Where to order enlargements in quantity?

OK, this topic has probably come up before, but I did a forum search for 'enlargements' and 'mail order' and nothing really jumped out at me.

I want to print a bunch (say, 50) of our holiday photos (a collage created with Elements, of course) at 5 x 7 so I can mail them out. It seems like it would be slow and expensive to do this on my printer (HP DeskJet 970cse). I can order them from iPhoto at 99¢ each, but I was hoping to get it a little cheaper since I'm buying in quantity. I don't want to order those premade cards (like at natcam.com) since everthing--the photo and the greeting--will be done in Elements.

Can anyone recommend a place to send PSD or JPEG images to get printed? I don't necessarily need the cheapest; good color and good service are important, too.

Thanks!

I was really happy with the prints I got from the Costco-Kodak site, but there isn't a huge price savings over what you've found from iPhoto. I didn't find a "bulk" price, and 5 x 7s are 89 cents each. I'm a Costco member, so I don't know how the price varies if you just go to the Kodak site.

Ofoto does a good job, but they charge .99 as well. You might try Sam's Club. I have had them do a few for me, and they do a pretty good job. I do all of the cropping and color correcting before I take the disk to them.

try adorama.com I believe they charge .69 for 5x7.

I have received my first order back from them and have placed a second order.

Thanks, everyone, for the feedback. I've got a bunch of leads--now it's time to make a decision.

OK, I did an experiment locally.

There's a photo shop chain here that will do 6x8's for the same price as 5x7s. So I took a full-frame picture from my 3 megapixel camera, and I calculated this would be 180dpi when printed.

After tweaking it in Elements and saving it as a TIFF on a CD-R, I had it printed. Now I realize 180dpi is at the limit of what many people consider acceptable, but it looked very different compared to a printout from my HP DJ970 printer. The photo store version looked almost like my LCD screen--lots of teeny, but very square, pixels. The HP printout looks, well, smoother somehow.

This is no big deal because it just means that I need to design our Christmas cards at 300 dpi. But it's odd that the photo store printout looks so different from my home printer. If anything, i thought it might look better. Is this generally true?

In case anyone's curioius, I edited my images in Photoshop Elements, composed a 5x7 card in Illustrator, exported it at 300 dpi/ppi, tweaked it again in Elements, submitted it online to ofoto.com and . . .

it came out FABULOUS!

I'm glad to hear that Lou. I decided a while back that when I had photos to print that I wanted to last, I'd rather have them done by a commercial place. I like having choices, so I'll add ofoto.com to the list of possibilities.

Oh, and I should mention that getting to ofoto.com was a long and winding path. Ah, the sad story begins like this:

After getting feedback here, I found this wonderful place down the street (oh my gosh--it wasn't online!) that's a division of Ritz Camera. They said they could do 6x8's at the same price as 5x7's. So I got a test print done (as described a few posts back) and it had this weird pixelated, LCD-like look to it, which I chalked up to my using a relatively low resolution (180 dpi/ppi). No problem, so my wife and I worked on a 300 dpi version.

After tweaking it to absolute perfection (well, I'm not all that creative, but it looked fine by me) I take it back to the store and find out that--oh, that price was for prints from *film*. Eh? Yes, sir, if you want prints from a digital image it's about twice the price. <sigh>

OK, I'm the world's worst procrastinator (it's not unusual for me to send out holiday cards in, say, February) but I insist I'm not going to do that this year. So I resolve to print them at 5x7, even though they were designed for 6x8. I know I can do that from iPhoto.

So, I convert my PSD to a TIFF and a JPEG and import it into iPhoto. I've got 1-click enabled, so I click and . . . get an error. It starts to upload the file but errors out. OK, I've done this before, it must be something wrong on their end.

I will not send out cards in February, I will not send cards out in February. . .

So I come back to this thread and decide I'll try Costco as Beth recommends. I have to be a member, but I'm not yet. What if I try to send the order and I'm not a member? What does it take to join? How long does it take to process? What if they get my order while they're still processing my membership--will my order end up in never-never land, and be delivered in July? Ack! I couldn't take the uncertainty this close to the holidays. Just bite the bullet and sacrifice the 10¢ per print and go to ofoto, I tell myself.

So I go to ofoto, but I've got to sign up for that, too. No membership fee or anything though. I've blown so much time on this now, I just need to get this finished.

I will not send out cards in February, I will not send out cards in February . . .

It was after all this that I finally got my cards back. Ofoto.com was very quick: I ordered 2nd day service, uploaded my image on Wednesday morning and had 50 copies by Friday afternoon delivered to my house. Not bad.

Next year, I think I'll start working on my holiday cards in, oh, July. :-)

Congratulations Lou! Ah, now you WILL get them addressed before February, wont' you? :)

Here is another suggestion, when I bought PSE 2 last year, I got a coupon for Shutterfly. So I sent some pictures to them for prints. They came out very well, they did a beautiful job on them!
The prices were very good too, can't remember, but they did have a volume discount. You have to use .jpg and you have to have them a size and resolution that they recommend. When you upload them, there is a chart below each picture which tells you if that picture is OK for which size.
Club Photo has a similar service and good pricing too. Both are very easy and not convoluted. Jane

(I also used Shutterfly to make my full size Holiday calendars. Very very pleased with them.) J

Jane: thanks for the suggestions. More choices for our arsenals.

Beth: Party pooper! :-) How did you know that was my next step in procrastination? You must be a victim yourself, or live with a victim. Or you're talking to my wife.

I live with a guy like you - wouldn't let him near the Christmas cards or we'd never get any out! Mine are going in the mail today; and yours? :)

Truth be told, I filled them out last night while sitting in front of the fireplace.

Now, about those stamps I need to buy . . . :-)

Beth,

I shouldn't have let my husband near the Christmas Cards ... I wrote them and left them in heap on the table .... HE posted them !!!! (snag was it was only the 28th of November)

Men :) :)

I allowed my husband the privilege of putting rubber bands around them and taking them to the post office. They should have gotten there about an hour ago. :)

Just wanted to say i truly enjoyed reading this thread. Please Lou, keep telling stories...you're great at it !

Thanks, Jodi. You're the first person who's ever told me that!

And, uh, the husband-bashing side thread was certainly an unintended consequence.

re; husband-bashing; ya, let's not let that happen again. ;) ;)