Review of online photo services

terse

terse

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The NY Times Wirecutter has a review of a large group of online photo services. It includes evaluation of quality (compared to their own prints on an Epson photo printer), costs, packaging, available sizes and paper, ease of use, and so on. Their top choice -- Nations Photo Lab -- is one I hadn't heard of before. It's a useful read if you're interested in printing your images and trying to balance cost and convenience between investing in a printer, ink, and paper or outsourcing your printing.

www.nytimes.com

The Best Online Photo Printing Service

We’ve tested dozens of online photo printing services, and we’ve consistently found that Nations Photo Lab is the best place to get prints.
www.nytimes.com www.nytimes.com
 
terse said:
The NY Times Wirecutter has a review of a large group of online photo services. It includes evaluation of quality (compared to their own prints on an Epson photo printer), costs, packaging, available sizes and paper, ease of use, and so on. Their top choice -- Nations Photo Lab -- is one I hadn't heard of before. It's a useful read if you're interested in printing your images and trying to balance cost and convenience between investing in a printer, ink, and paper or outsourcing your printing.

www.nytimes.com

The Best Online Photo Printing Service

We’ve tested dozens of online photo printing services, and we’ve consistently found that Nations Photo Lab is the best place to get prints.
www.nytimes.com www.nytimes.com
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Very interesting. I use Mpix mostly, which was one of the lowest rated. :rolleyes: I checked out Nations Photo lab and the price wasn’t that much higher than my standard Mpix order.
 
Kevin Barrett said:
I will be using Printique soon. Will try to remember to report back if they're any good.
Have had much success with smaller lesser known labs
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I have received several books from Printique, of my Instagram photos. They usually have a special at year’s end to make a small soft cover book at a very reasonable price.
 
Kevin Barrett said:
I will be using Printique soon. Will try to remember to report back if they're any good.
Have had much success with smaller lesser known labs
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Good luck! I'd like to hear about the results for your images. I have a (totally unfounded in actual experience) suspicion that online labs do better with images closer to the norm than those that are quirky in some way (especially color-wise).
 
I’ve tried nations photo lab before, got an 8x10, I thought it was ok. I actually tried a few places to compare, just to see how they were..
I liked smallwoods a lot, it’s a canvas. I’m not a fan of canvas but heard about it and tried it. I got a range of sizes and 3 that were 44x22, they were framed canvases. I was pleasantly suprised how they came out especially since there were iPhone pics. On the opposite note from them, I had 8x10 prints made from them and thought they were meh …
I did get a larger iphone print made, b/w, and was happy how it came out, it was clear but I cannot remember who it came from and it came with no receipt and the return address got me no where. I THINK it came from viewbug.
I am going to try h&h color lab soon and see how it is.
 
Jacosta said:
I’ve tried nations photo lab before, got an 8x10, I thought it was ok. I actually tried a few places to compare, just to see how they were..
I liked smallwoods a lot, it’s a canvas. I’m not a fan of canvas but heard about it and tried it. I got a range of sizes and 3 that were 44x22, they were framed canvases. I was pleasantly suprised how they came out especially since there were iPhone pics. On the opposite note from them, I had 8x10 prints made from them and thought they were meh …
I did get a larger iphone print made, b/w, and was happy how it came out, it was clear but I cannot remember who it came from and it came with no receipt and the return address got me no where. I THINK it came from viewbug.
I am going to try h&h color lab soon and see how it is.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the report! That was interesting to hear about the canvas because I have the same feeling going in that you did. I have had a couple of sample sheets of letter-size canvas that I printed and didn't care for the results -- the pronounced texture got in the way of the image (for me) at that smaller size. I never stopped to think it might have a different effect when bigger.
 
Jacosta said:
I’ve tried nations photo lab before, got an 8x10, I thought it was ok. I actually tried a few places to compare, just to see how they were..
I liked smallwoods a lot, it’s a canvas. I’m not a fan of canvas but heard about it and tried it. I got a range of sizes and 3 that were 44x22, they were framed canvases. I was pleasantly suprised how they came out especially since there were iPhone pics. On the opposite note from them, I had 8x10 prints made from them and thought they were meh …
I did get a larger iphone print made, b/w, and was happy how it came out, it was clear but I cannot remember who it came from and it came with no receipt and the return address got me no where. I THINK it came from viewbug.
I am going to try h&h color lab soon and see how it is.
Click to expand...
I had the spider web image printed at Nations Photo Lab (Mike wanted a 16x20) and was pleased with the result.
 
terse said:
Thanks for the report! That was interesting to hear about the canvas because I have the same feeling going in that you did. I have had a couple of sample sheets of letter-size canvas that I printed and didn't care for the results -- the pronounced texture got in the way of the image (for me) at that smaller size. I never stopped to think it might have a different effect when
Starzee said:
I had the spider web image printed at Nations Photo Lab (Mike wanted a 16x20) and was pleased with the result.
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the one I had printed from them was fine but just not as crisp as it appeared on my computer, I don’t know why, but it was tons better than when I tried to get it printed at Walgreens
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Starzee when you for something printed from nations lab what did you get? Was it just a print? I have another question but wanted to find out what you got first?
 
Starzee said:
I had a 16x20 print made. It was the print only.
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Which paper type did you get? Lustre, glossy or pearl? Wasn’t sure what was the best. I don’t remember what I ordered when I go a print from them
 
Jacosta said:
Which paper type did you get? Lustre, glossy or pearl? Wasn’t sure what was the best. I don’t remember what I ordered when I go a print from them
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I am not a fan of glossy photos. Too much glare. The paper I got was luster. Here’s a screen shot of the order details.
IMG_1807.jpeg
 
I tried nations lab again and got two prints made. I was very happy with photos I got!!
I also got two prints made from mpix. I wanted to compare the two (never tried mpix before).
Both places were good with the price. Nations lab I found was better but mpix was not bad at all! Nations lab took off a little of my picture, not much, and the contrast and photo was very crisp!
The mpix had the whole photo, shadows showed very well but photo not quite as crisp as nations lab, very close.
To be fair, I wasn’t thinking and did not get the same finish from both places. Mpix was a lustre finish and nations lab was pearl (little more gloss than mpix)
 
Jacosta said:
I tried nations lab again and got two prints made. I was very happy with photos I got!!
I also got two prints made from mpix. I wanted to compare the two (never tried mpix before).
Both places were good with the price. Nations lab I found was better but mpix was not bad at all! Nations lab took off a little of my picture, not much, and the contrast and photo was very crisp!
The mpix had the whole photo, shadows showed very well but photo not quite as crisp as nations lab, very close.
To be fair, I wasn’t thinking and did not get the same finish from both places. Mpix was a lustre finish and nations lab was pearl (little more gloss than mpix)
Click to expand...
Thanks for the report!
 
Jacosta said:
I tried nations lab again and got two prints made. I was very happy with photos I got!!
I also got two prints made from mpix. I wanted to compare the two (never tried mpix before).
Both places were good with the price. Nations lab I found was better but mpix was not bad at all! Nations lab took off a little of my picture, not much, and the contrast and photo was very crisp!
The mpix had the whole photo, shadows showed very well but photo not quite as crisp as nations lab, very close.
To be fair, I wasn’t thinking and did not get the same finish from both places. Mpix was a lustre finish and nations lab was pearl (little more gloss than mpix)
Click to expand...
I have used MPix exclusively until I tried Nations last time. I never had a problem with Mpix, just wanted to try something different. I found that in ordering from anywhere, you have to follow their crop guides. You may lose some of your image, but you get to choose how. I also am careful to choose the “turn off color correction”. The only complaint I have about Nations Lab is now I get an email ad from them EVERY DAY! :lmao:
 
Starzee said:
I have used MPix exclusively until I tried Nations last time. I never had a problem with Mpix, just wanted to try something different. I found that in ordering from anywhere, you have to follow their crop guides. You may lose some of your image, but you get to choose how. I also am careful to choose the “turn off color correction”. The only complaint I have about Nations Lab is now I get an email ad from them EVERY DAY! :lmao:
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I agree with everything you said about both of them.
Moix was very quick with delivery, nations lab wasn’t bad though
 
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