But I can print at Boots for 6 pence….

If you have had a shoot with me, you will know that included in your fee are a digital file and a print.

This is something I did a lot of trial and error with when setting up Visualeyes. I discovered a lot of people prefer digital images with a few 6x4inch prints although there is a small amount of suspicion with some photographers charging nothing for the shoot but £1000’s for prints.

I am perfectly happy to give you watermarked images to choose from, in your own time, and with no pressure or up-selling.

Now, don’t get me wrong, as a photographer I love nothing more than to see my images of your family hanging on your wall and of course I can supply the wall art if asked but I also appreciate not everyone has the budget to spend a few hundred pounds on 2 or 3 items.

A selection of digital files offers a great alternative, particularly if you like to swap out the photos periodically. Purchase a really nice big frame and then you have the flexibility to change the image as often as you like!

This now leads onto quality of prints. A number of times now I have shot and people want physical prints. When I have quoted, I have had everything from ‘oh, why so expensive?’ to ‘but I can print in snappy Snaps for 6pence’ Bear in mind a 6x4 print with Visualeyes is £10 ( the standard seems to be approx. £25)Digital images tend to be more expensive for the main reason that once you have sent the Hi resolution image you have, in effect, lost the copyright and what becomes of the image.

If you are planning on printing the images yourself, you want to be confident that you can print in the size that you want and there is no restriction on print size. The file I give is the full resolution file. It is not restricted to a specific print size, oh no, it is the full deal and can be enlarged up to a whopping 2 foot without a single drop in quality!

So, this got me thinking.

Obviously when I print images of my own family, I use my professional print lab. They print on C Type Fuji Gloss – an art grade paper that wont fade over the years. Some of my clients also choose to have my professional lab print their images but there are others who prefer to take them away and print themselves at a later date.

So, to ensure they are getting the best value for money and also the best representation of my work, I had a look around at the places where my clients would get their images printed. I wanted to do a test to see if there was a difference in quality, and colour representation and who offered the closet match to my original finished file. After all, if you are going to enlarge an image you want to be absolutely sure the skin tones and background are exactly as the file you view on your computer, so lets pit the pro lab against the high street and online and see if you really do get what you pay for!

I have chosen an image that has a wide range of colours across the image and also specific key lighting on the subject’s face. I took this image and had it printed with my professional lab, SnappySnaps, TruPrint and Boots and below are the results:

I think we can all agree the best quality is from my professional lab with Truprint coming a very close second. The resolution on the Truprint image is quite blurry and soft up close, but it is definitely the closest for colour match.

The difference in price is £6 delivered for my pro lab vs £1.10 delivered for TruPrint. While these are 4×6 images, I know that as prints get bigger the colour snags and clarity (sharpness) become more obvious on the ‘high street’ printers so if it is soft now at 6x4 it will be very obvious at any larger. Snappy Snaps is a little darker on the colour match and the clarity (sharpness) is altogether better. However, what we must remember is the Highstreet printing wont last even the lifetime of the subject matter.

So, in the future, if you are printing, I really recommend you have it done via your photographer. Yes, it will be more expensive, but you can be 100% sure the image is going to be exactly like the file you see on the screen and isn’t this what you paid for?