digital prints?

[ChattieKathy]

I'm a newbie to digital photography. In the past I've gotten my 35m photos done at a local photo shop, who payed careful attention to the processing, for the best prints. Now I have my digitals from my first cruise on my memory card, on my PC. on a CD, and at Snapfish.com (can you tell I'm paranoid about loosing them??) How do you go about getting prints? I'm not satisfied with my home printer, and want a professional looking print. My photo shop does not have the equipment to process digital prints. I've ordered others from Snapfish, and they were ok...I was just curious how others do it. With regular film, I was never satisfied with Walgreen's type of processing. Any suggestions??

[bruce-r]

I like the results I get at Costco (http://www.costco.com). You can upload the image files from home, then go to the store to pick them up, or you can go in with the memory card and order them in the store.

[pierces]

I have to agree with bruce-r, Costco produces quality prints and enlargements at very reasonable prices.

 

With online galleries as well as video and computer slideshows so easy to make for sharing, I print only a tiny percentage of my photos for my own use and those are usually enlargements, I do prints up to 8x10 on my Epson R300 photo printer and anything else up to 12x18 at Costco. If I do more than a few 4x6s for the non-computerized members of the family, I take a CD or a chip (I should remember to upload them!) to Costco and they are usually done before I'm done shopping. At <$20 for 100 quality prints, that's really hard to beat.

 

About your paranoia about losing images...it's not paranoia if they really are out to get you! :D I store mine on a redundant disk array on my system and they are backed up nightly to an external drive (all my personal files too). Just the photos are backed up to a second external drive. I also burn new images to DVD whenever they add up to 4 GB or so. I also have photos in online galleries at PBase, but those are reduced-sized for upload and not really suitable as recoverable storage.

 

I lost my first six months of digital images to a disk crash back in 2002, so any steps you take to prevent that are well worth it.

 

Happy shooting!

 

Dave

[dolfansam]

I'm a newbie to digital photography. In the past I've gotten my 35m photos done at a local photo shop, who payed careful attention to the processing, for the best prints. Now I have my digitals from my first cruise on my memory card, on my PC. on a CD, and at Snapfish.com (can you tell I'm paranoid about loosing them??) How do you go about getting prints? I'm not satisfied with my home printer, and want a professional looking print. My photo shop does not have the equipment to process digital prints. I've ordered others from Snapfish, and they were ok...I was just curious how others do it. With regular film, I was never satisfied with Walgreen's type of processing. Any suggestions??

 

I have been quite pleased with the prints and books I have gotten off the internet. I used shutterfly.com and got my orders in 3-4 days, including the photobooks I created. I was shocked I thought the book would take awhiile longer to create. I have heard good things about the pictures from Snaofish also.

[zackiedawg]

I use either Costco or Wolf Camera for most of my prints from digital, when I make them. Like Dave, I don't print as many of my photos as the film days - mostly because I don't have to. When I do make regular prints, I use Costco, and when I want 8x10 or larger, I tend to use Wolf Camera, or print them at home on my HP printer.

 

Backup-wise...you can never be too careful. It would be unbelievably painful to lose all your photos, especially when you've built up 7 or 8 years of archives numbering in the tens of thousands. My backup process is similar to Dave's as well: regular backup to external harddrive, photos backed up to a second harddrive, and photos burned to DVDs, which I will reburn every 2-3 years. I clear my memory cards once I've loaded to my PC and backed up.

 

I've also used MyPublisher to make photo books - they did a great job, with very nice looking books that have gotten wonderful comments around my office and at home. My first book with them was 280 pictures, sized up to 8.5x11, with captions, for $74 - that's with very nice semi-gloss pages, printed dual-side on thick stock, and with a nice linen cover, plus cover and insert pages for a nice professional look. It's a nice option instead of prints, for just a little more money, that makes a much nicer presentation and a keepsake as well.

[WIT]

I have to agree with bruce-r, Costco produces quality prints and enlargements at very reasonable prices.

 

With online galleries as well as video and computer slideshows so easy to make for sharing, I print only a tiny percentage of my photos for my own use and those are usually enlargements, I do prints up to 8x10 on my Epson R300 photo printer and anything else up to 12x18 at Costco. If I do more than a few 4x6s for the non-computerized members of the family, I take a CD or a chip (I should remember to upload them!) to Costco and they are usually done before I'm done shopping. At <$20 for 100 quality prints, that's really hard to beat.

 

About your paranoia about losing images...it's not paranoia if they really are out to get you! :D I store mine on a redundant disk array on my system and they are backed up nightly to an external drive (all my personal files too). Just the photos are backed up to a second external drive. I also burn new images to DVD whenever they add up to 4 GB or so. I also have photos in online galleries at PBase, but those are reduced-sized for upload and not really suitable as recoverable storage.

 

I lost my first six months of digital images to a disk crash back in 2002, so any steps you take to prevent that are well worth it.

 

Happy shooting!

 

Dave

I've read that flash memopry is more secure than CDs or DVDs and I'm considering keeping the SD cards from my next trip as one of my permanent storage media. Any thoughts? WIT

[pierces]

I've read that flash memopry is more secure than CDs or DVDs and I'm considering keeping the SD cards from my next trip as one of my permanent storage media. Any thoughts? WIT

 

Flash memory is very secure. It is impervious to damage from magnetism, reasonable heat and x-rays. If you can afford it, it makes for good long-term storage. Per GB, though, it is hugely more expensive than other methods.

 

Let's use 100GB of photos as an example (I shoot about 12 GB/wk on vacation and considerably less at home, so in 4 years, 100GB is not out of the question).

 

DVD backup:

4.2 GB useable backup per disk. Round to 24 disks

Conservative cost of 40¢/DVD puts it at just under 10¢/GB. Bottom line, $9.60 to do a full backup. Incremental increase; 10¢/GB.

Security: OK

 

External Hard disk:

160GB USB drive

Found 3 under $90 online. Comes out to about 56¢/GB. Bottom line, $90 to do a full backup. Incremental increase; the cost will remain the same until the disk is full.

Security: Good

 

Flash memory:

Cheapest price on 1GB flash card found was $6.99 (Transcend from Newegg) which comes out to, uh, $6.99/GB. Bottom line, $699.00 to do a full backup. Incremental increase; $6.99/GB (less as prices drop).

Security: Good

 

RAID6 array as main storage on computer (extreme case):

5 disks configured to 900GB with double parity drives. This means you can lose 3 of the 5 drives before any data is compromised. Cost is less than $1/GB. Bottom line; about $800 for full-time protection. Incremental increase; the cost will remain the same until the disk is full.

Security: Excellent

 

I realize that most people don't require anywhere near 100GB of storage for their photos. If you only fill 2 to 4GB worth of cards on a trip, just buying a couple of new cards each time may not be economical per GB, but it still very reasonable. Just be sure to label well and don't lose them! ;)

 

 

Dave

[shancan911]

Welcome to the digital world!!! You'll love it. I have my photos printed at various places. But after a vacation, when there is alot.... you already have them uploaded on Snapfish, I say use them. I have before and they do a great job. They are packed and shipped safely, and it is very cost effective. Also, invest in the external hard drive for long term storage, you'll feel very secure with that.

[Cruiser Forever]

I'm so excited!!! My DH just bought me a digital camera {Nikon D80} It is my very first digital.:) Anyway the advice I've read on these board will surely help me alot. Now I can experiment for a few months before my cruise to Greece/Turkey/Croatia. I only hope that my snapshot will be half as beautiful as some of the photos I have seen on these threads. Wish me luck.:D