Having old photos printed?

[Dylan]

Has anyone had occasion to have old coloured photos printed yet, I am scanning them into my computer but see that Tesco, Asda and that do prints for you, Anyone had experience of doing this?

[fotofool]

Have a lot of experience in having photos printed at stores.

It is practically IMPOSSIBLE to match the price of ASDA photoprints by doing it yourself on an inkjet printer if you ellect to use top branded quality photo paper and oem ink cartridges

So scan them in to your PC and save as .jpg file format

Experience dictates the following

1 Scan at 300dpi

2 save in a designated folder

3 once you have scanned all you want to do you must decide what size your prints are required to be.

4 ASDA offer
6x4
7x5
9x6
10x8
12x10

If you have a suitable program it is better to CROP your images to one of the above sizes BEFORE you go to the store, otherwise there program will crop your image to fit. This can sometimes result in funny things happening , like decapitation of your mother in law etc!

Once you have amassed a considerable number of photos ready for printing, try to burn all of a size to a CD, separate Cds for separate sizes.

This will save you time in store

You can edit etc at the counter instore, but I wouldnt recommend as this is TEDIOUSLY SLOW compared to doing it at home on a PC.

UNLESS YOU WANT AN EVER INCREASING AUDIENCE OF PEOPLE WAITING FOR THE TERMINAL.    The grumbling can be entertaining!!

Important that all your prints of the same size are on the same CD as ASDA charge different prices for the same size of print depending on total quantity processed from ONE source

For example (prices should be checked and updated)

1  6 x 4  print 15p

50   6x4  £5  (10p)

150 6 x 4     £7.50   (5p)  on same CD

BUT BE CAREFUL,   say  40 on disc +  50 on separate disk + 60 on 3rd disc

Charged as follows  40 at 15p   £6
                                 50 at 10p  £5
                                 60 at 10p  £6
                                150            £17.00

THey change the prices from time to time

Special quantity prices  on 7 x 5  at present

Larger sizes no special quantity reduction


Asked A and B some months ago and it could be that cards for mounting your photos in and crafty decoration may be available from alan and barrys crafts some time later

It is more cost effective to print the larger sizes at home providing you have a good printer. Good quality photo paper and ink

Pointless using elcheapocrapo paper as this will disapoint you and could FADE very quickly if displayed where the son can bleach the prints

So unless your going to put your photos where the sun doesn't shine, go for a quality paper and ink. 

Hope this helps if you want more info please PM me

Andy
fotofool                 

 

[Dylan]

Gosh thanks for all the information, better than asking in the shop.  I did realise some time ago when I started putting my photos on computer it would be an expensive business to print them out myself and although I do get good quality prints, the amount of ink used, well. 

Putting this on here for others who may have the same question,  have you uploaded any photos to their web to be printed for you without going in to the store?  Have been on their site and see that they do this. Couldn't find the prices though, not until you actually do it. Reason I am asking this is my Asda store is a long way away.  But if I do have to travel to the store, on reading your posting do you do it yourself and get them instantly then. or do you just give in the CD(s) and then go back for them?

[fotofool]

Hi Dylan

The procedure at both ASDA stores in Rotherham and Sheffield is as follows. You would need to check your own local arrangements before commiting.

You take your CD to the counter tell the assistant what you wish to do.

He/she will help you to navigate round there terminal, but you will usually be expected to upload them into their system yourself (with help if required when you hit challenges)

The terminal prints out a "till roll" which you take to the assistant and prepay for your order.

Depending upon ASDA workload they will tell you the earliest you should return to collect.

A good smile might make this just a little negotiable, but all orders appear to be processed in customer attendance order.

Early morning, around 8.30 am usually gets your prints done in about an hour. Busy times has sometimes required a return later or next day.

Be aware, to get best (lowest price) on 6 by 4 prints of 5p each you will need 150 ON THE SAME DATA SOURCE (CD or memmory card)

As posted earlier downloading from different discs can cause Asda to charge each lot into a higher price band.   Different assistants seem to interprit this rule differently. Worth phoning and asking before you go.

UPLOADING VIA INTERNET

Yes this can be done.  But irrespective of your DOWNLOAD speed from your service provider the more important consideration is the UPLOAD speed.

Can take a minute or two for EACH photo to upload, even on broadband. So 150 photos at only a minute can take 2 1/2 hours!!!!

We usually allow 2 to 2 1/2 hours to go by car process instore and drive home. A good time to do your shopping or whatever rather than just wait.

Occasionally in quiet times, once you know an assistant, some can acheive better turn around times for you.  Most appreciate a thank you. A box of grapes isn't fattening!

Larger prints are cheaper through the lab at 7dayshop.com, but please allow quite a while as post has to come back to you from Guernsey. Whilst they can send them back on the day they get them in before around noon, the postal service can cause frustrating delays. Experience of print quality is EXCELLENT

foto.com ? or foto.co.uk ? trades worldwide, I think processing in Belgium. Not tried them yet, but very large quantities of 6 by 4 prints can be as low as 1p (Yes 1 new pence) but postage is 1.8p per print ie. totalling 2.8p when you buy plenty.

There is a common denominator throughout the game.

Most internet printers take a lot of time to upload to.
Most  of these and stores use Fuji Crystal Archive photo paper.  This gives excellent prints

Most are much cheaper than home printing

Time comparrison.   The time to upload via broadband and the time to print yourself are not too dissimilar, both requiring plenty of patience and endurance!!!!

The time to print yourself versus a trip to town. Will on lots of prints I suspect a trip to the store may in total take less time. You must allow for travelling costs.

Andy
fotofool 

[PamSav]

Thanks for all that information Andy.  I emailed Asda last year to ask if they had any intention of offering this sort of web based service and was told "no" !!  Glad to see they are doing it now.  It will be much cheaper to get my digital scrapbook pages printed out by them than doing it myself I think.

[AllyW]

Hi,

I put my photos on the computer and use truprint to print them online. Not sure of prices. They do offers for new customers.

The photos don`t take long to arrive and it seems to save me money on ink.

Although we have a digital camers I still enjoy showing people our snaps. Of course I can also use them for scrapbooking!!

[Dylan]

Thanks everyone for the information especially fotofool I am sure the info will be helpful to a lot on the forum.  Glad I posed the question now.  I am busy getting my photos on to computer and will probably travel to the shop, takes me about 2 hours and three different buses but will be worth it.  All our large stores where I live are for car drivers and I do not have a car.  I will ring there first of course to make sure they do it at that branch.  I do actually have my shopping delivered from Asda via the internet, have always had very good service.  We have had some new houses gone up on a large piece of wasteland near where I live and Asda have been trying to get permission from council to put a new store there, I for one hope they get it, we badly need a shop of sorts where I live.  May just be able to pop down the road to have my photos printed if they do.  Thanks again

[fotofool]

Hi Dylan

Just popped on for a couple of minutes.

If you have any branches nearer to you it would be worth a phone call to see whats available at

Max Spielman
Klik photopoint
Snappies

and Boots the Chemist

The first three are I think same group of companies.

Have used Klik in a Morrison supermarket branch where they downloaded quite quickly to a CD which they then sent by their courrier service to the lab. Next day back again to branch.

Have used Klik on the high street where they offered 20 min service or 24 hrs (cheaper)
They do 8 by 6 as opposed to 9x6 in ASDA

Internet  Blueyonder alied to Photobox.com or .co.uk
Had good service and sensible prices

But ASDA seems to be lowest priced on quantities of smaller print sizes. (One irritation with Asda is their name is printed on the back (once) and this cheapens the product when considering resale ., as we do in the studio.


Have tried Jessops in Meadowhall Sheffieild, next day is reasonable 1 hour is dearer. But they print up to 10" by 15"  excellent quality

Andy
fotofool

[Dylan]

Thanks again Andy you have really helped, I have to travel for any shops and nearest 1/2 hour away are all small, but will finish putting photos on computer put on disc and make a day of it, Chelmsford is only about 1 hour away and has plenty of large shops.

[Sarah M]

As a hardened scrapbooker I take a lot of photos and to be honest most of them are not ideal for printing and then you have to store them all if you don't scrapbook them all. What scrapbooker scraps all their photos?  I've been doing this for 5 years and I still have draw loads of photos I will never get to scrap.  Even professional photographers only get up to 4/5 fab shots from a reel of film.  I think the ones I choose to scrapbook I might as well print myself because by the time you go to the shop and then go back to collect the fuel etc used you might as well do yourself.  Also the main thing for printing myself is that I can choose the size, I can put several photos all next to each other and print and then put straight onto the page.  I use an Epson printer and would never use anything else, I also use true paper and ink which I get from the Epson site as they often have good deals on.
I think you have to weigh up the time factor in all this too as for most of us time is money and an impromptu feeling of "must do a page" can't cope with going down to get photos printed - takes long enough just to choose a photo whether they are already printed or not!!  LOL!!  Well, it does me anyway.

[Dylan]

All the photos I want in my scrapbook/album are already in old albums, but am doing 2 new ones for my daughters of old photos of our family and them as little children, I am not going to give them the originals out of my albums and they wish to have some photos of themselves when young.  Not digital in those days, you were very careful how you took the photos as expensive to buy film.  In those days I did weddings myself and had a very good camera. Anything that wasn't up to scratch were thrown out years ago and my grandmother and greatgrandmother well over 100 years old etc cannot be repeated.

I have had the photos done now at Asda they have come out superb considering some were quite small photos and square and they have enlarged them to 4x6 which is what I wanted. Really pleased with the way they have turned out.  I also have a lot of black and white photos,(all there was when my girls were small) which I have printed out myself.

I must agree with you that taking digital photos is different just point and shoot I do it all the time and a lot of them are not too good, but for anything special I still prefer my old Seagull camera and light meter.

[Sarah M]

Do you know what - I didn't even look at the title of this thread - or if I did it didn't sink in!!!  DOH!  Yes of course old photos are best scanned and reprinted in bulk.  I must admit I generally don't use many of the orginals anymore as they are either too small or discoloured and need attention in paintshoppro, shame really as I have a huge amount of orginals.  Just startyed tracing my family tree and now have old old photos which I never had before - you can imagine how wonderful that was, had a little flurry on scrapping heritage only for a while!!

[Dylan]

My mother is now 96 years old and I have 1 photo of her grandmother and grandfather, quite a few of her mother and father sisters and brother, really interesting to my family, too precious to just leave in an old envelope, so that is what started me off, my scrapbooks/albums will not be too glamorous just a few embellishments, but a good keepsake for my girls and grandchildren.

[Sarah M]

I know what a fab hobby it is!!  I love the fact it's all for me until I'm gone and then the kids can have it and pass it down. I'm just in the middle of writing and designing for my third book on the subject.  I'm trying to convince the publishers to do a heritage one as I've never seen a decent heritage book!!

[Annie]

 Hi l found all the info very informative,l have a bag full of old photos waiting
Annie xxx