As a professional photographer, I obviously believe its important to have professional photo sessions done. However, that does not mean I discount the snapshot. I strongly believe in the value of everyday snapshots. It makes me smile to go over to my friend's home where she's got collage frames filled with her children's antics.
And that is kind of why MailPix exists. +MailPix does digital photo printing where you can upload your images and they will mail you the prints. Because the founder of the company didn't want those snapshots stuck on your phone or hard drive. Unless you preserve these memories in tangible ways, they may be lost.
And so, here I am, with some samples to show you. :) And just for the record, the only editing that I did to these photos of photos shown here is exposure. I do any adjustments to contrast, color, sharpening, etc.
I ordered some 4x6 prints and some 5x7 prints from MailPix They came packaged much like you would expect in a photo envelope with cardboard backing. They also came with some coupon codes which I will be happy to share at the bottom of the post. The products were shipped in a reasonable amount of time as I placed my order on 3/2 and everything arrived by 3/11.
Here is a sampling of the 5x7 prints I ordered. I wanted a few of my professional photos as well as a few of my personal photos. While I feel like the color, contrast, etc is fine, I don't feel like the actual quality* of the image is superb. 5x7 prints are $0.67 and available in glossy or matte.
Here is a close-up of two of the prints. These are two of my all-time favorite photos. The top is from a family shoot and the bottom is, of course, my sweet husband.
Here is a sampling of the 4x6 prints that I ordered. These photos are from film, DSLR, and point & shoot cameras. Some are clients and some a personal shots. I feel the same way about these photos as I do the 5x7s. The quality* is good, but not amazing. 4x6 prints $0.10 and available in glossy or matte.
Two more of my favorites. One is from GVLX (dslr) and the other is from a recent model shoot (film). I feel like the beautiful colors of the images really come through here.
I also had my choice of photo enlargements and I went with a 20x30. 20x30 photos have an everyday low price of $15.40 and are available with a matte finish.
My print was shipped in a tube which is a sturdy and economical way of shipping large photos. However, you end up with a photo that will not lay flat. I know it's probably unfair to compare MailPix to my professional photo lab, but I'm just used to prints being sent flat and I definitely prefer it that way. I would, in fact, pay extra to have my photo enlargements arrive flat. However that is just my personal preference and I know many people are used to photo enlargements arriving in tubes.
Gorgeous, right? Another one of my all-time favorite images, this is from a PPNC workshop I attended.
Yikes! Look at all these dings in the print! While this is upsetting, I know they will be covered when I frame the photo. Also, MailPix has a 100% satisfaction guarantee claim on their website, so I assume that, if I wanted, I would be able to get another ding-free print.
So, while going through my photos, one of my initial impressions is that the 4x6s and 5x7s looked overly sharp. I couldn't tell if this was because I had sharpened the photos too much or if it was because MailPix did some post-processing.
I have a bunch of photos that I recently printed from Mpix and I found a duplicate to one of my MailPix photos so I could have a side-by-side comparison. This photo was also taken with a point & shoot so it had no post-processing done on my end.
So, it looks like I was right and some sharpening was done as well as some color correction.
In this particular instance, I appreciate the color correction. I don't, however, like the sharpening. I think lots of people (even pros) are heavy handed with sharpening and I don't like they way photos with too much sharpening look.
To quote Cher, it's "a full-on Monet." Nice from arms length, but when you inspect the photograph, you can clearly see it was over-sharpened. That might be hard to see in these photos of photos, but I feel like it is especially clear in the photo of Mike at the beginning of the post. It was a perfectly sharp film photograph that was made pixel-y with the addition of digital sharpening.
*Just to clarify, the sharpening is the reason why I said above that these prints have good, but not amazing quality. I also felt like the 20x30 photo had much better quality than the smaller prints and it could be because it doesn't appear to be sharpened in post.
BOTTOM LINE: Overall, I was content with these photos. I found prints from MailPix to be comparable to prints you might get from other consumer labs. I might order from MailPix again, but ONLY for my personal prints. Just as a personal preference, I would also add a note to not do any post-processing to my photos.
Oh, and about those coupon codes! Here they are:
8x10 prints for only $2: Save8x10
11oz. Photo Mugs for only $5: Mug5
5x7 prints for only $0.50: Print5x7 (expires 3/31)
Find other deals here.
