Dating_Revolutionist
07-16-2006, 12:02 PM
Because we don't have to deal with idiotic photo-finishing stores.
My recent experience:
I don't usually use a photo shop to print my photos. My husband has a great Canon printer which easily prints my photos and LO's. However, I'm trying to save a little on the ink, so I decided to try my local retail store's online photo printing service.
I go to Cord Camera (and yes, I am most definitely posting their name) to join and upload my photos. Here's the deal: I had already cropped a few of the photos. I chose the 4x6 size but nowhere did the site mention printing them at 'no crop.'
"No crop" means to print them as is, although because of the aspect ratio of 1:1 1/2, this would mean there would be a bar of white on either side in order for the image to fit on the 4x6. My husband just published an article on this very subject as a result of my experience. (http://www.tricornpublications.com/dslr/prints.htm)
My husband used to work for this company. He knows their machine and said they could easily check the box that says "no crop" and my images could be printed with no problem. But of course it didn't work out that way.
My photographs were printed with the heads sliced in half. Literally. I couldn't believe the idiocy of a store sending a photograph out like that. So, I called the store last night to politely let them know what happened. I was told to place the images on a CD and bring it in to be printed again.
So I took the same images, burned them on a CD and brought them in. This time I spoke with the manager. When I said I had expected the images to be printed at "no crop," and then expressed surprise that no one had called me to ask - she simply said they didn't do that. (Call the customer to make sure they didn't want the image's heads chopped off...gee. How could I have been so demanding?...)
She then tried to go online to find their cropping options. (???) All I did was follow the prompts for an upload. Nowhere is it stated that you would need to crop the image within their program. I told her this but she was determined to find it. She didn't find it.
So she walks me through their kiosk after I inserted my CD. "Oh," she said. "The image is still squarish. You'll need to crop it." (????)
I'm staring at the screen. "You mean crop it in here?" I asked. She then showed me the cropping feature which still ended up cropping off the head. I asked again why I couldn't just have the image printed with the white on either side. She said their equipment couldn't do this. (My husband later said, 'BS. All you need to do is check a box on the Fuji Frontier. She just didn't want to do it.')
So her advice to me was: Go home and create a 4x6 template. Paste in the photograph and crop until it fits the 4x6 dimension.
Can we get more complicated?! For pete's sake!
I told her the whole reason I went online to do this was to save gas, but as it stood, I would need to make a third trip to this store tomorrow and with the price of gas, I wasn't keen on doing this. I couldn't resend the images via online because she couldn't give me credit for it. Only if I come in face-to-face will I get the credit.
So, my lovely digis - aren't you glad you don't have to deal with the aspect ratio with boneheaded photo stores?!?
And now, my husband just returned from buying more ink and says I can print to my heart's content. Dag...I love this guy!
My recent experience:
I don't usually use a photo shop to print my photos. My husband has a great Canon printer which easily prints my photos and LO's. However, I'm trying to save a little on the ink, so I decided to try my local retail store's online photo printing service.
I go to Cord Camera (and yes, I am most definitely posting their name) to join and upload my photos. Here's the deal: I had already cropped a few of the photos. I chose the 4x6 size but nowhere did the site mention printing them at 'no crop.'
"No crop" means to print them as is, although because of the aspect ratio of 1:1 1/2, this would mean there would be a bar of white on either side in order for the image to fit on the 4x6. My husband just published an article on this very subject as a result of my experience. (http://www.tricornpublications.com/dslr/prints.htm)
My husband used to work for this company. He knows their machine and said they could easily check the box that says "no crop" and my images could be printed with no problem. But of course it didn't work out that way.
My photographs were printed with the heads sliced in half. Literally. I couldn't believe the idiocy of a store sending a photograph out like that. So, I called the store last night to politely let them know what happened. I was told to place the images on a CD and bring it in to be printed again.
So I took the same images, burned them on a CD and brought them in. This time I spoke with the manager. When I said I had expected the images to be printed at "no crop," and then expressed surprise that no one had called me to ask - she simply said they didn't do that. (Call the customer to make sure they didn't want the image's heads chopped off...gee. How could I have been so demanding?...)
She then tried to go online to find their cropping options. (???) All I did was follow the prompts for an upload. Nowhere is it stated that you would need to crop the image within their program. I told her this but she was determined to find it. She didn't find it.
So she walks me through their kiosk after I inserted my CD. "Oh," she said. "The image is still squarish. You'll need to crop it." (????)
I'm staring at the screen. "You mean crop it in here?" I asked. She then showed me the cropping feature which still ended up cropping off the head. I asked again why I couldn't just have the image printed with the white on either side. She said their equipment couldn't do this. (My husband later said, 'BS. All you need to do is check a box on the Fuji Frontier. She just didn't want to do it.')
So her advice to me was: Go home and create a 4x6 template. Paste in the photograph and crop until it fits the 4x6 dimension.
Can we get more complicated?! For pete's sake!
I told her the whole reason I went online to do this was to save gas, but as it stood, I would need to make a third trip to this store tomorrow and with the price of gas, I wasn't keen on doing this. I couldn't resend the images via online because she couldn't give me credit for it. Only if I come in face-to-face will I get the credit.
So, my lovely digis - aren't you glad you don't have to deal with the aspect ratio with boneheaded photo stores?!?
And now, my husband just returned from buying more ink and says I can print to my heart's content. Dag...I love this guy!