Digital photo print services review (part 2): Print Quality

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I should say first of all that all of the digital prints appear more durable than inkjet prints and, ignoring image quality for the moment, the finish of almost all of them is comparable to standard prints from analogue film. If you are not too picky you may be happy with the image quality from most of the digital print services we tested. On the other hand, if, like me, you want reasonable quality prints from your digital camera then the results from many labs are disappointing. The main problem seems to be that most digital printing processes automatically "enhance" images. This may not be noticeable if the lighting in your image conforms to what the enhancement software thinks is correct but many of my photos have dark or light areas that I want to preserve without loss of detail. I think it is intrusive for the processing software to dabble with the exposure. I believe that these enhancements are much more noticeable with digital print services than with their analogue counterparts. In my opinion, and that of my fellow reviewers, this practice can result in some very poor quality prints. I think that all companies who use automatic image enhancement should offer the option for their customers to turn off this feature. After all, we can use our own photo editing software to modify the images that we think need it.

Anyway, below is a commentary on the quality of the prints from each company tested in this review.

Company
Quality
Comments
Asda
2.6/5
Matte, not gloss prints. Dark images were brightened, with increased contrast and colour saturation (especially greens). Sharpening artefacts were enhanced and brighter parts of the image were burnt out with a loss of detail in the highlights. Paper was thinner than some.
Boots
2.2/5
Noise was emphasised, resulting in blotchy areas in some images. Some increased contrast and sharpened edges, but less so than the prints from the worst companies. Colours were brightened, especially greens. Paper was thinner than some.
Colorama
1.3/5
Dull, pale colours with a grey/brown/yellow cast. Contrast was increased and dark images were brightened more than expected, resulting in some unpleasant prints.
Digital-lab
1.5/5
Images uploaded via the Internet were printed at a low resolution. I complained and was asked to supply the images on CD-ROM. Even so, some images were still printed at reduced resolution. Pale colours. One print was badly cropped/cut with a white border that should not have been there. Contrast was increased. Paper was thinner than some.
Fotoinside
2/5
Blotchy skies, probably due to noise being emphasised, also grey skies were printed blue. Greens were brighter than expected. Either the image resolution was reduced, or the jpg compression level was increased/emphasised. Increased contrast, brightness and colour saturation.
Jessops
2.2/5
The short edges of the prints were cut roughly, with jagged edged. Some browns were printed grey. Noise was emphasised, resulting in some blotchy areas of constant colour, especially skies. Detail was burnt out in bright areas and contrast was increased. Some prints were paler than expected.
Klick
1.8/5
Dark images were brightened, with increased contrast and colour saturation (especially greens). Sharpening artefacts were enhanced and brighter parts of the image were burnt out with a loss of detail in the highlights. Paper was thinner than some.
Local shop
2.1/5
Dark images were brightened, with increased contrast and colour saturation (especially greens). Sharpening artefacts were enhanced and brighter parts of the image were burnt out with a loss of detail in the highlights. This was even worse than some other companies that did the same sort of "enhancement". Paper was thinner than some.
Ofoto
4.3/5
Slight yellow tint to greens. Good colour reproduction otherwise, with no obvious contrast, brightness or saturation modification. Prints curl more than others.
Peak Imaging
4.2/5
Good colour reproduction, no noticeable increase in contrast, brightness or saturation. Slight banding observed in areas of constant colour that was not seen in other comapanies' prints.
Photobox
2/5
Dark images were brightened, with increased contrast and colour saturation (especially greens). Sharpening artefacts were enhanced and brighter parts of the image were burnt out with a loss of detail in the highlights. Paper was thinner than some.
Photodeal
3/5
Good colour reproduction. Reduced resolution and/or increased jpg compression artefacts resulting in indistinct edges and which may have also been the cause of some colour blockyness.

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