Know before you print your professional photographs – Print comparison by Sugar Six in Anchorage Alaska – Wedding photography printing tips
Just because I am an all digital studio, and I provide the digital negatives with print rights with every portrait photography and wedding photography package, does not mean I don’t care what your finished prints look like hanging on your wall. First and foremost I hope you DO get them up and on the wall. All too often we are guilty of admiring them on the computer but never getting them to print. So if you haven’t printed yet listen up and make it a priority. Probably the biggest thing holding other professional photographers back from offering the digital files is the argument that the prints represent the photographer just as much as the files, if not more, because they are what everyone sees. Photographer are afraid they will do all of their hard work to make amazing images only to have them printed on crummy paper with improperly configured settings. This was a fear of mine as well but something I decided to take a calculated risk on because the digital model was something I really believe in. I try to educate my clients on why quality matters with prints and how to go about getting good quality without breaking the bank. With every package I include some printing recommendations that I encourage clients to follow when printing Sugar Six Photography wedding or portrait images. I have used Millers Professional Imaging for years and have been thrilled with their quality and fast shipping to Alaska, which we know is SO hard to find! Millers Professional Imaging has a consumer lab online called MPix www.mpix.com. Knowing I could send my clients to a division of my professional lab was an important deciding factor in going all digital.
As I’m preparing for the wedding fair tomorrow at the Dena’ina Center in downtown Anchorage I am a bit behind on a few things. Happens to the best of us. I knew I wanted to print a few prints for my studio display as well as for the wedding fair display but I procrastinated and placed it only Thursday afternoon. I woke up today and still had not received my package from the pro lab. So by mid-day I figured I better print a few at Costco just to be sure I had them to frame even if they weren’t perfect. I picked the prints up from Costco this afternoon and thought “oh, they aren’t bad, that’s good” and came home fairly pleased. I knew they weren’t perfect but without having the file right there to compare to they looked “good enough”.
When I arrived home I found a package on my doorstep with the prints from my pro lab! Yay! As I pulled them out of the box the difference between the pro prints and the Costco prints was shocking! I knew when I received the Costco prints that the color was not exactly what I expected but until you have them side by side you don’t really see how much of a difference there is. Once I could truly compare I realized what I thought was “good enough” actually wasn’t good at all!
I thought this would be an excellent chance to share a few lessons I learned and this image that I took at a workshop in CO was the perfect of the group to share because of the deep rich color of her hair and her amazing complexion. The first is of course when you have a big wedding fair coming up don’t procrastinate until three days out to order your large images. The other was a reminder that good enough isn’t good enough when you deserve perfect! Think your drug store prints are “good enough”? Check out the dramatic difference in color and clarity between the two. Even I was shocked!
Here is the same exact image ordered from my pro lab that is the professional side of MPix where I send my customers. Millers Professional Imaging owns MPix and my work is calibrated to their machine which makes a HUGE difference as you can see. There is barely any difference between the quality, color, contrast and sharpness of the file I sent in and the image I got back.
So the next time you need to make some large wall prints that will be displayed and cherished in your home forever please consider printing from the lab I recommend! You paid for a professional photographer to capture your wedding or your baby or your family so you deserve quality amazing looking prints from it! Also remember I do sell wall art pieces over 16×20 in size including canvases, wall prints, acrylics, etc. and I’d be happy to quote you an amazing gallery display wall and do all the work for you! This post is of course not to bash Costco for their images. In their defense they do the best they can do with what they have got and they have some very nice photo products and nice staff. The problem is they are not calibrated to Sugar Six Photography images so what I see on my screen, and what you see on your screen, does not match the calibration at Costco. The other problem I believe is that it is so expensive to update machines in Alaska. Places like Target and Costco in the lower 48 get new photo printing machines MUCH more frequently than they do up here. My local drugstore employee, who shall remain nameless since I don’t have facts like this print to show, told me that they were printing on the same machine as when they opened 14 years ago! So of course I realize for small prints to send to grandma or wallets to include in Christmas cards places like drugstores and box store prints are just fine. But if YOU are going to hang something on your wall I encourage you to take the extra few days (www.mpix.com shipping to Alaska is cheap and super fast!!!!) and order the quality you deserve.
