Photo printing: Shutterfly or Walmart??

[SplshMtn99]

A few years ago, I had some shots printed up from a few online sites to try them out. I decided Shutterfly was my choice -- based on quality & price together.

I don't recall Walmart being one of my tests. They might not have been doing it. I don't know.

Anyways....its been QUITE a while ... I mean REALLY QUITE a while....and I'm going to have lots of pics printed to catch up. Since Walmart is just 2 miles down the street, I was thinking of giving them a try. But to save time uploading, I guess I'll just burn them to CD & drop it off.

Years & years ago I had film developed there once & I wasn't happy with colors at all. All washed out. But that was film. I returned to using CVS then for film.

What's Walmarts quality like compared to Shutterfly? Comparable or not even close?

AND....does anyone offer matte finish on photos anymore?

 

[mikamah]

I like walmart's picture quality. The colors are always bright, and they print on matte paper which I prefer. The Ritz camera near me also will print on matte paper if you choose. Their prints are more expensive, but if you buy a prepaid print card for 500 prints it's 19 cents a print, same as walmart.

 

[JandJ]

I like Shutterfly. I always get matte prints and they're 19 cents for 4x6 and 5x7 prints are pretty cheap too. You do have to pay for shipping, but unless you need them fast it's usually under $2.50 and I've gotten several free shipping offers over the past year. I just like the convenience, it's quick to upload, and they are delivered to my house. I think the Shutterfly quality has improved a lot over the last few years too. I used to think the prints came out too "orange" but they have been excellent the last 5 orders I've had done.

There isn't a Wal Mart near me, so it would be really inconvenient, but I have thought about trying the Target prints.

 

[Stephres]

I don't know if this helps or not, but you can order prints online from CVS. They send you an e-mail when they are ready (the first time I tried it was 20 minutes after I ordered) and then you can pick them up. I thought it was really convenient and the pictures turned out great. Disclaimer: DH does work for CVS but I had previously used Shutterfly for developing digitial photos.

 

[Michele]

I prefer Shutterfly and if you do the prepaid plan you can get them for 12 cents a print. You prepay at $96. for 800 prints. I did this when I was behind on printing pictures. I had to print half of 2004, all of 2005 and a few months of 2006. 800 prints goes really fast.

 

[SplshMtn99]

I don't know if this helps or not, but you can order prints online from CVS. They send you an e-mail when they are ready (the first time I tried it was 20 minutes after I ordered) and then you can pick them up. I thought it was really convenient and the pictures turned out great. Disclaimer: DH does work for CVS but I had previously used Shutterfly for developing digitial photos.

Hmmmm, maybe its time to run a test on a few companies again. Seems there are ALOT more options out there than before. lol Good to know about CVS.

I also realized that thru PhotoShop elements 5 that I just started organizing photos with, its REALLY easy to upload to Kodak....which used to be Ofoto. I THINK they were another one I liked. Can't remember, its been so long.

 

[loopner67]

I use WalMart all the time just because I'm in that store all the time. But, I wanted to add that WalMart's prints can also be $.12 if you order them online and *don't* chose the one-hour option. I think it's a 2 day option and I think it's worth the savings if you're making a ton of prints. If you order online, though, and like matte finish, you have to specify it.

 

[DisneyCowgirl]

If you're going to print to a local store, run a test batch at the actual one you are going to use. I use Walgreens and the different store have WIDELY differing quality. I ordered over 100 prints to pick up at a Walgreens I don't normally use and then threw them all away they were so bad. The Walgreens I normally use turn out the best I've seen.

 

[Yzerbear19]

I used to print lots of pictures at Walmart, but in July I printed over 100 pictures from Gettysburg and they turned out horrible. The colors were all wrong. They aren't even a true 4x6. When placed on a page with a photo that is a true 4x6 you can tell the difference. I complained to the store, because I had 300 more pictures to print, but they wouldn't do anything. I've since stopped going there.

I've had good luck with Walgreens and Rite Aid. I think the ones I've printed from Rite Aid have turned out better, but the only draw back to them is that I can't get their Internet ordering system to work on my stupid computer. I like that with Walgreens I can order the prints online and they are ready most times in under an hour. I have also noticed that different Walgreens stores are slightly different in quality. Both Rite Aid and Walgreens are 0.19 per print. Prints from both of them are also true 4x6. I think the Rite Aid prints that I've got are better, the colors more vivid and bright, but Walgreen's are also very nice.

Walmart does have a 0.09 option, but they charge quite a bit for shipping, which in the end doesn't make that much of a difference in the price. The 0.12 per print was the ones that they screwed up of mine. I normally would have them just do the 1 hour, but the 0.12 are printed somewhere else and shipped to the store. That is probably why they were a poorer quality.

My advice, print a test print or two from each place and see whose quality you like better. I personally do NOT recommend Walmart.

My order of favorites:
1. Rite Aid
2. Walgreens
3. Walmart

I know Target in some areas has the one hour photo. There isn't one near me anymore, but I used to get a lot of pictures printed there and they were always nice quality. I could also get the matte finish. But that was a few years ago when I still used film.

 

[WDWAurora]

I know this isn't on your list, but I really like snapfish.

 

[MazdaUK]

I would go with an online one every time, simply to preserve your photos safely! My comuter recently died on me (and it was only a couple of years old) and needed a new hard drive, so if my pics weren't uploaded to Snapfish I'd have lost the lot. As soon as I get my PC working again (yes, I'm doing this at work again but how else can I keep in touch!) I'm going straight onto Snapfish and backing everyhting up onto CDs.

You can get a CD from Walmart as well, but if their machine is set up wrong that's no help.

 

[Yzerbear19]

I would go with an online one every time, simply to preserve your photos safely! My comuter recently died on me (and it was only a couple of years old) and needed a new hard drive, so if my pics weren't uploaded to Snapfish I'd have lost the lot. As soon as I get my PC working again (yes, I'm doing this at work again but how else can I keep in touch!) I'm going straight onto Snapfish and backing everyhting up onto CDs.

That is a good point. Walmart only keeps your photos online for 30 days. Walgreens I don't think has a time limit since I've had some albums up there for probably almost a year.

 

[SplshMtn99]

Wow...so many places I hadn't & wouldn't thought of to try. Keep' em coming...if there are more.

And no problem on loosing pics. Our computer automatically backs-up certain files (pictures is one of them) to a DVD every Mon pm -- or I can do it more often if I wish. And we do a full back-up once a month.

I don't know if anyone remembers a website a few years back...can't remember the name...but ALOT of people used it for photo storage & sharing. Anyone, one night, the site just disappeared. People lost all their pictures. I just couldn't believe the # of people who were using a website for storing their pictures....and had no other back-up of them a home. Some had even deleted them from their hard drive to free up space. So UNBELIEVABLE to me. Maybe its my degree in computers or DH's work in computers....but do your own back-ups. Don't rely on a free website to store your photos.

 

[AlexWyattMommy]

That is very good advice, about keeping your own back ups. We had our computer crash a few years ago. Right when we started the digital photos. Lucky for us the photos were still on a memory card. But the thought of the on-line servers not having your photos anymore is pretty scary for those who haven't made a copy.

I'm going to go test a few on line sites myself and see what I come up with. I need to pick two photos I don't mind lots of copies of.

 

[MazdaUK]

I'm just so thankful that being a scrapping addict means my pictures get printed out really quickly - even if they do just stay in the wallet til I get to them.

 

[JandJ]

I prefer Shutterfly and if you do the prepaid plan you can get them for 12 cents a print. You prepay at $96. for 800 prints. I did this when I was behind on printing pictures. I had to print half of 2004, all of 2005 and a few months of 2006. 800 prints goes really fast.

Thanks for the reminder about this option. Shutterfly sent me an e-mail about pre-paying and saving. I need to do this as I still have to print off our wedding photos (yes, I know, it's been over a year ) and there are hundreds of those.