Warning - Snapfish users, scrapbookers

[shancan911]

My DS7 has wanted to come scrapbooking with me for a while, and this weekened I sat down with him to start some basics. I went through some of my WDW pics from our trip last year and picked a handful for him. Took them to the Sony Picture Maker at our local scrapbooking store about a week ago and made copies. I have been extremely happy with them in the past. Then I just kind of tucked them away. When we got there Sunday, I had also gathered some photos from our February cruise. When I picked them off the printer, I noticed that the prints looked like they were taken through a screen door. I took them to the counter, assuming the printer was faulty. The clerk said she had noticed this on some other shopper's photos in the past, and asked where the original prints were made. So, I decided to look at the copies I made at the other store last week from WDW, sure enough, same screen effect.
I have no problem with a photographer inserting something in their paper to discourage reprinting, but these are my personal (crappy, but wanna be great) photos Anyone else experience this or have any suggestions? I guess paying .09 per print gets you what you pay for!

 

[cmwade77]

Actually making reprints from digital prints doesn't work very well and all prints from SnapFish are digital, no matter what the original medium was, if you sent them rolls of film, they simply process the film and scan it in, then print form those scans. Always get reprints made from the negatives or original digital files, even copies of the files can be degraded.

 

[wenrob]

I'm a little confused, you had prints made from snap fish and then scanned them, then reprinted them? And you think they did something to the paper to make the reprints look bad. Two different stores for reprints? Do I have that right?

I personally have always felt the prints were total crap. Now you got me thinking about pulling out my scanner and seeing if I get the same problem.

 

[shancan911]

Now that I'm re-reading, I guess I could have been more clear.
I have prints from a digital camera from WDW, ordered from Snapfish July '07.
I have prints from a digital camera from a cruise, ordered from Snapfish just this year, April.
Both sets of prints look great!, no complaints.
Made some copies of WDW pics at a local store on a Sony Picture Maker machine last week. Didn't look at them, as I have made copies in the past and never had problems. (Couldn't tell you where original prints of older copies were from)
Made copies of cruise photos this weekend at a different store, same type of machine and noticed "screen" appearance. Clerk stated she has seen this with other people copying Snapfish photos. This is when I looked at the WDW photos and noticed the same appearance.
Now that DS wants to scrap with me, I'll likely order more doubles from online printing, but this was more convenient at the time. I guess I just don't understand why they copy so poorly.
Sorry for the confusion, just looking for some explaination, and to let others know not to waste the money on copying a photo ordered in this fashion.

 

[cmwade77]

The reason is you weren't printing from the original files, but making a copy of a copy essentially, it would happen no matter who printed the original photos, for an example of how this works:
Take something with a lot of text and graphics and make a photo copy of it, now make a copy of the copy, you will notice that the copy of the copy looks worse than the first one (unless it is a really good copier, then it might take 3-4 times to accomplish this).

Now to further add to the problem, the scanners on those picture makers aren't very good, the best bet would be to have taken the files that you sent to SnapFish and made prints from them.

 

[wenrob]

I've scanned copies of digital prints(printed on a home printer) and reprinted them w/no issues. However, I scanned them at a high dpi and printed them on my own printer.

What she's talking about sounds more like an effect from the paper rather then degraded quality.

 

[jann1033]

i haven't tried scanning from prints but i was able to download from snapfish dvd (and if i recall the snapfish site via the copy image click) and make prints fine with them as well as post online fine...these were older photos however ( some 8-10 yrs old) from my snapfish online albums...might be they added something to the paper so you can't just make copies like that..you could get the dvd or try straight from the online albums and see what happens