Time for some prints

I have taken the pictures with my Canon T3i, doctored them up in PS Elements and I want to take my SD card to Wal-Mart to see if prints look anything like the pictures on my computer. Question is what format is Wal-Mart be capaible of printing, can they make prints from PS files, camera raw or do I need to do Jpegs and what size do they need to be.

Thanks, hope all is having a great weekend

You definitely want to output .jpeg or .tiff in sRGB. Aside from that I don't know what Wall-Mart will want.

ejenner wrote in post #15057628
You definitely want to output .jpeg or .tiff in sRGB. Aside from that I don't know what Wall-Mart will want.

Thanks for the info

I would try to find someplace other than walmart too. Every print I have tried there, the colors are way off.

Clark wrote in post #15060780
I would try to find someplace other than walmart too. Every print I have tried there, the colors are way off.

Thank you Clark, I don't know about walmart but I do know my printer is junk when it comes to pinting photos.

Clark wrote in post #15060780
I would try to find someplace other than walmart too. Every print I have tried there, the colors are way off.

I agree.....I've made prints at Wal-mart on a number of occasions when all I needed was something quick and cheap. I've found that Wal-mart is a hit or miss in the color area and you may get a nasty color cast or a decent image. If you want/need consistent images, choose a printer that focuses more on quality.

Wherever you go to have prints made, tell them NOT to Auto Correct, but print the files as is, else you run the risk of jumping to the wrong conclusions about the print density. Furthermore, improper adjustment of your monitor settings are very likely to fool you as well, unless you have taken steps to evaluate and have set your monitor with tonal scales like this to try to be able to see all 26 steps...

Just for whatever it's worth, I used to print 8x10s occasionally at Walmart and had good, consistent results. I used their "instant" print service (don't recall what they actually call it) where you insert your media, select what you want printed, and the prints come out in just a few minutes, not their drop-off service. The local Walmart has some kind of HP equipment for this. I haven't used them for the past year or more since I started ordering from Mpix. As they say, YMMV.

Another issue: You wrote about printing your edited photos, but then mentioned taking in your SD card, which would contain your original RAW files I assume, not your edited images. You will want to send JPGs in sRGB color space to whatever print service you plan to use. (Just as an experiment one day I found that the HP devices at Walmart could also handle 8-bit TIFFs, but seemed to choke on 16-bit TIFFs.)

Thanks to all for the great info, will be putting it all to practice.

Costco does a pretty decent job for prints if you need them done locally. You can upload online at costcophotocenter.com and then go pick them up in a couple of hours - very handy.

walmart has been AWFUL for me. I did side by side comparisons of Walmart, walgreens, snapfish, shutterfly, and then the ones recommended here frequently: adorama pix, mpix.com, and a local photog shop, and the last three were SOOOOOOO much better and not significantly more expensive. I recommend mpix as the easiest solution. It's really worth the extra change.