prints not sharp

ratgirlny

I am in the process of comparing Zenfolio and SmugMug. I ordered prints from both services in order to compare, and was disappointed in both. I used the Kodak Endura paper in both cases (SmugMug goes through EZPrints, and I used MPix for the Zenfolio prints). Both sets of prints looked identical. The colors were fine, but the prints did not look sharp compared to the prints I do on my home Epson printer. I turned off automatic color enhancement in both cases (I always did that when I used Kodak Gallery because otherwise the prints came out completely wrong on the color). Should I have not done that? And, I found it interesting that the prints from two different services were pretty much identical. There may have been a slightly warmer cast to the MPix prints, but I had to really look to see it. MPix seems a lot more expensive because of the shipping charges. Is there an advantage to MPix that I am not aware of? Both sets of prints were ordered the same day, btw, and arrived the same day, 3 days later. Good turnaround.

I am also just trying to find arguments for or against either service. I like SmugMug's look more, and it seems easier to me to work with. I found Zenfolio a little confusing and its themes are sparse and ugly. But... SmugMug gets blocked at my workplace as a "social networking site" and Zenfolio doesn't. That is kind of bad because I like to play with my photos when I am eating lunch, and I like to show my photos to co-workers. Why is SmugMug tagged as a "Social Networking site"? The other thing I don't like about SmugMug is that it doesn't have a way to set up sub galleries. I would like to upload a photo once, but put it in multiple galleries that different people have access to. This is because I do some volunteer event photography. OTOH, Zenfolio's shipping charges are outrageous.

Advice from anyone?

Andy

Hi! let me look up your order, give me a few mins.

Andy

Hi again!

OK so, shots like this one:
http://bkmackellar.smugmug.com/gallery/7063982_BzsTb#452559828_97RaT-A-LB

it's not sharp to begin with. So, it won't print sharp when you've chosen 'true' color. Our Auto color will add some sharpness, set proper expsoure, and adjust for awesome skin tones.

http://www.smugmug.com/help/too-red
http://wiki.smugmug.net/pages/viewpage.action?pageId=754083

If you'd like, we'll reprint the order #863251 in Auto, no charge, of course -it's all part of the SmugMug Guarantee:
http://www.smugmug.com/prints/our-guarantee.mg

We don't have those virtual galleries yet, but we will soon enough It's on the list.

Hope you'll stay!

ratgirlny

Actually, that one was one that I was happiest with. It printed pretty much like it did at home, and yeah, it isn't the sharpest photo to start with. So I thought it looked good.

I think the difference may be in the paper I use at home, and maybe that I send things to my printer via Lightroom with max sharpening on? I don't know, I am certainly not a pro. In any case, it isn't a deal breaker to me - I just want to make sure that when friends get prints through this site, they look at least as decent as the ones I do at home. I was also surprised that your lab (EZPrints) produced a virtually identical print to MPix, which I had heard so many raves about.

If I set AutoColor, it won't mess up my photos the way it does on Kodak Gallery? I was always really upset with the prints through their service until I learned to turn OFF their auto color.

The bigger problem for me is trying to decide if I can live with no access from work. And the virtual galleries...

thanks!

Andy wrote:

Hi again!

OK so, shots like this one:
http://bkmackellar.smugmug.com/gallery/7063982_BzsTb#452559828_97RaT-A-LB

it's not sharp to begin with. So, it won't print sharp when you've chosen 'true' color. Our Auto color will add some sharpness, set proper expsoure, and adjust for awesome skin tones.

http://www.smugmug.com/help/too-red
http://wiki.smugmug.net/pages/viewpage.action?pageId=754083

If you'd like, we'll reprint the order #863251 in Auto, no charge, of course -it's all part of the SmugMug Guarantee:
http://www.smugmug.com/prints/our-guarantee.mg

We don't have those virtual galleries yet, but we will soon enough It's on the list.

Hope you'll stay!

Mohamed.Ghuloom

I like the Auto Color feature for smugmug and it's very good.. Actually one of my cleints have ordered around 70 photos and I have set all of them to Auto Color (after reading about it here)

The Auto Color that smugmug provides is not at all like an automatic algorithm like in photoshop, gimp, picasa or other products.

I have big faith in Smugmug, and I feel very comfortable with the prints.

About the social network website, I have the same problem in my university workplace in Bahrain. It's not fully blocked, but my banner and flash homepage doesn't show, and on the other hand, the website gets crazy slow.

I don't know what's with smugmug, in some places it's fast, and some places it's very slow, so I've been getting mixture of compliants about how slow it is.