Where do you print your photos?

[KenRC51]

Where is the best place to print your photo? I have printed photo at CVS and the quality does not come close to what I see on my monitor. Can some of you recommend a place or website that does REAL high quality prints for a reasonable price? Im tired of sending my photo to CVS or Costco, etc... and be disappointed at the results.

[TheWengler]

Is your monitor calibrated? Mpix is a popular spot. I use a local lab.

[jeffrisk]

I use my local lab for printing my photos.

[AdamW]

I've used Mpix.com with good results. Great quality, decent prices, and excellent service. Mostly I print my own with an Epson R800, but if I need to go bigger I'll use Mpix.

[KenRC51]

I've used Mpix.com with good results. Great quality, decent prices, and excellent service. Mostly I print my own with an Epson R800, but if I need to go bigger I'll use Mpix.

Is printing with a consumer printer better quality or just as good as sending the photos off? What are the best printer for photos, injet or laser? I know that photo paper makes a difference, which type of photo paper would be the best to use on a printer?

I checked out the prices in Mpix.com, it seems pretty reasonable. Would you say that Mpix.com's prints are a noticable difference from "Save Ons?" How long does it take them to ship you the photo?

[AdamW]

Yes, Mpix prints are better than drug store prints. Mpix will do them over until they get 'em right, and they offer downloadable profiles or their paper and printers so you can soft proof them in Photoshop. They ship out regular orders within a day, and it takes a couple of days to arrive.

Inkjet gives far better results than laser. The better printers from Epson, Canon, and HP--when used with good paper and the correct inks--can produce prints that are as good as those from a lab.

Pros of doing it at home: instant gratification, greater flexibility, more control, geek factor. When everything's working, it's so cool to see the immediate beautiful results.

Cons: you need to buy a printer, ink, and paper. Per print cost is a little bit more expensive (after cost of printer.) You need to calibrate monitor (which you should do anyway if you're at all serious about your results). When everything's going wrong, you'll have a big headache.

[KenRC51]

Yes, Mpix prints are better than drug store prints. Mpix will do them over until they get 'em right, and they offer downloadable profiles or their paper and printers so you can soft proof them in Photoshop. They ship out regular orders within a day, and it takes a couple of days to arrive.

Inkjet gives far better results than laser. The better printers from Epson, Canon, and HP--when used with good paper and the correct inks--can produce prints that are as good as those from a lab.

Pros of doing it at home: instant gratification, greater flexibility, more control, geek factor. When everything's working, it's so cool to see the immediate beautiful results.

Cons: you need to buy a printer, ink, and paper. Per print cost is a little bit more expensive (after cost of printer.) You need to calibrate monitor (which you should do anyway if you're at all serious about your results). When everything's going wrong, you'll have a big headache.

How can I calibrate my monitor? Do I need to buy a calibrator? If so, what do you recommend?

[AdamW]

The idea behind monitor calibration is one step in the process of getting what you see in the camera and what you see on your monitor and what you see on the print to be as close as possible.

You can use the software that came with your computer and do it manually, but it's hard to get it right. You can spend $100 on a Huey--many people love the Huey and it got great reviews but I couldn't get good results. Or, you can spend more on something like a Spyder 3, which works great but costs significantly more.

I found that my out-of-the-box settings on my MacBook Pro were amazingly accurate. At the very least, use the built-in software as a start.

[shoeytennis]

I use winklfash and am always satisifed. also york photo is nice.

[sara_criss]

To print my photos i prefer to use my local lab ..