Black's print is disappointing
Black's had a promotion in their prints last weekend. 29 cents for the 4x6" instead of the regular 49 cents, so i eagerly asked Nel to pick all of the pictures she like and we uploaded them to their site for processing. I have always wanted to try having my photos printed at Black's but they're rate is so high that i usually have mine printed at Save-On, they're not serious pics anyway. I'm not saying Save-On print is bad, i'm saying it's the cheapest lab that i'm aware of, and for prints to be given away to, or asked to be printed by friends, it's really really fine.
Back to my Black's experience. So yeah, I had my photos processed on Saturday but didn't get the chance to pick them up until last night. That same saturday night, I was asked a favor to shoot on a friend's daughter's birthday. I took around a hundred shots before my battery died on me. I wasn't expecting a full charge BP to drain that fast, but what i forgot is that I was shooting with my flash on all the time. That was a good lesson to learn. (note to self: secure a spare battery pack soon)
We're up till 2am that I didn't managed to download and process my photos until Sunday afternoon. Then Nel remind me that if I could finish on time, I might still be able submit them online to Black's and still avail of the 29cents promo. Great idea, this set of photos need to be printed on a higher quality so the girl won't be disappointed with her birthday photos. I spent the next hours looking at each photos, cropping, and adjusting exposure for darker images. I managed to upload and order prints at 10:30pm, an hour and a half before the promo expires. 26 bucks for 91 images, not bad a deal =)
Then came yesterday night, I went to their shop to pick up all the photos, 160+ in total. I was excited when I arrived home and eagerly opened one of the packages, only to be dissappointed. All my prints are dark, around 2/3 stop under! This is the least that I expected, the vivid prints that their bragging about is not evident in any of the prints. How can you possibly have vivid dark photos? The sales clerk was convincing me to sign up for their membership card which would give me 25% discount on their prints, i'm glad i didn't join yet. Even with the discount, Save-On prints are still cheaper and way much better.
Back to my Black's experience. So yeah, I had my photos processed on Saturday but didn't get the chance to pick them up until last night. That same saturday night, I was asked a favor to shoot on a friend's daughter's birthday. I took around a hundred shots before my battery died on me. I wasn't expecting a full charge BP to drain that fast, but what i forgot is that I was shooting with my flash on all the time. That was a good lesson to learn. (note to self: secure a spare battery pack soon)
We're up till 2am that I didn't managed to download and process my photos until Sunday afternoon. Then Nel remind me that if I could finish on time, I might still be able submit them online to Black's and still avail of the 29cents promo. Great idea, this set of photos need to be printed on a higher quality so the girl won't be disappointed with her birthday photos. I spent the next hours looking at each photos, cropping, and adjusting exposure for darker images. I managed to upload and order prints at 10:30pm, an hour and a half before the promo expires. 26 bucks for 91 images, not bad a deal =)
Then came yesterday night, I went to their shop to pick up all the photos, 160+ in total. I was excited when I arrived home and eagerly opened one of the packages, only to be dissappointed. All my prints are dark, around 2/3 stop under! This is the least that I expected, the vivid prints that their bragging about is not evident in any of the prints. How can you possibly have vivid dark photos? The sales clerk was convincing me to sign up for their membership card which would give me 25% discount on their prints, i'm glad i didn't join yet. Even with the discount, Save-On prints are still cheaper and way much better.
posted by ren at 11:54:00 AM
2 comments:
Hi! I can relate to your dilemma. I tried Costco for my wedding photos and they turned out black around the edges. Good thing I only turned in 2 rolls of films. The same rolls used in the same camera in the same day turned our great at Target. I go back over and over at Target because they have an automatic adjustment and you can crop your photos from their terminal too. Just make sure the printing machine is Fuji. They used to have a Kodak machine but they told me that they plan to replace all their photo printing machines with Fuji. Try them even with just 5 prints and see if you like the outcome. They also charge 29 cents for a 4x6 print. I highly recommend Target.
maybe something was wrong with the calibration of the printer...but they should have known since it's their business...those things could happen, but with some adjustments, outputs should look good...maybe they didn't do any test prints or they didn't do their daily set-up for color and density...
FunkyMomma
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