As I tried to ever so gently tell you last week… PRINT YOUR WEDDING PHOTOS!! Yes? Yes.
Okay good, so moving along. Now you want to print you pictures from your wedding photographer and you’re SO excited that you just head over to Walmart, click all over that machine for 30 minutes or so, do some shopping and BAM! An hour later your wedding prints are ready! But what’s that? You start looking through and see a blue hue in all the images that you didn’t notice when you looked at them on your computer…
Well friends, that’s due to Walmart having quick, but not necessarily high quality printers. I can never guarantee quality of your prints if you do not print through me, but I can tell places that you are in trustworthy hands after doing a bit of research. So where should you print? Click through and I’ll share some comparisons with the most popular printers.
I took one image and printed it from four different vendors on the same day. As a frame of reference, here is what the original, digital version of the image looks like:
Side note: Taking a picture of a picture never turns out exactly the same as it looks it person. So while these may not be 100% true to life, read my notes!
Price: .09 (4×6), .79 (5×7), 2.99 (8×10)
Size Options: All standard sizes (4×6, 5×7, 8×10, and wallets)
Paper Options: Glossy or Matte. Must be the same for all images in the order.
Border Options: White, Black, White Torn can be added when images are placed in your cart, but will apply to all images. 100’s of choices that can be added before adding to your cart.
Ease of Ordering: Super simple and straight forward. All options are very clear and easy to find.
Quality: The detail of the image is actually surprisingly good — very clear and not overdone. What was bad about this image was the color, it is several hues warmer (more yellow) than the original image.
Overall Grade: C
Price: .29 (4×6), 1.09 (5×7), 2.09 (8×10)
Size Options: Pretty much every size imaginable from 3.5×5 to 24×36.
Paper Options: E-Surface (matte), Fuji Pearl (glossy metallic), True B&W (matte), Lustre (extremely shiny). Can choose different options for each image in your order.
Border Options: White, Black, White Sloppy, Black Sloppy. Can be added individually.
Ease of Ordering: A bit more complicated than Snapfish/Shutterfly given that you have more options, but still pretty straightforward. It was hard to locate the border options at check out.
Quality: The image is crisp and clean — the closest in terms of detail and color to the original image.
Overall Grade: A 
Price: .15 (4×6), .99 (5×7), 3.99 (8×10)
Size Options: All standard sizes (4×6, 5×7, 8×10, and wallets)
Paper Options: Glossy or Matte. Must be the same for all images in the order.
Border Options: Could not locate any borders that could be added to images in cart. 100’s of choices, but they must be added before adding to your cart.
Ease of Ordering: Very similar to Snapfish — everything is user-friendly and spelled out for you.
Quality: The image is incredibly washed out and has a significant blue hue to it that the others do not. The image doesn’t have the greatest detail in the faces, but also not the worst. It almost looks like they ran out of ink or something!
Overall Grade: D+ 
CVS (or other 1-hour photo)
Price: .29 (4×6), 1.99 (5×7), 3.99 (8×10)
Size Options: All standard sizes (4×6, 5×7, 8×10)
Paper Options: Could not locate any choices.
Border Options: Could not locate any choices.
Ease of Ordering: Due to limited choices, it was very easy.
Quality: I printed this at a CVS near my office in Washington, DC. On first glance, the color isn’t the worst. Upon further inspection, the image itself looks like a picture of a picture — there is hardly any detail in the image. To make matters worse, they tried to make up for it by adding additional contrast. It is by far the worst quality. Besides being able to get your images in 1 hour and not pay shipping, I don’t see any positives to using a local printer.
Overall Grade: D- 
The winner was clearly mpix! The colors were nearly identical and it had so much detail in the image. To be honest, I expected them to win from the beginning, but it never hurts to try to see if someone else can come close. A few other labs along this same caliber are: AdoramaPix and WHCC.
A few other quick tips:
+ Be sure to check the box that says: “Don’t color correct my images” — your photographer has already corrected them for you!
+ I don’t recommend changing your images to B&W when ordering from a printer. Your photographer takes the time to edit your images perfectly and would happily edit an image that you wish to print in B&W.
+ Watch your crops. Most images are delivered at a 4×6 ratio, so when cropping to 5×7 or 8×10 you will lose some of the image — if you don’t feel comfortable making that decision, again, ask you photographer and they will happily oblige.
Okay, now go prints those pictures that have been sitting on your computer!!
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