My friend is a trusted and talented guy in the photography business and he was recently asked to do a very large print project. He has excellent technical skills and works with me often. He is also a guy who likes to save a buck. Anyway he brought me three prints to look at, all printed from the same file but at three different places. All 8x12, one from Costco, one from a pro lab out of state and another at Buckeye Color Lab in Ohio. In fairness I will tell you that I referred him to Buckeye, they are a friend and client.
But as he presented these prints to me, I did not know which print was from which lab. And I am sure it was his plan to show me that the cheaper choice was just as good. Well it only took me a few moments to start picking two of them apart as compared to the third. Let me tell you that the photo was the interior of a room and very well shot.
First I quickly saw a lack of detail in the shadow areas on two of them, one worse than the other. There was also a lack of sharpness overall, they looked muddy. The lettering on the labels on some bottles in the background on the one print were much sharper than the other two. And the same went for the louvres in the blinds on a window as well as the scene through the window. But a very big point was the color and saturation on a table which was the centerpiece of the photo. It was a bright, very real, red in one print and a varying muted red in the other two. The difference was distinct.
Simply stated, the one good print could have very well been a page of a magazine and the other two were not the same quality. The one print would evoke a response of 'Wow' and the other two, well, you would just go on looking at the next page.
I am really happy to tell you that the winner was printed by Buckeye Color Lab. I am sure happy about that, otherwise I would not be blogging this, that's for sure! And yes it was more expensive than the other two. My friend asked me "Is it worth the difference?". Oh yes! If I want my photos to look good, I don't need a lesser quality print to handicap me. I would have gone back to my photo and wondered what I did wrong because it did not look as good as I would have remembered the scene when I shot it!
And finally this is an interesting point. The print from Costco and from the other lab were both slightly smaller on the long side from about 1/16 to 1/8 of an inch. They were both printed on Fuji Crystal Archive but slightly short. Is it a way to economize on paper? I don't know, but I sure would not like that especially if I were planning on them being in a designed book or album. The print from Buckeye was printed on a Fuji Pro paper that was not only full size but slightly heavier. It has a much better feel to it.
So that is my print test. I was not expecting it and the results were interesting and more obvious than I would have predicted. You do get what you pay for and you will never see me running in to Costco to get my "professional" work printed along with buying a big box of frozen chicken breasts and 200 rolls of toilet paper!
Thanks and keep coming back if you "Wanna See More...?"
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