Photo Lab Comparisons

[Photog82]

Has anyone done this with their own prints? I've seen some online and thought that it would be a good idea to show clients. I have a digital copy as you can see here and an actual printed copy in a frame that I show people (I'll get a photo later). I didn't do anything to the non-pro lab prints, I actually tried to help them out. It's scary the differences between a pro-lab and a big box store in terms of print quality.

Best if viewed in full size (click):

[Sean Setters]

James,

Did you specify to each lab that they turn off all auto-corrections?

I used to have a terrible time with Walgreens. Years ago, I would get prints done there but sometimes they just didn't look right. I found out that they automatically applied corrections to images that were processed there. I asked them to not apply those corrections to my images - and "voila," they looked very similar to what I was seeing on my color calibrated monitor.

I'm not sure what the other labs' policies are - whether they make automatic adjustments or not.

[Photog82]

Yes, when I was at the kiosk, I made sure that they didn't adjust them in any way. Wal-mart had defaulted to auto-corrections which I had to shut off. You can't really tell here, but when you look at the prints closely they are grainy but the one from Mpix is not.

[Kayaker72]

I've compared Walgreens, mpix, snapfish and Walmart. Mpix was the best. Walgreens was hit or miss. Snapfish used to be good, but I wasn't too happy last fall.

I try to turn corrections off, but may not always be successful.