European Lab Request and a Printing Test

JanWill

I am a professional photographer based in Germany.
First let me tell you how awesome Smugmug is. The customization is great as well as the support and I am very happy with SM - except with one thing:

Printing

My customers would never order through my galleries, because of $ (currency) and shipping.
There is also a third reason why I won't recommend my customers to buy through my galleries:

Print quality

I did a print comparision and ordered prints through smugmug, but also through 2 professional labs and through one lab of a big supermarket chain.
The result was really surprising and disappointing at the same time. The prints with Smugmug turned out kind of ok and just seeing them I would not complain, but if I compare them to the other prints form the other three labs including the supermarket lab smugmug is no real competition, the other prints are really much better than smugmug's.

Furthermore they are far cheaper, which is not that big a deal, but the quality for the price is not there.

And lastly all three labs here in Germany INCLUDING the lab of the supermarket printed on professional paper. The paper from the supermarket for a "Glossy" print is Kodak Professional Endura paper, while the Smugmug paper for "Glossy" is the standard Kodak paper. So I pay almost 5x as much for Smugmug printing (without shipping) and do not even get the professional paper.

So what I really really see as one important feature is the option to print though an European lab. If that would be possible that would be great. There are so many German photographers who want an easy solution to offer prints via an online gallery. Smugmug has everything they need except the European currency thing and the possibility to offer prints through an European lab.

Zenfolio started to offer that option, but as far as I understand their partner so far offers just "Glossy" and "Matt" prints. And not metallic etc.

I appeal to smugmug to offer that option and I would get the word out to my colleagues.

SamirD

You guys have all the good stuff--better roads, better cars, and even better photo processing.

You make me want to move.

And the 5x cost for your standard quality, yeah, that's what the whole world knows about the US. South Korean companies dump their 2nd class quality products here and we pay first class price for it without hesitating. And the regular quality goods we'll pay through the nose for because we can't get it here. *sigh* It's the same with Japanese and German companies too.

I don't want a Porsche made in the USA!

JanWill

SamirD wrote:

You guys have all the good stuff--better roads, better cars, and even better photo processing.

You make me want to move.

And the 5x cost for your standard quality, yeah, that's what the whole world knows about the US. South Korean companies dump their 2nd class quality products here and we pay first class price for it without hesitating. And the regular quality goods we'll pay through the nose for because we can't get it here. *sigh* It's the same with Japanese and German companies too.

I don't want a Porsche made in the USA!

Actually even German cars seem to be cheaper in the US.
I do not mind paying more for the prints, but honestly I believe US printing labs are better than this and that this printing is not representative for all your pro labs. It still could be that there was a mistake with my order.
And why smugmug does not even use pro paper for printing the standard prints, I have no idea
But my main issue is that we do not have local labs available through smugmug and that it takes ~3 weeks to receive the prints in the U.S. and that we are not able to pay in local currency.

Andy

JanWill wrote:

I did a print comparision

Hi! Could I have the order#?

JanWill

Hi Andy, sure: 1138658

Andy

JanWill wrote:

Hi Andy, sure: 1138658

Totally apples and oranges comparison.
You printed at EZPrints using Auto Color. This means we applied our computer auto (Very, very good, mindo you) to your already perfectly exposed print.

Reprint this photo at Bay Photo, using Color Correction if you want very slight adjustments by hand, for density, skin tone, etc. Use only Lustre or Metallic (the professional papers) - not glossy or matte (the consumer-grade papers).

Let us know!

JanWill

Andy wrote:

Totally apples and oranges comparison.
You printed at EZPrints using Auto Color. This means we applied our computer auto (Very, very good, mindo you) to your already perfectly exposed print.

Reprint this photo at Bay Photo, using Color Correction if you want very slight adjustments by hand, for density, skin tone, etc. Use only Lustre or Metallic (the professional papers) - not glossy or matte (the consumer-grade papers).

Let us know!

Thanks, I will give it a try!

SamirD

JanWill wrote:

Actually even German cars seem to be cheaper in the US.

All I can say is--you get what you pay for. The only one of our Mercs that's trouble-free is a w210 chassis, circa 2002.