Focusing on online photo print services
Many sites make it a snap to get hard copies of your digital pictures, but price and quality can vary widely
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With digital cameras the norm and the ease of ordering photos online simple, the Globe took a look at whether some of the top sites separated themselves from the pack.
In what was a snapshot in time, if you will, we tested five online photo printing sites to see how they would perform using the same images uploaded on the same day. We tested KodakGallery.com, Snapfish.com, Shutterfly.com, Fujifilm.net, and ClarkColor.com.
An array of vacation images were sent - some shot in bright sunlight, some in shadows, and some indoors - to see whether the printing adjusted for photographer error, compensated for shortcomings in the pictures, or simply reproduced what was sent.
Christopher Whitehead, an education director at the Worcester Art Museum, photo instructor, and professional photographer, examined 10 snapshots and one 8-by-10 from each of the sites. He was not told where the photos had been printed.
It was clear after examining the pictures, one of the services fared better than its peers. KodakGallery was our winner. The photos were adjusted in a way that made them look better without making them look unnatural. About the only shot KodakGallery didn't do as well with was a dark indoor shot taken without a flash - instead leaving the more true-to-life yellowish coloring from the lights.
Whitehead noted that Shutterfly and ClarkColor did equally well bringing out the whites in the indoor shot, making adjustments to alter the odd looking light-altered colors. Shutterfly and Clark are the same company, shipping from the same Maryland address. Clark is the least expensive of all the services, charging 8 cents for a 4-by-6 print compared with 15 cents apiece for Shutterfly. Not knowing which firm's work he was seeing, Whitehead noted how remarkably similar the reproduction was at Shutterfly and Clark.
He was pleased with the outdoor skin tones in the photos from Snapfish and said, overall, an amateur photographer getting 4-by-6 prints would be happy with what they received from Kodak, Snapfish, Clark, or Shutterfly.
Fuji, on the other hand, would not get such an endorsement. Contrasts and colors were clearly off and the 8-by-10 was fuzzy. Fuji was, by far, the most expensive of the sites - charging 27 cents a print. That is considerably more than Kodak and Shutterfly (15 cents), Snapfish (9 cents), or Clark (8 cents) for lesser quality results.
"I'm sorry the quality wasn't up to your standards," said Darla Camman, a spokeswoman for Fuji's color processing division. "I'm very surprised at that."
She said the Fuji-branded website isn't a priority for the company, which primarily serves as the processing site for retailers including Wal-Mart and Sam's Club.
KODAKGALLERY.COM
Cost: 15 cents for a 4-by-6; $3.99 for 8-by-10.
Pros: The company had excellent reproduction and good color adjustments. It was an overall outstanding performer.
Cons: Kodak did not produce the highest quality reproduction of the print we enlarged to 8-by-10 and was not a top performer on our dark indoor shot.
Final Word: Kodak was the most consistent and had the highest quality photo printing in the bunch.
SNAPFISH.COM
Cost: 9 cents for a 4-by-6; $2.99 for 8-by-10.
Pros: Photos had good contrasts and skin tones. The company also offers a good price.
Cons: Snapfish was not as consistent as Kodak. Colors were off on certain shots.
Final Word: This is a good value for relatively good prints.
SHUTTERFLY.COM
Cost: 15 cents for a 4-by-6; $3.99 for 8-by-10.
Pros: Shutterfly photos had good color and nice adjustments were made to the snapshots. The company also did a good job on the low-light shot.
Cons: There was poor reproduction on the enlargement and the company was not as consistent as Kodak.
Final Word: At the same price as Kodak, why not go with Kodak?
CLARKCOLOR.COM
Cost: 8 cents for a 4-by-6; $2.99 for 8-by-10.
Pros: It performed on par (not identically) with its twin, Shutterfly, but at a much lower cost. Colors were true to life, for the most part.
Cons: The company was not as good at the enlargement and somewhat inconsistent with color.
Final Word: This site was an excellent value - close to half the price of its sister company with virtually the same print quality.
FUJIFILM.NET
Cost: 27 cents for a 4-by-6; $2.99 for 8-by-10.
Pros: The prints were on good quality photo paper.
Cons: Overall, Fuji was a lesser performer at a higher price than its competitors. Fuji was also the hardest site to use when loading photos online. The site also had extremely brief online storage time.
Final Word: Why pay the most to get the least?
Correction: Because of a reporting error, a story in Sunday's Business section incorrectly linked Shutterfly.com and ClarkColor.com. ClarkColor and Snapfish.com use the same online ordering systems and share a processing facility in Maryland.
