Photo printing recommendations

[JiriHrdina]

Hey folks
Looking for a recommendation on where to print some photos. I've got about 80 8x10s to print, so I'm looking for affordability but not at the sacrifice of quality.
Recommendations?

[gasman]

I have used Vistek for larger prints, but I would highly recommend them.

[getbak]

I've had good results at London Drugs.

I've heard good things about Wal-Mart and Costco too.

[I-Hate-Hulse]

The South Costco has cranked out some so-so quality ones for me lately. Contrast and color issues with some blown out areas.

I'd give London Drugs a shot 1st.

[BlackArcher101]

I did some at Costco recently and overall was impressed given the price. However, like IHH mentioned, they tend to have some variance in color/contract it seems. I did two 8x10's which were actually an 8x20 photo split in half. Put them back together again and the color variance was noticeable.

[DoubleF]

Vistek has the ability to print without tweaking with your photos' color, but you have to request they do that specifically.

London Drugs used to have that option (no color tweaking), but my wife said they no longer have that option on the selection machine thingamabob when she went which meant we ended up reprinting a bunch at Vistek. Can someone confirm?

I didn't even know this color tweaking occurs until my wedding photographer told me that it happens.

[undercoverbrother]

Originally Posted by JiriHrdina

Hey folks
Looking for a recommendation on where to print some photos. I've got about 80 8x10s to print, so I'm looking for affordability but not at the sacrifice of quality.
Recommendations?

Costco is a good choice, and we once used Superstore for a large photo (2 x 4), it as lasted us 8 years and look good.

[Baron von Kriterium]

This is a timely thread as I just sold my Epson 3880 printer as I just didn't find it cost effective for the limited amount of printing I did.

Does anyone use mail order/online?
For example, posterjack.ca?

[Fuzz]

I ordered calendars from Vistaprint. Turned out very good.

[bc-chris]

i've used london drugs a couple times and been very happy with the results - some as large as 16x20 too!

if you're not in a rush just watch their flyers for a sale and you can get some really good deals

i also found that they are really good if something goes goofy with the photo.

story time... the night before our daughter was born we ordered chinese food and my wife's fortune cookie said 'you will soon witness a miracle'. we took that fortune with us to the hospital and after jordan was born we put it between her fingers and i got this shot:



when we got them printed at london drugs we used the on screen software to crop the pic to a particular size and it looked fine. when the pics printed something happened and the pic was cropped so the fortune read, 'you will soon witness a m'. we showed the people there and the employee re-did the crop and reprinted the photos with the same result, so then she went and worked on a different computer in the back and got it to work for us. to me that was great customer service... even though they never did figure out what the software was doing on the computer we used earlier

[GreenLantern]

Another plug for Costco, we did all our photos there and they look great. Price is good to.

[JiriHrdina]

Thanks for the advice so far. Has anyone tried online options like Snapfish. Pricing is really good.

[calgaryblood]

And another endorsement for Costco. Cheap and some pretty good quality photos.

IIRC 10 cents a photo.

[bc-chris]

Originally Posted by JiriHrdina

Thanks for the advice so far. Has anyone tried online options like Snapfish. Pricing is really good.

i think you can upload files to costco.ca

[SebC]

Keep in mind that there's two types of printing: consumer printing relies on colour correction, professional printing relies on colour accuracy. They're pretty much opposite. If you want professional printing, then recommendations for consumer printers will do you no good.

[JiriHrdina]

Recommendations for pro printing then?

[Fuzz]

http://www.ablimaging.ca/
I haven't used them in years, but when I did they were great.

[Nyah]

Bump.

I have about 16 unusually sized photos to get developed for a photo wall. I've been on websites for Costco, London Drugs, Walmart, etc. and I can't find options for custom sized prints. They vary in size, for example 14x18, 10x20, 8.75x16.75, etc. I have all the frames already and all the photos produced and edited to size. Where should I go that will give me quality prints but not for a fortune? Any online options?

[Fuzz]

Try Vistaprint. Otherwise you can just print on larger paper with white area and use a guillotine cutter to get the right size. If it is in a frame it shouldn't matter if it's not totally perfect cut.

[calf]

Art Box in Northland Mall did custom size for us. Forgot the cost but it was reasonable a few years ago.