Where to Find Your Prints Charming

Part 6 – Where to Find Your Prints Charming
Abby Anderson Wedding Planning Series
for Fargo – Moorhead Brides

♪ “Someeeeeday my Prints will coooooooome…..” ♫ (I apologize for the title of this post. It’s not my fault that bad puns are deeply rooted in my genetic makeup.)

Happy Monday, friends! Today we’re talking about PRINTS! All of my couples receive online galleries through a delivery system called “PASS”. In PASS, you can view all the photos from your wedding day, mark your favorites and download high resolution files. You can also add photos to your cart, choose a print size, and have professional prints delivered right to your doorstep.

I’m a big fan of giving my brides freedom and options after the wedding, which means they also receive a Print Release allowing them to make prints literally anywhere. Since there are so many options out there I wanted to do some research ahead of time! I chose 15 different photos and drove around Fargo-Moorhead collecting prints. I also placed a couple of online orders.  Here’s where I went:

1. The original PASS galleries
2. Shutterfly.com
3. Instant Prints at Fargo Target (13th Ave. )
4. One Hour Prints at the Moorhead Walgreens (8th St.)

I chose this photo first because it was a difficult images to edit. Each printer handled it differently and you can see the wide variety of blue and green tones, as well as the massive difference in the way her skin looks! My original edit is the first photo in the series, and I was pleased to see the way PASS handled the image. The others were either too washed out (Shutterfly), too orange (Target) or too saturated (Walgreens).

During your wedding day you’ll have portraits taken in a wide variety of settings. If you’re my bride, we’ll be shooting literally everywhere in every type of light. Indoors, outdoors, in daylight, sunset and at night with both natural light and off-camera flash. This extreme amount of variety means AWESOME images! (And a challenge for your print shop!)

The image above with the Viking Ship was taken with off-camera flash. It’s a high-contrast image, meaning it has dark shadows AND bright faces and white dress. The print from Shutterfly looked washed out, Fargo Target’s was really orange, and the print from Moorhead Walgreens was a train wreck. Seriously, if you could see the image close up it is next to impossible to see all the detail in the bride’s face. Once again, PASS handled this brilliantly and the image was spot on. (Praises!)

There were some images that were easier for the print kiosks to handle. For instance, in the one above I think Walgreens’ version was pretty good! However, Shutterfly changed the color of her blue-green blouse and Target made them Oompa-Loompas. Sad day.

You can continue to see the trend: Shutterfly = too bright, Target = too orange, Walgreens = different every time.

You pay your photographer a lot of money for beautiful, high quality images. If you’re hiring me, you’re also paying a lot for the wide variety of lighting that I specialize in. It shouldn’t come as a surprise to know that professional prints will use higher quality paper and will more accurately display the way your photographer intended the image to look.  It’s important for you to know that ordering from places like Shutterfly, Target, Costco, CVS and Walgreens will print on lower quality paper and yield inconsistent color results. Some images might look great, but it’s more likely that you’ll come away from one of those labs with unusable prints. If you’re okay with that, then go for it!!! This is 100% your choice. If your budget is tight after the wedding, another idea would be to be more selective in which images you print. Having 20 professional prints is better than 75 cheap prints.

No matter where you decide to print your images, just do it! I cannot stress enough the importance of this. Print every single one of your images and store them inside a wooden box. Get your wedding album designed and ordered! Give some prints to relatives. Print some images at 8×10 and larger for frames on your wall. Put a favorite print or two in a firesafe box, just in case. Also remember to take care of your digital files by backing them up in multiple locations, both hard storage and in the cloud.

That’s all for today, folks! Have an awesome week!

xoxo,
Abby

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This is the continuation of our Wedding Planning Series. Check out other posts in the series here:

Part 1: Five Tips for Choosing a Wedding Dress
Part 2: Tips for Your Engagement Session
Part 3: Night Wedding Photography
Part 4: Creating Timelines
Part 5: Heirloom Wedding Albums

Abby Anderson is a Wedding Photographer in Fargo, ND + Moorhead, MN
Visit her website here: www.abbyanderson.com