***Before reading, please understand that this blog post was created to be informative for my clients. However, any comments that are unkind or negative in any way, shape or form, will not be approved. This is my professional website and my dear clients are on this very blog, reading and seeing everything. Thank you for your understanding! ***
The burning question everyone has is What Now? What do you do now that you’ve dropped a nice piece of change on having photos done with a professional photographer?
The most popular option everyone chooses to do is to purchase the digital package, so you can print your own photos and share online with family and friends. Right? Why? Because you want to save money and it’s easy as 1,2,3 to go to a one-hour studio to have your print to hang on your wall that very same night! I have been guilty of this in the past and it’s not the best choice. I know from experience how bad consumer labs can be and while my first choice is to show just how bad they are, I am going to spare you the details of posting their work in this blog post. What good would that do? Because to the untrained eye, it would seem like nothing is wrong, but I know there are imperfections 🙂
Obviously, consumer labs can be great for printing snapshots when you don’t really care about the quality. However, if you are going to spend money on a great photo session that you will eventually pass on to future generations, why waste it? Just think about it. The consumer labs I am referring to are as follows:
Wal-Mart – prints come out dull, grey, green and washed out. Yuck!
Target – prints come out orange, overly saturated and heavy on the contrast; at times parts of the subject are cut off.
Costco/Shutterfly – very red and heavy on the contrast whereas Shutterfly prints come out with yellow and green skin tones.
Hopefully this helps to give you a visual as to why ordering your prints through your professional photographer is so important. What you’re hanging on your walls will be passed down to your kids, and then to their kids, and so on and will eventually become a lifelong memory for you and your family.
NOTE: Not every lab in every location is going to be the same, or have the same consistent results. I put this together based on my location for my clients. So, while your Target lab, for example, might be awesome where you live (lucky you!), another location might not have the same luck. This post is not intended to “bash” these big box photo labs. It’s simply meant to educate my clients that there is a method to my madness! If by chance you still decide you want to print the photos yourself, check out www.mpix.com. Although they aren’t going to get their colors EXACTLY with the photographer (it’s best if THEY do the ordering, that way they can take it up with the lab if the prints are off) they’ve been the best I have noticed from experience.
