Developing photos

[nwwong]

Blacks?

I know there's lots of deals at futureshop/best buy as well as the photo developers at pacific mall. What's the difference between them all anyways? I know that blacks photos are much more vivid. But in terms on longetivity and clarity etc, they should all pretty much be the same right? I don't know what else there is about photos.

[cipher]

Are you referring to film? If you're talking about digital, there is no developing...just printing.

[nwwong]

Are you referring to film? If you're talking about digital, there is no developing...just printing.

oops, yes that's what I mean. printing.

Are photos the same no matter where I print them from?

[StressPuppy]

I normally send my photos to Future Shop Photo online, and they're ready the next day. But, last week I learned that they won't correct red eye shots anymore. You have to do it yourself with their online correction tool. I tried it, but half the photos printed out with red eyes anyway. It's ridiculous.

Maybe I'll try Black's next time.

[TapemanPL]

walmart...you get them within an hour or 2 and basically all digital photos no matter where you print them they come out the same

[HighFlyer]

FS has a 15 cent sale until Sept 7.

[Keelie]

get your own photo printer. the paper i use is water proof, finger prints dont show, and i've tried but cant rip them in half.

best pics ever.

[dazz]

get your own photo printer. the paper i use is water proof, finger prints dont show, and i've tried but cant rip them in half.

best pics ever.

I have a photo printer,R200. Awesome quality,but it's more expensive to print yourself. At 15c photo,it's a great deal. It costs me much more to print a photo.

Costco is known to have the best print quality. However,today I had some prints done at FS,and they came out amazingly well.

With prints,make sure you have a somewhat calibrated monitor. What you see on your monitor may not be what you'll get off a printer. It's especially valid for people who adjust their desktop brightness,contrast,etc settings.

[alv077]

Well, it depends on the ink they use. Hard to really tell without experimenting first though... In any case, I would keep the datafiles.

Also, some let you touchup the photos yourself, which is a big plus, depending on the type of pictures you have ;)

[cipher]

get your own photo printer. the paper i use is water proof, finger prints dont show, and i've tried but cant rip them in half.

best pics ever.


I'll bet that if you take your paper and dunk it in a glass of water for a few minutes, it won't be waterproof... :cheesygri

As for printing photos yourself, most printers on the market are dye-based and the photos will start fading almost immediately. It's worse if the photos aren't behind glass. Air and light are the enemies of dye-based inks. Pigment based printers like the Epson R800 and the new HP B9180 makes prints that can last over 100 years. The trade-off is that dye inks have a wider gamut than pigment inks.

[dazz]

I'll bet that if you take your paper and dunk it in a glass of water for a few minutes, it won't be waterproof... :cheesygri

As for printing photos yourself, most printers on the market are dye-based and the photos will start fading almost immediately. It's worse if the photos aren't behind glass. Air and light are the enemies of dye-based inks. Pigment based printers like the Epson R800 and the new HP B9180 makes prints that can last over 100 years. The trade-off is that dye inks have a wider gamut than pigment inks.

I have shots taken with a R200 printer that were done 3 years ago,when I just got it. I reprinted some of those to share with my family. I couldnt' tell the difference between
old and new pictures.

[Keelie]

I'll bet that if you take your paper and dunk it in a glass of water for a few minutes, it won't be waterproof... :cheesygri

As for printing photos yourself, most printers on the market are dye-based and the photos will start fading almost immediately. It's worse if the photos aren't behind glass. Air and light are the enemies of dye-based inks. Pigment based printers like the Epson R800 and the new HP B9180 makes prints that can last over 100 years. The trade-off is that dye inks have a wider gamut than pigment inks.

try a 1/2 hour and the photos came out without any effects of the water.
i put a photo in water for 1/2 hour and after it came out and dried it was just as printed.

[nwwong]

So judging from the replies, it seems like places like FS and BB can be comparable to Blacks?

[dazz]

So judging from the replies, it seems like places like FS and BB can be comparable to Blacks?
Well,Blacks sure isn't better if that's what you're asking.

[CoinSaver]

I've been working with Costco. They will now do larger prints from their on line interface. Upto 16x20. If you are serious, you can also get the "printer profile" for their printers. Ensures better colour representation.

Someone above mentioned WalMart. I would have never gone there myself, guess I prejudged them. I saw some prints from WalMart and there were fantastic. You can get the printer profiles for the WalMart printers too. They actually use top of the line printers there. I still haven't tried them though.

[kingofwit]

try a 1/2 hour and the photos came out without any effects of the water.
i put a photo in water for 1/2 hour and after it came out and dried it was just as printed.

What printer & what paper are you using?

Thanks

[Neb]

They are definitely not hte same anywhere. FS/BB has probaly the best quality, never tried Blacks. But Staples is horrible, superstore is below avg, and costco 's quality fluctuate depends on which store you go to. Online snapfish is porbably superstore quality. Shutterfly is below avg.

I've experimented with the same picture at different places. There is definitely a difference depending on which printer.

[Flipcyde]

I had a set of pictures printed at Walmart and im never going back to them. For some reason they felt the need to unnecesarrily crop alot of my pictures. They ended up cutting off the top of my head in a lot of pictures or even cutting out whole people.

It was the Keele and Lawrence Walmart, maybe the person was just drunk at the time?

[CoinSaver]

I had a set of pictures printed at Walmart and im never going back to them. For some reason they felt the need to unnecesarrily crop alot of my pictures. They ended up cutting off the top of my head in a lot of pictures or even cutting out whole people.

It was the Keele and Lawrence Walmart, maybe the person was just drunk at the time?
did you complain and have them redo them?

I hate it when they edit or colour correct. I make it a habit to tell them to print as is. I do all the necessary cropping and colour correction on my own.

[chococrazy]

fyi, they have to crop the photos if you dont size them correctly...

http://www.shutterfly.com/help/prints_ts.jsp#cropped

[eelfliw]

I usually get my film developed @ Costco or Walmart. The C41 process is pretty standard and proven over the ages so there's not much diff between different stores.

What separates the stores is printing. $$$ stores will spend more time adjusting or more $$$ for software that adjust color filters so colors come out more vibrant. They also use different (more contrast) paper to bring out the colors more.

My recommendation is to get the stores to develop the film but not print. Then, you can take it home, scan it in to the computer, edit the photos and only print the ones you like.

[najibs]

My recommendation is to get the stores to develop the film but not print. Then, you can take it home, scan it in to the computer, edit the photos and only print the ones you like.

In order to scan negatives properly, you'll need a very expensive film scanner, and most people do not have those anyways.

[nwwong]

Seems like FS/BB is pretty popular.

Can anyone share their experiences with Blacks?