Photography Prints for Clients

[chasinmydreams]

I have just started up my dream business, a landscape photography business.  I've had quite a few inquiries today on purchasing canvas prints. 

Are there any recommendations to where I should order quality products for my clients?  Or should I use the typical walmart.com photo department or snapfish.com or shutterfly.com?

Like I said, I'm new at this but I want my clients to be provided professional and good quality products.

Thank you,
Kathy

[langier]

My work is better than Walmart, Costco, etc., and I produce my own up to 40x70, stretched or mounted. However, I just had to farm out a 60x80 since neither of my printers could go that large. Installed it tonight and we were all raving about the quality. Best of all, it took little effort over DIY and all we had to do was pick it up and hang it. Worth the cost.

Most of the online canvas should be good up to 40x50. Larger gets more specialized.

That said, some of the pro labs on line will give you very good quality. On the west coast, WCI in Oakhurst or Luxe Editions near Sacto will do you well and are reasonable in price for the quality. Coastal Giclee is another good printer for even large wraps.

If you are getting smaller canvas, mail order won't be to bad for shipping, but if larger, find one close to home to save on shipping issues to your studio.

Bottom line, go for the best quality prints and leave the cheap labs to the snap shooters.

[dgberg]

Kathy,
Many businesses out there that do quality work but you will find more of an issue is the cost of packaging and shipping large gallery wraps.
We recently sent several large ones 40x60 ish to florida and we had to build crates to protect them.
All the best on your new endeavor.

[DanLehman]

Kathy, here's a cursory review of some of the on-line printing services:
http://improvephotography.com/7756/test-results-best-online-print-lab/
NB: read viewers' comments!

Checking out the quality from some contenders will give
you an excuse to get some selection of your own favorites
printed.

How are you printing otherwise (non-canvas)?

--dl*
====

[Bullfrog]

If you live in the USA - then Smug Mug has a set up for photographers - you fulfill through their website - they have 2 labs in USA - one in California - forget the other but its also in the USA.
Mark up is ok at 85% - they will drop ship to your customer.

The quality (I'm told) is very good - they guarantee the prints to the customers and will resend a print if the customer complains at no charge.  They have several print options and price points.  (ie cheap to expensive)

Your obligation is about $300 a year to use their on-line photography web service - you upload your images to that and your customers order via a shopping cart.  On top of the annual fee, They take 15% of every order which is how they make money.

If you are not in the USA - it won't likely be useful - no benefit sitting in customs waiting for a print to arrive.

The issue is : you are branded as a Smug Mug "partner" - you cannot get away from that.   And you must fulfill through their labs if you want to use their on-line order functionality which I admit is pretty cool. 

Alternatively, I would call some local printers, pay to have one or two test prints done and compare.  Convenience and service are big as well as quality .  If you go Walmart well, its apples and oranges.  It comes down to what your able to charge and what image you want to project.