Lets Talk Prints: Comparing print labs.
When I take your pictures, I truly hope that some of them will end up on your walls or in a gorgeous album. I keep all of my print prices as low as I possibly can because the thought of all of your newborn or maternity photos sitting forever on a hard-drive makes me sad.
I work with Atkins, Australias oldest photographic print lab, to give you stunning quality products. I would never sell something that I didnt love and my home is filled with our family pictures, beautifully printed by Atkins. All of my packages include high resolution images so, if you want to, you can print them wherever you choose to. But I always warn clients that lots of prints labs can be unpredictable when it comes to the quality of the images. I spend a ridiculous amount of time perfecting the colours and contrast in all of your images so getting them printed by a lab who might not reproduce these things well also makes me sad!!
I have tried all of the main labs in the past and had very varied results but this time, I decided to really test them all out so that I can give all of you my very best advice when it comes to printing your photographs. I used the exact same images in the same size and finish so I could get a direct comparison, 1 colour and 1 black and white….
So here it is, the Big Print Experiment of 2022:
Snapfish: $0.15c per print plus shipping. The biggest online print provider and the absolute worst of the bunch. The colour and white balance (warmth of the image) were bad, the sharpness was bad, they were too bright and the black and white was just awful.
Overall score: 2/10.
Kmart: $0.10c per print. I have printed images at Kmart in the past and they were just awful, the colours were so out that the pictures were un-useable. So I was pleasantly surprised that the colour and contrast were reasonable, even the sharpness was OK. The black and white was not a crisp B&W but much more of a sepia tone. The main issue with the Kmart photographs was that they had added a wide white border to the images and, instead of the image being resized to fit inside this border, they had just cropped out part of the image. This looked really bad and is definitely an issue for me, the crop is something that very much affects the look of a photograph and if the lab is just randomly cutting of part of your newborn babys head, I consider that an issue.
Overall score: 4/10
Big W: $0.10c per print. Pretty good! Lacking in sharpness and a little too bright, the B&W photo was lacking some contrast but overall, impressive! The online ordering was a bit annoying and it took me 6 tries to be able to upload my B&W image but they were ready really quickly and pickup was easy. Overall score: 6/10.
Officeworks: $0.15c per print. Again, remarkably good! The tone was a little off, the baby and mums skintones were very pink and again lacking in sharpness and contrast but definitely not bad. The black and white photo was good but the print was damaged (a small scuff on the top right hand side). Officeworks also didnt send me an email to say when they were ready and when I called to find out if they were there, they had lost them!! They did turn up eventually but it wasnt exactly a seamless process XD.
Overall score: 6/10
Seldex: The first of the pro labs. I have just started offering a few of Seldex’s gorgeous products as they do some beautiful arch shaped frames that I havent found anywhere else. As the prints were sample prints they were larger than the 6x4s, this is where you really see the difference in sharpness between high street and pro labs - even at a much larger size, the sharpness was wonderful, the colours and tones almost perfect (a little green on their matte art paper) and the black and white a little warmer toned.
Overall score: 9/10.
Atkins Pro Lab: From $1.95 per print. And finally, I ordered each image in the 3 main papers my lab offers: Fine Art, Smooth Cotton Matte and Lustre. Predictably, they were all beautiful. The fine art is absolutely my favourite, even just as small prints, they are really something special. They feel lovely in your hands and are classic perfection, creamy and warm and luxurious. The matte art is a close second, I love the torn edge options and that is what I have in most of my family photographs around my home. The lustre is just correct - simply correct in colour, tone and contrast. I probably am biased but I just couldn’t fault any of them!
Overall score 10/10.
Left to right: fine art, matte art, lustre
So, there you have it - The good, the bad and the downright ugly! My final word of caution would be that, while the budget options are better than expected in small sizes, I really wouldn’t recommend getting anything large printed through them as the lower quality and sharpness will be very obvious in big sizes. I also can’t speak of the consistency in any lab other than Atkins and while they did a good job today, I would imagine that those results might vary. I hope that this is helpful to you guys when you’re ordering and printing your photographs, whether you go with budget friendly options like Officeworks or Big W (please not Snapfish, PLEASE PLEASE not Snapfish!!) or one of the pro labs, there are great options for every budget - I cant wait to see your gorgeous newborns and bumps and families on every wall of your homes, surround yourselves with love, my babes!!!
xo rose