Printing at home vs Wal-mart?

pahl · February 19, 2007

I have been happy with the 4x6 and couple 5x7 prints I have been getting at wal-mart.
Sunday I had wal-mart make a 8x10 of this photo.

It come out much darker then I thought it would from walmart and the colors just did not look all that great. I had some 4x6 prints made the same day of basketball games and they looked ok.

I have not tried printing photos at home for years. Seems like they just did not turn out so good. Well years later and a different printer I gave it a try with the above photo. I have just a cheap all in one HP C3135 without the photo ink cartride. The 8x10 I printed looks 10x better then the one I got from walmart! Its is so much brighter and the blue and whites look great, his eyes are really detailed and real looking, it's awesome!

I did a full print of 8.5x11 and that is even better then the first 8x10 I did.

Now I think that I will just print any large photos at home. I wonder what a really good photo printer could do?

Did I just get a bad 8x10 at walmart or is this the norm on larger prints from walmart?

Pupator · February 19, 2007

It might be the case that they (the Walmart you visited) have to use a different printer for the larger sizes, including 8x10. It could be calibrated differently or just be a lousy printer.

About 2 years ago (so the test is outdated and needs to be redone), I took the same 3 images (three different sizes, very different types of images) to almost every printer in Charlotte, NC. Walmart, Costco, Sams, Wolf, Target, Walgreens, Eckerd, and a local place. For my purposes and in my opinion, only Costco, Target and Wolf were acceptable, with Target being a distant third from the other two.

I also have an Epson photo printer for the prints I make at home. In my experience these prints come out about the same quality as Target prints, and better than most of the other stores - but not as good as Costco or Wolf. I use Costco for my large prints because the prices are great and (because I've been there so many times) I know the folks behind the counter and they know how to handle my prints (re: calibration, no auto-color, cutting, etc.). Printing large prints at home is just too expensive for me (ink costs lots of money).

My smugmug prints (from EZprints) come out well, usually (though i have a few with some weird blueness in places?) - and I've also had good experiences with WHCC.

Art Scott · February 19, 2007

Most of the time it truly depends on the technician (at Wal mart etc..) doing the printing....if the technician is properly trined they will mkle your prints the proper color , brightness etc.....if not then the machine is run on full auto everything and they do expect to do reprints of alot of what they turn out.....

I would say you had a lazy techician.....

Van Isle · February 20, 2007

from what I have read, the differences between a place like walmart, costco, etc, and a dedicated photoshop can be huge. Often times, even though it may be the same printer, the big box stores may have theirs running 24/7 with little time for maintenance and re-calibration. It's quite possible that there is no company wide policy on that, so in the end it's gonna come down to the individual techs at each spot. If you find a good Walmart tech who gives consistancy and good prints, and saves ya $0.10 a print over a pro shop, good onya. But you have a better chance working with a local pro shop as far as consistancy and reproducable results, if you have one/can afford one.

My .02

VI

Van Isle · February 20, 2007

PS great shot by the way

I think I already said that in the previous post.

Printing at home vs Wal-mart?

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