similar stories from walmarts in and around Montreal.   If the situation is different in your area, great!  But in mine, its crap so I dont use them, whether its a 4x6 or 8x12


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## akeigher

I used to print at a local lab before they closed, but now I send them to Miller's Professional Imaging Miller's Professional Imaging

They are the "professional" photographers side of MPIX  http://www.mpix.com

I have never used mpix, so I dont really know what they difference is.

Miller's does make you show that you are a professional photog before they will open up your account (mpix does not).

Hope that helps.


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## Uncle Rico

I've used Bay Photo www.bayphoto.com . They have professional print quality at reasonable prices and give you many more print options than retail chains. The only downside to using this and some other pro printing services is their print ordering systems - not nearly as simple or clean as Walmart.com or Costco.com. But the benefit has outweighed the slight inconvenience.


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## Taylor510ce

For price and quality, costco is the only local franchise type lab I will go to. Have used adorama as a test when I first tried printing. My settings were jacked though so they sucked. My fault not theirs. I hear good things about bayphoto and mpix.


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## Gaerek

I order most of my photos through my Smugmug account. They use Bayphoto as their print lab, and I've never had any bad prints. Photos come out near perfect.

However, I just got a Canon Pixma Pro 9000 MkII as a gift, so I imagine I'll be printing my own photos a lot more in the near future.


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## Big Mike

> Actually, Wal-Mart is not like the pharmacy companies (CVS, Walgreens, etc...). They use $100,000 Fuji printers in all Wal-Mart locations which is on par with most of the professional printing companies. Nothing wrong with getting prints at Wal-Mart but if you had problems you should complain about it...they should give you a refund and offer to print out more after a calibration.


From my experiences, Wal-mart is a bad option.  While they might use fancy machines, that doesn't mean much when the photos are only run though with the auto-adjust settings....or with low paid 'techs' on duty.  I've tried a handful of different Wal-marts in my area.  Most times the results are OK, but not impressive...and sometimes they are down right terrible.  There was a photo manager at one store, who did give me great results, but only when he was working.

One of the advantages of a pro lab, is that you will presumably get consistent, dependable results...and they will likely be a better quality than you get at the department & drug stores.  

I've tried Cost-co as well....and they were on-par with the best drug store labs, at about half the cost.  But my pro lab isn't really all that expensive and the results are fantastic.


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## Hardrock

Another vote for MPIX.com!


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## user3977

where in TN are you? sams usually has pretty decent prints. the walmart near me actually does really good prints. i have been enough of a PITA for them and they got tired of dealing with me i guess and corrected the color on the printers. also the instant HP printers seem to be nice but not sure if the 2 bucks extra is worth it. vrs waiting an hr


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## RauschPhotography

bigtwinky said:


> DerekSalem said:
> 
> 
> 
> Actually, Wal-Mart is not like the pharmacy companies (CVS, Walgreens, etc...). They use $100,000 Fuji printers in all Wal-Mart locations which is on par with most of the professional printing companies. Nothing wrong with getting prints at Wal-Mart but if you had problems you should complain about it...they should give you a refund and offer to print out more after a calibration.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Good comment.
> 
> I did complain, I did get a refund and a voucher for free prints.  They said they would look into their machine calibration, came back a month later, same crap.
> 
> Might just be a local walmart issue, but I've heard similar stories from walmarts in and around Montreal.   If the situation is different in your area, great!  But in mine, its crap so I dont use them, whether its a 4x6 or 8x12
Click to expand...


Same thing's happened with me before. Walmart=Crap.


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## Jeepinmomma

Ive used walmart several times for my own use the kids pictures or holidays with family, i've done 4x6, 5x7 and 8x10 the color was always crappy, or there were dark spots, the last time i went is the only time they have given me a refund they said it was their paper that was bad. Walgreens same thing they are good at 4x6 for my scrapbooking for my kids but other than that i don't like their paper. I've heard of mpix and i checked out the website it looks pretty good, they have alot of different sizes and you can get your business name printed on the back for free! I have no local labs around here, in crossville there is only 2 other studios besdies walmart picture me studios, that do photography around here. One is for weddings and the other specializes in newborn photography... i send just a normal picture to mpix and ordered an 8x10 to see how their quality is, if i like it i will continue to use them, thanks so much guys!


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## Sarah87

Pharmacies aren't the best place to print your photos I suppose. I usually use online photo printer companies. If you want to print your photos onto canvas prints, Photo Canvas does amazing one's!


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## ghache

Ive been really happy with costco. 
For the price and quality they are hard to beat and to top it off, the tech who works at the one im going know his stuff so its a plus.


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## cletusjermal

I also use Mpix.com and i love them. They have a quick turn around. Usually from placing order to having them in hand is about 3-5 days. I am very happy with them.


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## SrBiscuit

i use a vendor in boston that we use to print our brochures, reports, proposals etc...
we spend so much money on business documents there every year, they are always giving us really cheap rates for personal stuff. last run i did was 12x14 on silk stock for $2.50 a pop.


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## chris182

been using mpix.com, only downfall(if you even want to call it that) is if someone only wants like one large print it is still 5.95 shipping, or if you want 50 of them it stays the same but the shipping is SUPER fast and quality is great.


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## SoulfulRecover

I use two local shops in town for LARGE prints other wise I use my Canon Pixma Pro 9000 MKII

Precision Camera & Video - Cameras on Sale Shipped to You from Our Camera Store in Austin

Holland Photo Imaging


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## KmH

Digging up a 6 year old thread to post SPAM is a waste of time.


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## SoulfulRecover

KmH said:


> Digging up a 6 year old thread to post SPAM is a waste of time.



You're right.

Why was this at the top of the forum????


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## Desert Rose

I print at home.
BTW I am posting here because in spite of what some might think, photo printing is still relevant to photography today.
Merry Christmas!


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## KmH

SoulfulRecover said:


> KmH said:
> 
> 
> 
> Digging up a 6 year old thread to post SPAM is a waste of time.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> You're right.
> 
> Why was this at the top of the forum????
Click to expand...

Not you.
A spammer dug it up to post SPAM is how it got to the top of the forums.
The spammer got banned from TPF, and their SPAM link post got deleted.


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## SoulfulRecover

Ah ok. I didn't notice the date, then didn't know how I managed to find the thread and could of sworn I saw it up top.

Oh well hahaha


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## Dave Colangelo

I have had costco print some stuff (as has my mother) and they do a solid job. They are nice and easy to drop off, the prints are on time from good gear and now you can even submit on line which is a plus. 

Now that Im living in the city I am lucky enough to have a pro lab a block from my apartment. I go to them and have been very happy with the service and the prices are on par with every where else. Whats different for me is that they are photo people not costco employees. They enjoy me sitting in the shop chatting cameras with them and dont just hand me an envelope with some prints they never checked. If I go in at lunch and get a print they can do it right on the spot if nothing else is queued up. If the print is to dark or to light because physical prints are not always what you see on the screen, they reprint it no questions asked. They are simply more engaged with the customer than a place like costco which I personally like.

All in all the print quality is pretty much equal.

Regards 
Dave


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## webestang64

I'm one of the lucky ones who works in a camera store/lab (www.schillers.com) so all my color printing can be printed by me and with employee discounts it's very inexpensive. I print all my BW at home in my darkroom.


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