Pro Photos question

[janinegirly]

We received our proofs and of course want to make some copies. My photog charges quite a bit for copies--but we will be getting negatives/CD files in a month. I''m curious if there''s a difference in quality between when I print out the photos and when my photog does?

 

[CrownJewel]

Well it depends on what you mean by "print." A professional photographer can easily print out photos because she most likely has a super crazy high quality machine that can print all sizes and can handle all kinds of photo papers.

If you print it yourself, do you mean take the CD/negatives to a photo developing center like CVS, Fotorush, Kinkos? Or do you mean print it on your home printer? If you print on your home printer, I can almost guarantee that you''ll be able to tell the difference btwn your photographer''s prints and your own. I guess it has to do with the dpi (dots per inch - the resolution that the printer can output). The photographer will probably have better paper and ink.

If you take the CD/negatives to a photo developing center, that''s better than doing it yourself and probably cheaper than having your photographer print them. However, the photographer will know best how to adjust the color saturation, ink saturation, etc for printing. You should ask your photographer if the images on the CD will be optimized for printing (sometimes they crop the photo to a ratio that is not 4x6 or 5x7...it could end up being like 4.5x7. If you take that 4.5x7 image from your photographer to CVS, the machines at CVS will autocrop for you to make it fit onto a 4x6 and then half your dress may get cut off).

I''m not at all a photographer but FI''s brother and sister-in-law are professional photographers. I don''t print my own digital photos, but I do adjust and crop in Photoshop, and then take them to Fotorush.

 

[janinegirly]

thanks, crown. i meant if i take it to a developing center..like Kodak or CVS.

for example my photog charges $8 for a 4x6. that''s going to add up...but if she is doing something that makes it come out stunning, then maybe i can choose only a few favorites and ask her to print them out. as you can see, i''m not much of an expert when it comes to photograpy! she''s also providing us with negatives (for the film shots).

 

[NewEnglandLady]

Hey Janine, I think they are just a severe markup--we didn''t order any through our photographer''s site, we just printed them from the disk.

Now that you have the disk, you need to post photos

 

[Sabine]

Janine, I take my digital photos to CVS and Walmart to print all the time because I still love making my own photo albums...and at times I really do notice a color difference in the prints. I''ve had ones from CVS come out almost yellow. However, if you are unhappy with the quality of the prints, the store will usually let you "not purchase them" and leave them with the store. So you could always try printing your own, but if you have some that aren''t coming out well, you could then order them through your photog.