Digital Home Thoughts: Shootout at the Printing Corral: Online Photo Processing Reviewed Head to Head

We reviewed three of the most popular online photo processors to try and choose a winner. All three sites have plenty of features, but the print quality was not the same. We found two great services and one that was a distant third. Read on for the full review!

Our Approach
For this review, we chose three online photo processors and sent off the same set of 10 prints to each. Our first thought when we decided to do this review was to offer a thorough description of each site, including the services offered, the process for ordering, and the quality of the prints. After doing the orders and surveying all of the features of each site, we came to the conclusion that the sites are similar enough that no one stands out as the "best." When it comes right down to it, what matters most in the end is photo quality. We came up with one winner (Shutterfly), a close second (Snapfish), and an obvious third (Ofoto).

Ground Rules
To test these sites out, we came up with a batch of 10 pictures. These were all taken with our Canon A80 at superfine resolution. All pictures were 2272x1704 pixels and in JPG format. The only editing we made prior to uploading was red-eye reduction in a couple of shots. We placed our orders on a Tuesday night around 9 PM EST. We live in Ohio and had all of the prints shipped directly to our home.

Although both Ofoto and Shutterfly have downloadable software to help you upload prints, we did not test those out. Those are advanced features that have no impact on the overall quality of prints.

General Web site Features
All three of the sites offer the same basic services:

• Uploading to an album;
• Online sharing;
• Choosing prints;
• Editing and enhancing;
• Cards, gifts, albums, and calendars.

We found each of them to be easy to use. To order prints, you first have to upload your pictures into an album. You give the album a name and off you go. Our camera is 4MP so the pictures are quite large, usually around 2MB. Uploading these pictures, even over a cable modem, is slow.


Figure 1: A border around our little boy.

Once your pictures are uploaded, it's time to get creative. Each site lets you resize, rotate, enhance, and add neat borders. These are great features. You can make some really interesting photos. It's amazing how a simple border can make a good photo look great. You can also add filters or change your photos to black & white. Some of these features are overkill. All digital cameras should come with some photo editing software. Some isn't great (yes, Canon, we mean you). But with so many great photo editing programs on the market, you can find one that suits your needs and price range. Editing the photos yourself before uploading gives you greater control and flexibility. If you're looking for a quick border change though, try out these features.

Pricing between the three sites is similar. All offer new users at least 10 free prints. Once you order, you periodically get e-mailed offers on prints, cards, and other items. Shipping costs are also similar between the three - it's also what really drives up the cost. An order of 10 prints at $0.29 USD rings up to a total of $4.39 USD. That comes out to about $0.44 USD a print. Not quite the deal we'd hoped for. But the convenience of uploading pictures and having them delivered to our door a few days later is still great.