Walmart PHOTO processing

[just joan]

I took my cd of pictures to WALMART to get processed.
Well to put it kindly THEY SUCKED!
Where is the best place to get my DIGITAL REBEL pictures processed?

[HJMinard]

I've had good experiences with Shutterfly.

[jwhee0615]

How about buying your own photo printer? Print whatever and wherever you want with prints that are superior to places like WM and drug stores.

[Hellashot]

Originally Posted by just joan

I took my cd of pictures to WALMART to get processed.
Well to put it kindly THEY SUCKED!

What about it sucked? They all use Fuji systems if you give it to them to develop. Or did you use the Kodak or FujiFilm self serve kiosks?

[Ogrt48]

You mean Walmart sucked at something? Big surprise there. =\

[just joan]

They were SO DARK
YES I printed a couple at home and they looked great
FROM THE SAME shooting time I took many pics...I decided to load them to CD and take them to walmart so they could make MULTIPLES for friends....

they looked DARK
very DARK compared to my home printer

[mekaz]

Winkflash does a good job.

[kb244]

Hrm, probally need something calibrated on the screen and/or printer and such, if it was mainly being dark, your calibration is probally off that in terms of the file it was processed dark. Do you do any post-processing to your images, have other services than wal-mart yeilded better/similar results?

[mbze430]

Not enough information to explain what went wrong.

However I can tell you a few reason why it might went wrong....

Usually the first thing that goes wrong is because its not calibrated correctly. Most Costco, Sam Club, Walmart machine doesn't get calibrated for up to 1months...or more.

Second, operator's errors. Maybe the last person had told the operator to turn off all the auto correction features on the machine. (highly not the case)

Third, user's errors. If you edited your images yourself. Tagged the images or converted the images to the wrong colorspace. Fail to mention to the operator that you need auto everything turned off.

So it really all depends.

[queenbee288]

I use walwart and and my pictures look great. I have had several 8x10's done there. I have my monitor calibrated and they look just like they do on my monitor.

[hawgerdawger]

I've been really pleased with Wal-Mart, too. Prints always come out looking just like they are on my monitor. Also love the one-hour processing via the Internet. I've seen some nice inkjet prints, but nothing that beats the chemical processing.

[OceanRider]

that funny...up here is canada Walmart does an EXCELLENT job with my stuff, and cheap too!! I took a 5X7 to an independant lab and he could do it for 7.50 + tx and Walmart did it for 1.99 =tx and he saids they ARE USING A 400,000 DOLLAR printer that he could not touch!!

[thunderstang]

ive tried walmart a few times just to get 4x6's and a couple 5x7s done. I do think i will go to walmart again to get photos printed. All werer terrible, poor colour, detail, they looked like they were drawn with a crayon. I took the same photos to blacks and they were way better. However i did get a couple of 8x10's done by walmart and they were actully pretty good. However its too hit and miss with them for my liking.

[pdrow]

I have had similar experiences at Walmart. Many of the photos that I photoshopped and saved as a jpeg look almost dirty when processed there. It almost seems like a film is over them. I asked at Walmart which color space they used and what the dpi should be set for. They looked at me like I had two heads. I thought since they all seemed so much darker that maybe it was a problem with the dpi, but could get no where with them on that question. Does anyone know how to set the file for Walmart?

[ssim]

As much as people would like to "broad-brush" Walmart after an experience in one facility, I find it a little bit on the unfair side.

We think that with all the fancy processing equipment that everyone has these days that there should be some level of consistency. I certainly have not found that. One has to keep in mind that there is still a human running these machines and making adjustments to the images they are printing. As long as the human touch is involved there is the potential for inconsistencies. Having said that, there is no excuse for having recieved substandard quality. I would take them back.

My local Walmart give excellent prints for the money you pay. Now I have taken that same digital image and sent it to a pro-lab that charges about 4 times as much and the images were better. I have to decide for myself if I am recieving value to for money.

When I went to India I took about 8 rolls of film. I took them to a local pro-lab (not the one above) and they did a horrid job.