Online Photo Processing Nightmare

<p>I've used my local Costco before for some quick and dirty 4x6's my wife wanted and didn't have any problems with them changing the tones or using auto correction software. Has anyone else had good luck with a printer that is ubiquitious to all of us? Cheers!<br>

David</p>

<p>I agree about the auto correct also. Turn it off. I put a vote in mpix.</p>

<p>I use kodakgallery for personal prints (if you pay $50, I think you can get 4x6 prints for $0.10 a piece). Not sure what the price is otherwise but I think it is in the 20-30 cent range. Do the math and see if the $50 is worth it. You can also pick them up at a local CVS pharmacy. <br>

I would agree with the problems for auto correct. Turn it off on any site that you use. And while that is most likely, your monitor may not be color calibrated correctly.<br>

One last thing. Find out what film the printers are printing to. I find pictures printed to Fuji paper tend to run a bit red for my taste.</p>

<p>Costco prints are fine, David H. As a matter of face, they only charge $.13 per pic for a 4x6 photos.</p>

<p>I suggest White House Custom Color. https://pro.whcc.com/index.php</p>

<p>I always print my digital files at www.adoramapix.com using K<strong>odak Professional Endura Supra Lustre</strong><strong> </strong><strong>paper. The results are always great! I think if you set up a new account, you get 25 prints for free.</strong></p>

<p>If you're after small pics for the home album then you could try a Canon Selphy ES1 or 2 photo printer. I've just picked one up for the kids but haven't tried it yet. It will work out more expensive per print but it may have benefits if you can see what you're getting.<br>

It's what Canon want you to do and you could even be the first person to use that on camera Canon Print button then :)</p>

<p>If you're after small pics for the home album then you could try a Canon Selphy ES1 or 2 photo printer. I've just picked one up for the kids but haven't tried it yet. It will work out more expensive per print but it may have benefits if you can see what you're getting.<br>

It's what Canon want you to do and you could even be the first person to use that on camera Canon Print button then :)</p>

<p>Try going to Costco. On their website they have link and tips to calibrating your monitor and downloading the printer profiles for the store you are using to ensure that what you see on the screen is what you get!</p>

<p>This is nice to know! I use WalGreens for my quick prints because it's right between my house and the place I scrapbook. The photos always came out fine BUT darker. So when I want to print to WG I always brighten it up a tad and then it'll be fine. I do digital scrapbooking and I send my pics off to whcc.com. I LOVE the results and the price for a 12x12 is great. We had a family photo done but a local photographer and when we got our prints it was in a whcc container. The pics came out great. I purchased a few of the RAW files and what I saw on my monitor was what came out of whcc's printer. So for serious stuff I use whcc. I've heard of MPix but haven't gotten to using them. I do have a coupon to try them out from one of my photography class.</p>

<p>I'll check the auto thing next time I print locally.</p>

<p>Oh, I do have a Selphy and a Canon Pixma 860. The Selphy is nice. I don't like how it crops though but for a home printer and if you remember how it crops it's great. The 860 is a tad bit less saturated and a tad brighter. I think the 860 was advertised as an office printer than a photo printer but I think for quickie things it's pretty good.</p>

<p>I know this is elementary, but be sure you're uploading high resolution images. A friend had the result you describe when she uploaded files to Shutterfly that had been previously been saved for e-mailing.</p>

<p>I have gotten excellent prints from Ritz Camera, several different locations. I prepare my files: 300ppi for the intended print size, sRGB color space, sharpened more than looks good on screen. I upload to their web site, select the store, select borderless, order the prints, and pick them up a few hours later. Buy a "frequent user" card and the prints are very low price.</p>

<p>There are stores near my home and near most of the relatives we tend to visit. Some other photo stores use the same upload/order mechanism as Ritz.</p>

<p>@Nicklass Nordberg, you tried auto-correct in GIMP with awful results. FWIW, I did the same on the "Yellow Dress" image with the auto-color and auto-contrast features in Photoshop. I don't think the image needs adjustment, but the results with Photoshop are not bad. </p>

<p>To reiterate what others have said, the problem you're experiencing is due to post processing applied by the printing facility.</p>

<p>Almost *every* consumer photo printing facility applies post processing - even when they tell you they don't. Their target audience uses P&S cameras, which generally need post processing for decent prints.</p>

<p>The solution is to use a professional photo printer, and specify "No Correction" when ordering prints. </p>

<p>Personally, I've used AdoramaPix and Mpix. Both provide outstanding results, though I prefer AdoramaPix (quicker turnaround time). </p>

<p>-Eric</p>

<p>Howdy!</p>

<p>Another vote for mpix.com. They are the online subsidiary of Miller Labs, which has been around for a long time.</p>

<p>You can select "adjust" or "no adjust". If you select adjust, it's done by a human, not by some automated color and leveling program.</p>

<p>Finally, they drop ship to customers.</p>

<p>Later,</p>

<p>Paulsky</p>

<p>Try whcc (whcc.com). At the time that i signed up they offered a risk free trial of a few 8x10 prints so that you can see the quality. They are the co. that i use to order prints for my clients and they have free shipping to the address you have on file (but sometimes that comes with a minimum order). You can also if you desire order prints directly from my website.<br>

Using Internet Explorer, go to the site, at www.dsjulienphotography.com. Click on Menu > Order prints and click on the link on the pop up window. Follow the on screen instructions and this will take you to my store where you can order items from prints to photo books to wall tiles. Please take a moment to check it out.<br /> </p>

<p>I had the same problem just last week with about 20 photos of the new grandson. Wife took them to Walmart since I refuse to go there for anything, and the prints were just crap...blotchy reds, some whites with a cyan cast. Turned right around and uploaded to Costco Photo, no changes to the jpegs.....prints were a world apart (on the good side) from WallyMart.</p>

<p>As an added bonus, Costco folks don't pretend not to understand English when you take something back that wasn't done right the first time.</p>

<p>For color-critical prints I usually jpeg a frame of either a gray card or the Macbeth color checker and have them print to those settings.</p>

<p>There are some parameters in the menu that control the saturation and sharpness etc. You could try reducing the saturation.</p>

<p>I am waiting on prints from clarkphoto.com, yorkphoto.com, snapfish.com, shutterfly.com, adoramapix.com and winkflash.com. I ordered prints in matte and glossy kodak royal, fuji chrystal archive, kokak endura pro paper in metallic, silk, matte, lustre, glossy and true ilford B/W. As soon as I receive, I will post a review on youtube. I have used mpix and whcc. They both do an excellent job. From my ordering process, I like adoramapix the best. They do different jobs for different paper types and ship all in one order. I also love their kodak professional endura paper selection. Clarkphoto, yorkphoto and snapfish seem to be the same website. They use same standard kodak paper in glossy and matte only and use same upload process. Winkflash and shutterfly use fuji paper. I will soon post a detail review of all.</p>