Someone and I were talking about where to have pictures developed.
I just looked, it was JSP, here, in comments.
I am helping my close friend with an album for the seven year old.
It started because Middle had 50 free prints available from Shutterfly.
I was not at all confident of the quality of their prints, so I did not want to order for our albums. (Yes, we are photo snobs).
I wanted to put the 50 freebies to good use. Like a project.
To be honest, our friends have lower photo standards. And I have a lot of pictures of the seven year old in my digital photo files. So I texted my friend asking if seven year old had an album and mentioning the 50 free prints.
She was game. And she ordered 250 Shutterfly prints. Different pictures, same kid, from her phone. We are making an album for seven year old.
Over the weekend I found more pictures of the seven year old.
And it occurred to me it (this album) was a good opportunity to order prints from other stores in my area. To try other, cheaper systems.
My first attempt was Walgreens until I discovered I could only get glossy from my local store. Glossy is a fingerprint nightmare. I only do matte. I did not want to get into mail order at this time. So I rejected Walgreens for now.
Next I tried Walmart. Website said matte was available for in store pick up. I submitted my order online and then refused it at the store (which they let me do). The finish was not glossy, but was also not matte. I had made the online selections that said slow download (most pixels possible and pictures intact) but that was not what the order had. The pixels were very funny and heads were chopped. The lady at the in store photo lab said the software says one thing and does another. It was not me, it was them. So they are out too. But they also have mail order available which she said was higher quality.
Target and CVS only had glossy available for in store, same day pick up. Both have mail order with higher quality available, I think, it is all sort of running together now.
So, I did not find a printed locally, option that pleased me.
Yes, all these places are cheaper, but they are not doing what I want. So, cheaper doesn't really get me anywhere, but unhappy with their pictures.
If anyone thinks of other larger chains for me to try, I would appreciate a note in comments.
What I want - matte, 4x6, ability to see how the machine will crop and the ability to adjust that cropping, easily. Slow download with the most pixels possible.
Most of the time I would be okay with mail order. But this week, I honestly wanted pictures in my hands, to compare. Mail order experiment involves shipping cost, so a couple to compare is not easily, cheaply done.
