Quote Originally Posted by Scott Stephen View Post
We have been using Walgreen's. Just this week I ordered a photobook from Shutterfly. I don't have it yet. That is what made me worry; did I blow $50 on an album with bad prints?
I see Shutterfly has a process for generally synching your monitor to their printing. I don't thing Walgreen's does.
I think we've hit the nail on the head here. First of all, Walgreen's applies an auto-correction routine to images sent to its lab. They generally do not tell you about this. Typically speaking, their correction routine will bump up contrast significantly and change the overall color of your images. If you want the prints closer to what you're seeing at home, you need to ask them to turn off all auto corrections or auto enhancements when doing the prints.

To see what kind of a difference it makes, try walking into the Walgreen's and asking for 1 image to be processed both ways--auto correct on and auto correct off. The difference will probably be very noticeable.

If the images are processed without corrections (as-is), then there's another reason why they appear dark compared to the monitor. Keep in mind that your monitor is back-lit. Everything image seems brighter on a back-lit screen than the same image viewed on a flat, reflective surface. At least that's what I've always attributed it to...

Quote Originally Posted by shutterdown View Post
Anyway, back to my question: who does a good job of printing?
Personally, I use AdoramaPix. I'm a huge fan of their Kodak Metallic paper. I've always been very satisfied with prints done through them.