Online Photo Printing

[Swervin_Mervin]

Rather than have relatives and friends pay the exorbitant costs of getting photos of our big day via the normal route, we're going to organise getting the prints ourselves.

So does anyone know of or has used, an online photo printing company that they could recommend?

[Simpo Two]

By 'normal route' presumably you mean buying them from the wedding photographer? What deal did you strike when you commissioned him/her?

[Kinky]

The Gadget Show did a comprehensive review of lots of them weeks ago. Check out their site to find which one they picked as the best (and why).

[Simpo Two]

Kinky said:

The Gadget Show did a comprehensive review of lots of them weeks ago. Check out their site to find which one they picked as the best (and why).

Snapfish: as per my Blog entry of 2 November www.blokewithacamera.co.uk/blog09.htm

[Swervin_Mervin]

Thanks chaps. Backs up what I've seen elsewhere.

[Engineer1]

Just check your savings aren't wiped out buying the copyrighted disc of the photographer, and if you aren't using a photographer remember the poor photos will be remembered longer than the album would ever stay out.

[Swervin_Mervin]

Thankfully we found a photographer that enjoys what she does and isn't in it to bleed clients dry.

[Dave^]

If you link your Flickr account with Snapfish, you get 50 free photos on your first order....

[Fordo]

didnt realise gadget show had organised their website so you can view indiviual reviews and test- useful.

http://fwd.five.tv/gadget-show/videos/other/online...


personally I've always used photobox, and always been very happy with the results- especially large print A4, A3 sizes. They always come packed carefully, and they've always been quick to fix any problems.

[Simpo Two]

Swervin_Mervin said:

Thankfully we found a photographer with a day job

EFA

No seriously, that makes two of us.





Is she married?

[ian in lancs]

Swervin_Mervin said:

Thankfully we found a photographer that enjoys what she does and isn't in it to bleed clients dry.

At what point does 'bleeding clients dry' kick in?

Avg UK Salary is maybe £25k and maybe over 25 decent weddings a year they would need to clear £1k profit after paying for travel expenses, consumables, investment and depreciation on camera equipment, computers, software and maybe printers and a whole day to shoot and maybe 2-3 photoshopping. Add in premises, utilities, presence (marketing), no allowance for off days... and potential clients that think taking pictures is easy cos 'Uncle fat' has a 'CanNik Dooper'.

I certainly wouldn't give up my day job to turn pro.

Weddings, I'm reliably informed, cost north of £15k and I've just seen the wedding book of a girl in the office - a colourful Asian Wedding and the Photos are outstanding- I have not seen better. Pay the money, take the choice but I can't see why the lasting memories of the day are one of the first things to be scrimped on. Interesting mentality. Not many people think that as a BMW is too expensive I'll make my own...

[HereBeMonsters]

Simpo Two said:

Kinky said:

The Gadget Show did a comprehensive review of lots of them weeks ago. Check out their site to find which one they picked as the best (and why).

Snapfish: as per my Blog entry of 2 November www.blokewithacamera.co.uk/blog09.htm

I used Snapfish on the back of the Gadget Show's recommendation for our Wedding pics, and they're great. Certainly better quality than the local shop or Jessops.

[Swervin_Mervin]

ian in lancs said:

Swervin_Mervin said:

Thankfully we found a photographer that enjoys what she does and isn't in it to bleed clients dry.

At what point does 'bleeding clients dry' kick in?

Avg UK Salary is maybe £25k and maybe over 25 decent weddings a year they would need to clear £1k profit after paying for travel expenses, consumables, investment and depreciation on camera equipment, computers, software and maybe printers and a whole day to shoot and maybe 2-3 photoshopping. Add in premises, utilities, presence (marketing), no allowance for off days... and potential clients that think taking pictures is easy cos 'Uncle fat' has a 'CanNik Dooper'.

I certainly wouldn't give up my day job to turn pro.

Weddings, I'm reliably informed, cost north of £15k and I've just seen the wedding book of a girl in the office - a colourful Asian Wedding and the Photos are outstanding- I have not seen better. Pay the money, take the choice but I can't see why the lasting memories of the day are one of the first things to be scrimped on. Interesting mentality. Not many people think that as a BMW is too expensive I'll make my own...

Did I say anything about scrimping? No. We paid what we thought was a good price for some really top notch stuff. She'll make money from that, the albums we've ordered, and the CD she supplied.

What she's not interested in is then "bleeding the client dry" everytime they want a print. I know of some that even nowadays won't supply the images electronically for their clients, and who seem to have a remarkable discrepancy in their commercial/wedding rates.

Fortunately they seem to be a dying breed.

[mcflurry]

I personally found my snapfish prints came out dull and washed out, whereas the Photobox results were all shiny, bright and vibrant, as well as being the "right size" without croping.

Photobox had 6 x 4.5" as a size option, for developing point and shoot images, as well as the tradional 6x4 for when printing DSLR or 35mm scans

[Simpo Two]

Swervin_Mervin said:

I know of some that even nowadays won't supply the images electronically for their clients, and who seem to have a remarkable discrepancy in their commercial/wedding rates.

I've always supplied 'all images on disk' complete with generous licensing terms, but I'm in a minority - and long may it continue because it attracts a lot of work!

I've also learned that wedding photography is four times harder than commerical work, involves four times as much labour and four times the responsibility and may times the stress, which is why I charge four times as much for it - and I can safely say I jolly well earn it. Most commerical photographers would run a mile from a wedding becaue it's too scary a prospect for them.

Photographers are people too

Edited by Simpo Two on Thursday 26th November 14:32

[marctwo]

I've always used Photobox and always been happy. I tried Snapfish when they had a special offer on and thought they were rubbish. I was very surprised to see them top the list on the Gadget show.

[Ed_P]

Simpo Two said:

I've always supplied 'all images on disk' complete with generous licensing terms, but I'm in a minority - and long may it continue because it attracts a lot of work!

I've only done a few weddings, but this has led to some "recommendations" and a couple of bookings for next year. I'm definitely going to propose the "images on disk" approach. I did undertake composing an album for one client and it was a nightmare. They couldn't decide which images to include or the number/style/order etc.

"Jumping" into wedding photography is as you say; very nerve-wracking. I can see why the real specialists charge what they do. It's a tremendous responsibility, you need total mastery of your photographic equipment and client expectations can be very high.

[bramley]

Simpo Two said:

Swervin_Mervin said:

I know of some that even nowadays won't supply the images electronically for their clients, and who seem to have a remarkable discrepancy in their commercial/wedding rates.

I've always supplied 'all images on disk' complete with generous licensing terms, but I'm in a minority - and long may it continue because it attracts a lot of work!

I've also learned that wedding photography is four times harder than commerical work, involves four times as much labour and four times the responsibility and may times the stress, which is why I charge four times as much for it - and I can safely say I jolly well earn it. Most commerical photographers would run a mile from a wedding becaue it's too scary a prospect for them.

Photographers are people too

95% of my wedding clients take the hi res images on disk, and the disk is priced to reflect the fact I'm unlikely to get any reprint business by them having it. Does amuse me though when sometimes I still get reprint/enlargement orders from people that have the disk!

[HereBeMonsters]

ian in lancs said:

Swervin_Mervin said:

Thankfully we found a photographer that enjoys what she does and isn't in it to bleed clients dry.

At what point does 'bleeding clients dry' kick in?

Avg UK Salary is maybe £25k and maybe over 25 decent weddings a year they would need to clear £1k profit after paying for travel expenses, consumables, investment and depreciation on camera equipment, computers, software and maybe printers and a whole day to shoot and maybe 2-3 photoshopping. Add in premises, utilities, presence (marketing), no allowance for off days... and potential clients that think taking pictures is easy cos 'Uncle fat' has a 'CanNik Dooper'.

I certainly wouldn't give up my day job to turn pro.

Weddings, I'm reliably informed, cost north of £15k and I've just seen the wedding book of a girl in the office - a colourful Asian Wedding and the Photos are outstanding- I have not seen better. Pay the money, take the choice but I can't see why the lasting memories of the day are one of the first things to be scrimped on. Interesting mentality. Not many people think that as a BMW is too expensive I'll make my own...

You sound like exactly the sort of elitist tt we thankfully managed to avoid for our wedding. We chose a local guy from a local flickr group who had posted some great photos, and wanted to move into making a bit of money for it. He was absolutely brilliant, not at all condesending (as I get the impression you would be) and he got some great photos.

Why should couples have to pay over a grand to get some photos done? It's far from the most important part of the day. Friends of ours paid £950 for theirs, and he's charging a tenner a go for reprints. It's daylight bloody robbery. Of course photographers have to make some money, but the prices they charge are ludicrous.

[Swervin_Mervin]

Simpo Two said:

Swervin_Mervin said:

I know of some that even nowadays won't supply the images electronically for their clients, and who seem to have a remarkable discrepancy in their commercial/wedding rates.

I've always supplied 'all images on disk' complete with generous licensing terms, but I'm in a minority - and long may it continue because it attracts a lot of work!