Online Printing

[Swampy]

And I know this will come up. For large prints, Ron Green had said he uses EZPrints.com. I tried them out and they were great. Great end result from there.

http://ezprints.com

[Don65Stang]

I've ordered several large and small prints from them. I like their service, but I do have a concern. I ordered Christmas cards from them, three redo orders later they were finally correct. The custom greeting text was flubbed up 2 times. They did refund the shipping both ways and finally made good, albiet down to the wire, in getting a good product to me for my client.

Also, they screen ezprints on the back of the photos. Not a good thing to show to your clients.

[Swampy]

True. Sorta. You took the pic. Who cares where it was printed if they like it.

My xmas cards will have "Print by Sony" all over the back. It's a going thing. Did it really matter that it said Kodak or Fuji on the back of your film prints? I think this is just something we're all going to just have to get used to.

[Don65Stang]

My point is that a client the sees the ezprint info on the back and can put one and one together, then log onto ezprints. Once there, they can see that my price for an 8x10 is $2.45, thus setting up the haggle discussion. Ask me how I know this...

I'd rather my clients not know what lab I use. I do still use ezprints for some items; they have an excellent turn around time.

[Swampy]

I see your point. And there's no getting around un-informed customers. I mean, Yeah, I know that my car only cost so much money, but I know I'm going to pay 3-4 times what it cost (which is a lot when you're talking those kinds of numbers). Sure I'm going to haggle, but there's a bottom line somewhere there. Same thing goes for just about everything. If people are selling it, they're making money. Your print cost you 2 bucks to print, sure, but what about the combined labor and talent.

It might be wise to understand what your clients do for a living so you could bring that point up. Say a clothing designer or someone of that nature. 120 bucks for a pair of shoes? That were made in Korea to thier specs that cost them 12 bucks to be manufactured and shipped over here? You'll give them thier prints for 5 bucks instead of 50 bucks, if they'll give you some Manolo's (did I spell that right Smunky?) for 25 bucks (not saying they're for you, Don!).

[Linda G]

There are many online printing places.

http://www.collages.net

is one that sounds good but you must tie in with one of their labs, and those are growing in number each year.

Our lab tied in with Pictures4life two years ago and that turned into a disaster, we're a little leary of trying another one very soon. We use ftp and StudioMasterPro for our studios and are still researching other options.