Photobooks: Snapfish vs. Shutterfly

[KatyKo]

I can't give my opinion on any of these, because I have not used any of them before, but I want to provide another option that I don't think was listed above.

 

While searching through theknot.com or some wedding site, I came across a site that aslo allows your guests to upload their digital photos to a folder for you to access and from just the little bit I have looked through the site, it looks like you can order the photobooks as well. Just another option to look at. Hope this helps

 

Wedding Photo Albums & Gifts | TheWeddingLens.com

[Maura]

a couple things, and thanks for your thoughtful responses thus far, ladies. this is helpful.

 

1) i dont intend at all to use snapfish or shutterfly as a substitute for posting pics on the forum. i solely intend to continue using photobucket for that. the only reason we are signing up for snapfish and/or shutterfly is for the sole purpose of the wedding guests being able to share photos with us and so i can ultimately use whatever of those pics i want to create photobooks and other items as gifts, my christmas cards, etc.

 

2) price is not an issue. i dont mind paying full price. i just want the highest quality item, so whichever service's item is higher quality, is the one i'd prefer to go with.

 

i am in the process of going through each website (snapfish AND shutterfly) and compiling a comparison document of the features i care about. ill post it when i am finished so you can see.

 

UPDATE: Morgan thank you for the list of pros & cons - this is EXACTLY the kind of info i am looking for.

 

has anyone ordered products from kodak?

[rodent]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ethrondson So are you saying that the books aren't that great if you have to pay for them but good enough to get them free?

The books are worth $30. They are really cool & people love them. But, when you can get them for a lot less it's hard to pay $30 for them. I have never paid full price for one. I have heard mypublisher is better so if you are paying full price, that site might be the way to go. even then, you should get a BOGO free deal.

Really the value of the book is in the pictures & the layouts. if you put a lot of time into making a really nice book it is totally worth the $30 or even more. But, I've also slapped some together really fast because I had a free coupon that was expiring. They were fine, but it's not something I would have ordered if it wasn't free.

[rodent]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Maura a couple things, and thanks for your thoughtful responses thus far, ladies. this is helpful. 1) i dont intend at all to use snapfish or shutterfly as a substitute for posting pics on the forum. i solely intend to continue using photobucket for that. the only reason we are signing up for snapfish and/or shutterfly is for the sole purpose of the wedding guests being able to share photos with us and so i can ultimately use whatever of those pics i want to create photobooks and other items as gifts, my christmas cards, etc. 2) price is not an issue. i dont mind paying full price. i just want the highest quality item, so whichever service's item is higher quality, is the one i'd prefer to go with. i am in the process of going through each website (snapfish AND shutterfly) and compiling a comparison document of the features i care about. ill post it when i am finished so you can see. UPDATE: Morgan thank you for the list of pros & cons - this is EXACTLY the kind of info i am looking for. has anyone ordered products from kodak?

I'm very price driven so my reviews tend to focus more on cost

I have only ordered the products from kodak I mention. They were great. The pictures were printed on a tile. I'll find the thread with pictures of them.

I can not compare the quality of the 3 photobooks. Once I order the snapfish books I'll do a comparison. The lack of high res images completely takes shutterfly out of the equation for me. I'd consider snapfish or kodak. There is probably a review out there somewhere.

[Maura]

i agree with you morgan - i dislike that shutterfly has no option for high res, because that's really important to me - a few of our guests, my dad included, will be shooting with professional grade digital cameras, so theirs will probably the only guest images i will actually want to use for photobooks and stuff, but i also want to be able to put my high res pro pics on there for people to download or order prints of. i've looked into kodak and their choices are so minimal when it comes to photobooks that even though you have to pay per high res download with snapfish, the variety of snapfish's options are more appealing to me than the $25 download all the high-res you want (since i can get my dad's high res images on disc directly from him and wont need to download his, im guessing a majority of his shots will be the nicest of the guest photos).

[rodent]

then it looks like print quality will really matter too. have you considered ordering a print from each?

 

 

I know the print quality of snapfish & shutterfly don't do a photographers work justice. but, i want to get the bulk of my pictures printed for an album that probably few people other than me will look at. so the 1cent prints I have will really save me some money. the coffee table book i make is what I will share with others because it will just have the highlights. I'm probably the only person that will want to flip through 600 pictures from the wedding.

 

For the favorites that I will frame & give as gifts, I will order from mpix.

[Kristie O]

ive used shutterfly a ton, its very easy but the quality is not too great if you want your pro pics to look the most pro possible. if you want amazing quality for in the same price range, Mpix.com Online Digital Imaging Service - Order digital photo prints online from professional imaging lab (for albums and prints) is super! especially for quality prints from your pro wedding disc...the metallic paper prints are so beautiful. the paper and lab will make all the difference in the world for the look of your final product.

 

btw, the untrained eye wont notice the difference until the good and bad quality print/product are right next to eachother. but once you see the good quality, you wont want to go near the bad, and it doesnt cost much more at all, pennies if that!

[Kristie O]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Morgan then it looks like print quality will really matter too. have you considered ordering a print from each? I know the print quality of snapfish & shutterfly don't do a photographers work justice. but, i want to get the bulk of my pictures printed for an album that probably few people other than me will look at. so the 1cent prints I have will really save me some money. the coffee table book i make is what I will share with others because it will just have the highlights. I'm probably the only person that will want to flip through 600 pictures from the wedding. For the favorites that I will frame & give as gifts, I will order from mpix.

yay! i didnt notice you wrote this until after i wrote about mpix. great! especially since its for the pictures i took, im so glad i dont have to try to convince you:)

[Maura]

thanks for the suggestions about mpix -- we were definitely planning to do that for printing pro pics for framing on our own and probably for a nice coffee table book for our home.

 

my primary use of the photoshare account is to share with my guests and get all their photos, and so they can have decent but cheap prints if they want to order them, in addition to using the service for making photobooks for our families.

[Dez921714]

I use snapfish for sharing photos. I've also ordered prints from them and christmas cards. I've been happy with everything I've gotten from them.

 

One of the things I like most about snapfish is that I can send the pictures I want to walgreens or staples and pick them up in an hour (even the christmas cards).

 

For FI's sisters wedding, we took almost 200 pics, that night, we uploaded them to snapfish and sent them to walgreens. Picked them up before brunch and handed them to her at brunch. She was floored LOL

 

I've never done a photo book through them though or had the pics sent to me mail order. I'm too impatient, I'll pay a few cents more a print an pick them up in an hour.