Where to Order Prints

One of the parts of my business that you love best and that I continue to stick to is that you get the digital files and the print release. High end photographers do not usually do this for two reasons: 1) it makes less much money and 2) they know clients are going to print their photos at low quality printers and ruin the hours of work spent in Photoshop making your images beautiful.

You may be surprised how little of a price difference there is between good printers and cheap in-store printers. Please use the good ones. Please! Do it for me. Do it for yourself–you’re the ones who paid for the session. Do it for the people who come in your home and are looking at your pictures everyday. Do it for your family to whom you send these images for gifts.

So here’s the point. I finally printed the same picture at six different labs so I can show you the comparison. It’s difficult to accurately show you how these look in person, but I scanned them in to at least give you an idea. Also keep in mind that they will look different on your monitor if it is not calibrated. I also included notes on my thoughts as well as the cost.

Conclusion: All of the online printers were much better than either of the one hour printers, but I think the PASS gallery and Nations Photo Lab were my favorite. The PASS gallery is the gallery I send you with your completed photos–you can order photos directly from the gallery. The other online printers are nationsphotolab.com mpix.com and shutterfly.com. Processing times were similar for all the online printers, but they ship from different places. Nations is from Maryland, Mpix and Shuttefly from the Midwest, and PASS from California.