Over the course of the last few weeks, I have printed images at all the major photo printing stores in Edmonton (London Drugs, Costco, Walmart, and Technicare -- a professional photo printing store for photographers) for the main purpose of finding the absolute best place to print photos in Edmonton (my ulterior motives were just wanting to see my photos in print:)
Imagine how hard it is to take a picture of a picture and try to show the differences in color, lighting, and quality. It is really hard. So a few of the photos of the prints have a slight haze over them.
I have ranked the printing stores from best to worst.
The following photo is the image that I would give to my clients and the one I am comparing the prints too.
#1 TECHNICARE - In each case, Technicare was the overall winner for accurate colors, lighting, paper thickness, and size. Costco and London Drugs both cropped the image, cutting off details that I think add to the photo.
While non-photographers cannot print directly at Technicare, since you need a commercial account, you can print them through your photographer.
The cost per print (4x6) is less than London Drugs! Although larger prints do cost more at Technicare, the quality is unbeatable.
#2 LONDON DRUGS - London Drugs cost $0.39 per 4x6 photo, however, if you are going for the most accurate print of your photos, London Drugs still isn't great.
They print much warmer and slightly darker than the reference photo.
#3 COSTCO - Costco's paper quality is definitely a step down from Technicare and London Drugs. It is thin, bendy, and doesn't lay flat. The cost was $0.17 per 4x6 photo.
The print quality is gray and less vibrant in color than the reference photo.
#4 WALMART - I'm just gonna give you the plain truth... Walmart prints bad photos. I paid $0.80 for 8 prints and you get what you pay for. The skin of the people in the photos is blown out every time making the photos look like they have no depth. The colors are off, making blue-green more like yellow-green.
So much detail is lost! The small clouds in the sky are blown out and so is the detail in the bride's dress.
Again the paper quality...not good. It is even thinner than Costco and curves upward instead of lying flat.
Technicare on the other hand...
Last thing. I accidentally ordered glossy from Technicare (which are called Pearl Prints on their website), and I wanted to use this as an example of why glossy prints are not as good as matte prints. Glossy prints reflect so much light back into your eyes that it is hard to see/look at the image.
I re-ordered Matte prints (which are called Luster on their website) and with them, the glare is gone and you can look at the image without maneuvering out of the light to be able to see every part of the photo.
In conclusion, if you want the best print of your photos, print through your photographer at Technicare. They have the best quality paper, and the color and lighting of your print will match the photos your photographer sends you. And lastly, the cost for a professional photo lab is not very expensive.
A final word of advice, never print at Walmart!
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