Everyday Photography

Online vs Home Printing vs One Hour Photo

13th March, 2010 - Posted by blazingcircle - No Comments

How do I print my photographs you might ask? I have an answer for this.

There are three basic options for printing photos.

One-Hour Shops
Most one hour shops now print off digital files. There’s not much difference in their services and results in their transition from film and that’s how they have survived. Wal-Mart is still a big name in this market. The traditional photographic shop generally makes prints but charges a premium for larger sizes and convenience.

Home Printing
Creative options to add text and borders and use artsy paper are the reason people print at home. Printing at home is costly and can be problematic but is perfect for one or two photos at a time. It’s flexibility is it’s strength.

Online printing
Usually cheaper than on-hour but you wait several days for your prints. This is the modern one-hour shop. Many of these companies have expanded into premium services and draw people in with large prints for cheap.

In the end, I use a mix of services. I do most of my extremely artistic printing at home. If printing on watercolor paper or doing a rasterized blow-up of a photo I get better results if I do it myself. However, this is cost-prohibitive for printing in mass. For this I get the prints themselves printed through an online service and do the final matting and framing myself.

For photography sessions, the cost savings found at online services for most sizes of prints is so big that I can cut my price in half, benefiting my customer while I make the same amount of profit.