Weekly Poll: Print it Yourself or Professional Printer?

[Nicole]

Wow, another overwhelming result in last week's poll. Nearly everyone picked colour photography, and we learned that even some of the most famous B&W photographers, like Ansel Adams, even shot some colour pictures.

This week, another question that is sure to inspire some debate. If you had to choose, would you print your images yourself, or would you always send them to a professional service?

Photo printers have come a long way where some are very, very close to professional quality if you want to spend the money, and if you don't, well, you can still get a pretty good printer. But home printers have issues. You have to find the right paper for your style of photography, and there are so many different options to consider.

Professional printers, however, are what we have come to expect to be used when we're getting professional pictures. But they are expensive (are they really more expensive), and they take longer, and sometimes the quality isn't as high as we'd expect or the reviews make us wonder. Not to mention you still have to choose your papers and other options too!

So, tell us, which one would you choose, and why?

[velvet4269]

I would think it would depend on the type, quantity, and size of photos you're printing. Sure, I can spend oodles of money on a big, spendy photo printer, but then you have the additional costs of the paper + the ink (which also isn't cheap) - or I can hop online, upload my photos somewhere, and be done with it in a few minutes to pick them up later, to the tune of about $10-$20.

That said, to do it yourself, you don't have the "upload size" limitations (Seriously, most of my original JPG images are 5MB+), and you don't necessarily have the "odd crop" issue that you would have trying to do it online (case in point: I tried to get a print of this alligator, but he fills the frame in such a way that I'd have to lop off either his tail or his nose (neither of which were acceptable to me; and moot point, because it's really not that great of a photo when you blow it up large anyway)).

I think for as much as I print, and what I'm getting out of it right now, I'm going to have to go "professional printer." I just don't do enough prints to justify the cost of a photo printer.

Of course, the printer my best friend wants is the uber-high end Epson (I think), to get poster-sized prints. He kept trying to convince me that I didn't need a new camera because he didn't have a good photo printer yet

[Sime™]

I have procured a Canon iP6700d which I really love... so i chose "self printed" I have not had one of my photos printed any larger than about A4... but plan on it.... just not sure which one, on what and how big... hmmmm

[jdepould]

I like printing myself, I'm a bit of a control nut. When I don't have access to the Epson at school I tend to just go with Shutterfly.

[melanie2457]

Being new to digital, I'm so used to having my pictures professionally printed I don't expect to change anytime soon.

[Rae]

I print them myself.

[klew]

I bought a photo printer right before i bought my first digital camera, and I've printed about 100 photos in 6 years. Most of the time I just show them on the monitor or through photo-sharing sites. I do print some to give to friends and relatives, with the warning that they could fade in several years. Some workmates printed a photo I emailed to them and it's faded badly in under three months (probably inferior printer and paper). With pictures I took of family on my last visit to Panama (two months ago), I uploaded them to Costco to print (17 cents per 4x6) and picked them up the next day, then sent them off to them. That's much cheaper for my sparse printing habits.

[Jude]

I have been printing them myself. I have the epson R1800 and it does a great job. but I am tempted to get some done professionally just haven't taken the step yet.

[ike]

I print 95% of my photo's myself on my little Epson PictureMate 100, i learnt to use the epson paper instead of this other stuff i had as the quality is alot better, these all go into my albums of different things.

There is however the 5% of shots i take that i want bigger (10x8 - 12x8) that i get done at my local printers, they do 20 minute photo's so i go grab a coffee and its all done for me. The only thing i dont like is the silly machines they have for choosing your shots.

I've not tried any of the online printers yet, but i use the software to check if my prints would be good enough quality to get at the larger sides.

ike,

[kirbinster]

The quality at home does not even come close to what you get from the pros plus the cost at home is much higher. I just had 60 8x10's done at Walmart and the quality was great and the price was even better.