Digital Photo Printing: Home or Commercial?
One issue I often find myself discussing with folks new to photography (and particularly digital photography) is how to obtain prints. When the average “consumer” shot 35mm film, it was easy: drop the roll off at your local photo processing location and wait a week until the prints returned. If one was in a hurry, there was overnight or one-hour processing.
Regardless of whether one prints digital images at home or through a commercial outfit, one of the big changes in printing (vs. traditional rolls of 35mm film) is that printing is now selective. The whole roll doesn’t need to be developed/printed in order to see that one killer shot.
Many folks figure that the switch to digital photography means they need to get a photo-quality printer at their house and print their own images. That’s one option, but it’s not the option I typically recommend. Let’s look at some pros and cons of home printing:
Pros of Home Printing:
- printing can be done at any time
- results are (nearly) instant
- images can be quickly reprinted after adjustments have been made
Cons of Home Printing:
- requires purchasing a quality printer (you generally get what you pay for)
- requires regularly purchasing ink cartridges
- requires purchasing photo paper
- occasionally requires troubleshooting
The other option is to have your photos printed commercially. At first this service was only available at special locations, but now you can find digital photo printing at any of the major drugstore chains as well as retailers such as Costco and Walmart. They’re all using the same equipment, so you should get similar results regardless of your retailer choice. What are the pros and cons of commercial printing?
Pros of Retail Printing:
- no real technical skill needed
- no hardware or ink cartridge purchases
Cons of Retail Printing:
- must either drive to store or wait for shipped photos
- unable to quickly reprint after editing
- unable to control the technical aspects of printing
I find that I don’t print very many images, and the ones I do print are done commercially. I enjoy being able to submit the photos online and then pick them up a few hours or days later, knowing I’ll get a consistent result at an affordable price. Others who want to spend more time on the process may favor printing at home; for them the printing process is part of the hobby.
Either option can produce quality prints depending on how you go about it… and you never know what weird situations you might run into.
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