Here’s the side-by-side comparison of the pro lab vs Costco: Okay, okay… so I still wanted one more photo for my experiment, so I reordered the print from Costco, this time noticing during checkout that I could direct Costco not to make any adjustments to the print, which either guaranteed that I would not get a photo of Redskins cheerleaders, or instead made sure that I would get a slightly under-exposed and bluish print of Miss L: HA HA HA! I thought of photoshopping Miss L’s face in with the other ladies, but well, I think we’re already laughing enough. Here’s the side-by-side with the pro print: I want to make it clear that I did not take the photo above, nor have I had the pleasure of meeting any of the Redskins Cheerleaders in my life!!!! (If you know who did take this photo, please let me know, as I would love to give them credit for their work.) But I’m totally cracking up thinking about the poor soul who opened their envelope, hoping to admire a full sweep of beautiful hotties and instead got a print of a baby holding a carrot!! CRACK ME UP!! Oh my goodness, I’m totally crying while writing this. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, those are our lovely Redskins cheerleaders!!! But what was inside was not a print of my lovely Miss L. I checked the envelope label again… yes, that’s my name on it. I came home, started making the kids dinner, and opened this envelope (yes, I need to show you proof that my name was on the envelope… you’ll see why). Shopping simultaneously with my two young children is akin to ripping out my fingernails, so I try to get in and out as quickly as possible. I was about to go to press with this blog post, but my husband and I joined Costco a couple of weekends ago, so I decided to try out their photo lab as well.Īgain I was with my two kids when I was picking up the prints. Again, something you’ll just need to take my word for, but it came out of the envelope like this: Here’s a close-up of the faces so you can see how out-0f-focus the Shutterfly print is:Īnd here’s a better image of the bent corner. Here’s what you should notice about the Shutterfly print: I have to say this was the worst one of the bunch (though not the most shocking one… hang in there, I’m getting to it!) Okay, so the next one I ordered was through Shutterfly. Here’s what I want you to notice about the Target photo…Īdditionally, the whole photo has lost some of the contrast and looks a little more flat (lack of depth). Here it is side-by-side with the pro-lab photo: At first I was kind of disappointed because it didn’t look that bad, and I was hoping for crazy dramatic results like I’ve seen other photographers post, but then I put the professional print up next to it and was actually quite amazed by the difference. I opened the photo envelope when I got home. And it was! Well, there wasn’t anyone actually in the photo lab when I got there, but hanging out with two kids by a photo counter while they are yelling, “Hello?! Where are you photo person?!” is really fun and not at all embarrassing. The first consumer lab I chose was Target because I am in Target about every other day and figured it would be super easy to order it and pick it up. See, here’s me in an awkward photo holding it with my one (giant-like) hand, and it’s not bending. It’s sharply in focus, and it makes me happy! □ I had the print mounted on art board just as I do for my clients. Here’s a photo of the print I received back. I set out by picking a super cute photo of Little Miss L here and sending it off to my favorite pro lab, Miller’s, for printing. So you’ll just have to trust me, or try it yourself, like I did! This is totally unscientific, but I swear to you that I sent the same photo to all four labs, with the exception only of printing the consumer lab names onto the front of the photo (otherwise, I would totally have mixed them up later). The only way to know for sure was to do it myself. Lots of photographers have done these comparisons in the past, but I’ve always wondered if they really sent a different photo to the consumer lab or something to skew the results. If you think you know what you’re going to see here, please believe me that you will be shocked! Shocked, I tell you! I mean, I literally laughed out loud and am still giggling about the results even several days later! So read the ENTIRE post… you won’t regret it. Okay, I am totally cracking up about this comparison of a pro photo lab and several consumer photo labs.
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