Where to Print

Megan Owens Photography | Where to Print| Idaho Falls Photographer

There is an option to print your images through the Pass Gallery link that I send all of my galleries through. It costs a little bit more money, because it’s a professional printer, so I wanted to see if it was really worth it. I don’t want to encourage you guys to do something that I don’t 100% believe in and do myself! So I did an experiment and printed pictures through Walmart, Walgreens, and Pass. (Pass uses WHCC, one of the top professional printing companies for photographers in the country.) Here is my personal findings and ratings for the prints I received.

Walgreens: 3/10. Up until recently, I have always ordered my pictures through Walgreens. They have great deals, they are cheap, and they have a great turnaround time. Honestly, I will probably continue to use them for photos that aren’t professionally taken. But I noticed that every image I got back from them had a green hue. They also weren’t nearly as clear or detailed as the professional prints. I printed the same images from them again, on a different day, but got the same results. A green hue and unclear images.

Walmart: 4/10. All of the photos received from Walmart had a pink hue. Sadly, both Walgreens and Walmart ended up printing a white balance that was very different than what was submitted. Walmart did have a little bit clearer images than Walgreens, but the coloring was off and changed the overall feel of the image. I rated Walmart above Walgreens, because I would prefer the red to the green skin tones. I printed from Walmart twice as well, because the first images had visible lines on the prints. The second set turned out better than the first, but they still weren’t very good. The images I showed below are from the better set of prints I received from Walmart.

Pass (WHCC): 10/10. I’m being honest when I say these images blew the other ones out of the water. The white balance was PERFECT (hallelujah!), and there were so many more details that were visible in these prints. It captured the feeling of the image that wasn’t there with the other prints. These guys shipped right to my door, and made things so simple.

I feel like ordering prints from Walgreens or Walmart is like ordering a deluxe pizza from Papa Murphy’s and then going home and trying to cook it in a toaster oven. Or like ordering Pizza by Alfredo instead of Alfredo’s Pizza Cafe. It just doesn’t make sense. If you invested in a professional photographer, it is worth it to invest in nice prints so that you can get what you originally paid for! Printing at a non-professional printing shop is losing part of your original investment. I highly recommend printing your images through the Pass. I promise it will be worth it!

I tried scanning these images to show you guys the difference, but the scans didn’t show their true color. I instead took a picture of the prints with my camera. So I know they aren’t perfectly clear, but I think it still distinctly shows the differences.