DOWNLOADING YOUR DIGITAL IMAGES

You will receive an email with a link to your online photo gallery. From here, you can print your images (at additional cost) from a printing lab chosen and overseen by your photographer and/or you can download them to your own computer to print on your own or share with friends online. You are given the option to download them in a web size (smaller resolution versions that are suited for social media posts) and a high-resolution size (print ready .jpg). DO NOT try to print the web sized images (the quality will be poor).

PRINTING YOUR DIGITAL IMAGES

You have two options for printing your photographs: download and send them to the print lab of your choice OR print through your online gallery using a professional printing lab overseen by your photographer. Remember, not all printing services faithfully reproduce your image (I'll address that more later, but changes to color, hue, and brightness often occur) and not all of your images can be printed in all sizes without a loss of quality. Using the photographer's printing service allows the photographer to quality check each image before it is sent to print and make any necessary enhancements to ensure the best possible outcome.

PRINTING THROUGH YOUR PHOTOGRAPHER

I primarily use Miller's Professional Imaging for my client prints, though I sometimes use WHCC and MPix depending on the time of year and type of order. Though your prints will cost a bit more, I feel confident that the colors, brightness, and textures will be more faithfully rendered than cheaper options. I also verify each individual photo is capable of being printed without loss of quality in the size and paper finish you have selected. Sometimes your order will be slightly delayed while I re-edit and enhance your photo for your specific print choice. All prints are purchased through your online gallery and shipped directly to your home. If you don't see a print option that you would like, speak to me and I'm sure that we can arrange it.

Miller's, whcc, mpix, shutterfly, cvs, walgreens, & walmart printing labs

COMPARING PRINTING SERVICES

So how do some of my client's most used photo printing services compare? While there are many online articles devoted to testing the main print labs, I wanted to test these myself, with my own images, thinking of my client's needs only. Here are the results:

• Miller's Professional Imaging was the closest to the original image in color, brightness, and texture. Metalic-gloss finishing handled very dark images better than E-surface (a semi-gloss almost matte finish).
• WHCC and MPix were the next closest to original prints. There were slight hue variations, but they were minor and within the acceptable range. At times, both made me a little upset with their deviations, but they both performed better than everything except Miller's. Infact, WHCC's gloss was more satisfactory than Miller's E-surface in developing a primarily black soccer photo (pictured below). WHCC offers a gloss finish (which is actually a metalic-gloss) and a matte (which is equivalent to Miller's E-surface). MPix has the standard gloss and matte options that most consumers are familiar with.
• Shutterfly was not a bad option, there was noticeable hue and brightness changes, but these did not ruin or change the original image too badly (though they bugged me as the photographer, but hey, any changes to the original would bug me). I know this is a favorite of many because of the sales and promotional giveaways. If you choose to download and print on your own, I'd suggest using MPix or Shutterfly.
• CVS and Walgreens printing produced absolutely identical prints, so I will address them as one. Both changed, beyond what I believe is acceptable, the original hue and brightness (adding additional yellows and oranges to the tone and brightening the photos). You may choose these for your daily family prints, but please do not use them for higher-quality photos that have been painstakingly edited to get just the right levels. I know the idea of 1-hour printing is tempting, I know many of you use these printers regularly and are attached, but if you spend your hard-earned money on professional images, don't throw it away chasing fast printing or a cheaper print.
• Walmart printing was the worst of all options. My photographs tend to skew towards warmer tones and brighter highlights, so Walmart's increase of both of these areas made the photos pretty much unusable. I've used them for off-of-my-phone development over the years, where I didn't care if the images were slightly altered but wanted fast development. But, please do not use them for printing your Bethany Rainsberg Photography pictures, you will be very unhappy with the result.

original digital image vs. prints

(Some distortion occurred while photographing the prints, but if you look at them as a whole you can see broad differences)