Printing service - my vote is with Asda (Walmart)...

I have recently been looking around for a good printing service to print up pictures from a wedding.

I consulted a friend who does weddings and he had no hesitation in recommending Asda (Walmart to our US cousins in here!). He was confident that the equipment they had and the paper they printed on , Fuji Crystal Archive were the same or better than many printers you would expect to be 'more professional'.

I prepared all my prints in Photoshop, set them up as 7x5 300 Dpi sRGB (not Adobe as I was intending) based on his advice and yesterday took them in. An hour later I had a set of prints that looked exactly as I had set them up. No benefit either in giving them more time, i.e. 2 days for a more professional result, it's all the same. I am very pleased with the result, the pictures almost colour match my screen.

It was interesting that the operator didn't know a great deal about printing pictures. I checked that the machines were 300 dpi and he hadn't a clue what I was on about! I didn't feel confident but at 25p a print (47 prints), who cares, has to be worth a punt? (20p for 2 day service)

Here's also an interesting part. I sent off approx. 15 black and white prints to Ilford online service. They have come back very quick and printed to perfection at something like £1.20 each. I took the same pictures into Asda to see how their colour machines coped with my black and white files. In the past, years ago, black and white used to come out sort of a horrible sepia. Not this time! The Asda pictures are marginally more contrasty than the Ilford ones but it is almost indistinguishable. I think if I had set them up the tiniest margin lighter and less contrast theyu would have been the same. The average puinter wouldn't see any difference I'm sure.

Therefore I would suggest you try your Asda and see if you are happy. Professionals have to register but the service is the same. Just set your pics up in Photoshop or similiar and when you walk in it's a breeze. Whilst everyone else is cropping and deciding, the software instantly recognises your print and finds it a perfect match.

The only downside as such is that one picture inexplicably has some cropping. I am just wondering if this may be a small error made by the operator as the print I set up is cropped correctly.

Just one final (obvious) point that people should be aware of. You probably know that different print sizes have their own ratios of side to height? This is interesting as we happily shoot away in digital and many times don't print our pictures. No doubt most of us will crop the picture we like or even compose in camera and then PP our results. When you go to print, the ratios change depending what size print you wish to choose. So, a 6x4 will have different ratio to a 7x5 or an 8x10. Therefore in reality when you compose your picture in camera it is worthwhile ensuring there is enough wasted border area to give you the flexibility later. Not always something I do I will admit and naturally most people I'm sure compose using all the viewfinder.

That was a very helpful post BC. I've been to WalMarts all over the U.S. and here in the Pacific Northwest we have Costco as well. The dimensional printing can be a pain as I full frame compose and sometimes lose the ability to crop to a specific paper size. Online printer services actually have odd paper sizes to match the proportions of digital camers. Use them and you have a problem matting and framing their sizes. Why is it so hard to find an 8.5" x 11" matted frame? Thanks for the tips.

I detest Asda and do not shop there out of principle. The quality of their 'food' is dire (no wonder the poor who shop there get more 'screwed up' by the day) - did you know their 100% orange juice from concentrate was found to contain LACTOSE!!!!

.....but I'm assured their photo printing-service is lactose FREE!!

WOW I'm one totally screwed up person then!

Well I pick and choose my food generally eating better stuff and certainly don't exclusively shop at Asda. There are horror stories about most processed food I should imagine. Actually the post was about processing prints and hopefully saving people money and getting a reasonable quality.

I've since found out that a number of pro's are using the Asda service as in general they see little difference or benefit in using a professional service.

Thanks for that BC I will be giving them a try in the future.

We don't have ASDA in Ireland :/ but I've been uing Photobox loads and love it!

Good review BC.

xx