Where's the cheapest place to get 4x6's with great quality???

Type your business name in the customer name on the Costco self serve machines and turn off back printing and it prints your name and the file name with the date on the back.

I got a free offer once from Snapfish.com and tried them out, gotta say they were pretty good. .09 cents. If they didn't brand the back of the photos with there name would use them more, but so far only for personal pics.

I use mpix.com - Quality and service are great.

Costco doesn't backprint their name, & in this area, the prints from them are the consistently best quality of any lab I've tried.

Things to be careful of:
DO NOT use the Fast Upload option, unless you like having your file size reduced by 95%

Just because you checked the Luster Print option, don't expect it to survive all the way to the check out page if you're printing from several folders on the site. But if you do screw up & remember it in time, you can call the local Costco lab & they'll be happy to change the surface before they print for you.

More links in these threads:
Anyone ever have print quality issues with small shops ?

Printing at Costco

PhotosGuy wrote in post #6802421
Costco doesn't backprint their name, & in this area, the prints from them are the consistently best quality of any lab I've tried.

Hear that often from other photogs...to bad they don't have a location around here.

i use snapfish.com great quality and cheap! also alway running some sort of promotions... like 60 free prints etc

Kerensky wrote in post #6790247
Mpix.com offers 4x6 prints @ 19 cents each and the quality is really quite high.

http://www.mpix.com/19​centPrints.aspx

I use this service for friends and family and highly recommend them.

K

That's .19 with no additional color correction so make sure your calibration is set.

Be aware that the mail order prints aren't printed by your local Costco & the quality is not the same from what I've heard.

I usually use Shutterfly, and the quality seems fine.

Is MPix or Costco really that much better? Actually, I'm at Costco fairly often.

I stopped by Ritz yesterday and was told 4X6 prints are 5 cents each on Tues. and Weds. Don't know if that's everywhere or just a loacl thing. I don't know about their quality either.

IMO if you are selling professionally created photographs you should use a professional lab. Since you take the time to learn how to create a quality product with pro equipment you should also know your Pro lab does too. While the hardware at these big box stores is the same the employees, QC, paper and the software used is not.
There is a diference and no one has put it better then Crocket on the Shoot Smarter website.
http://www.shootsmarte​r.com …&task=view&id=1​18&acat=16
You need to sign up to view this article but it is free and they are a great resource.

I had my first photo printing exp at Costco yesterday (member since 1984) and I had a couple of 4x6's done in 20 minutes and the quality was excellent.

Interesting article but he's generalizing to some degree based on his costco and I'm also guilty of that. In my costco my girl is also a photographer (i've seen her work) so she knows what she's doing. He may be right about the software and paper and I'll try and verify that in my location. In the end my customers have never complained which is what ultimately matters most.

SoundsGood wrote in post #6804768
I usually use Shutterfly, and the quality seems fine.

Is MPix or Costco really that much better? Actually, I'm at Costco fairly often.

I used to use Shutterfly to sell prints online until testing them vs a few other printers. They came in dead last on my test, but it was a few years ago.

PhotosGuy wrote in post #6804067
Be aware that the mail order prints aren't printed by your local Costco & the quality is not the same from what I've heard.

Yes, this is correct, and the quality of the mail order lab prints, (particularly on large format prints) was dreadful.

One other thing I've noticed is, while the quality from my local Costco is quite good, the Noritsu 3101 minilabs they have, seem to crush the reds a bit. Yes, I work in a color managed environment, and use their profiles. It just seems that the Fuji machines used by some other local vendors produce nicer reds. The Fujis seem to have a somewhat broader color gamut.

For this reason alone I would probably use a lab with Fuji's for weddin' pitchers.