The good, the bad and the UGLY!

I know it is tempting to try to save a little money these days by printing your professionally done photos at a consumer lab like Target or (cringe!) Wal-Mart.  In my humble opinion, if you've just spent money on a photo shoot and now you have all these great photos, why on earth would you have them printed at a lab that is just going to make them look horrible?!  STOP THE MADNESS!!  These are your priceless memories, this is one area that you might want to consider spending a little money to preserve!  Here is a comparison done by Erin Noie (via Alaina Bos Photography's blog) that compares a few labs (Target, Walgreens and Wal-Mart).  The results are pretty eye-opening!  In this case, Target is the clear loser here.  The poor kid is ORANGE, for pete's sake!

 



And in case I didn't mention it before.....DO NOT PRINT AT WAL-MART!!!!  Take a look at this example from Beck Impressions Photography.  This is ridiculous. 

As a photographer, I work REALLY hard to make sure that I give my clients the best images that I can produce.  When photo labs like these just totally ruin what we work so hard for, it makes me a little sick!  There are some good alternatives to printing at these labs, mostly online.  MPix is really the best non-pro lab there is.  Shutterfly is also pretty good.  The rest are kind of a toss-up, sometimes you'll get great prints, sometimes you won't!  Anyway, I hope this helps you decide where you want to print (if you aren't getting your prints through me).