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I ordered two prints from Flickr and wanted to share my results

by 7 Comments

After a popular post last week on Reddit, I decided to check the cost of prints on Flickr. I want to build a physical portfolio, and was unhappy with the quality of prints from local shops; I expected to get what I paid for (not a ton) and even then was disappointed. I ordered two prints from Flickr, both 8×10″, both black and white.

I only did this because I can’t afford to print my entire (current) portfolio at once, and these two were the images I was most displeased with from local shops. So this, unfortunately, can’t yield any information about colour. I ordered one glossy print (I normally hate glossy, but wanted to see what it was like), and one “lustre” print.

The photos came in a decent rigid envelope. The prints themselves were wrapped in cellophane and strengthened with a card back, which is good from a support perspective. Here are the two prints side-by-side.

No damage or anything, which I’d expect to be the case. I’m a big fan of the “lustre” paper. Here are two images showing the lustre texture.

As I expected, I can’t stand the gloss at all.

I can’t actually show you this, but the paper isn’t terribly heavy in terms of gsm. I don’t have a scale to quantify it but it’s light, but heavier than one of my local shops’ paper, and about the same as the other.

The prints cost £2.08 each and shipped to Ireland from the UK in just two days from the date of shipping, which was 4 days after I ordered them. Shipping was more expensive, at £7.20 total. Total cost including VAT was £11.35/€12.64/$13.96. So at about €6 per print I’m happy with the quality and will order a few more in lustre, particularly in colour.

Hope this helps some of you in any way!

About the Author

Alex took up photography at the age of 14, using a Fujifilm Finepix J27, which he still owns. He works part-time as an event and portraiture photographer and does a lot of street photography and animal portraiture in his own time. Currently, he is studying for a PhD in Chemistry, and his favourite combo to shoot with is the Fujifilm X-H1 and 56mm f/1.2. You can find out more about Alex on his website and follow his work on Instagram and Flickr. This article was also published here and shared with permission.

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  • Jolyon Ralph

    This is one of those very rare cases where a youtube video would be better than a traditional article. It’s hard to really gauge how the paper really looks unless you have the paper (or the light source) moving.

    • Shaka1277

      That’s a fair comment. I don’t have much free time as I’m finishing my PhD, and didn’t fancy setting up good constant lighting and installing some video editing software when photos are 75% as good. But you’re totally right, the difference is easier to see in video form. I only wrote the post for Reddit though, and wasn’t expecting it to spread anywhere. 🙂

      • Jolyon Ralph

        Thank you anyway for taking the time to document and share!

    • You can use both word luster paper or lustre paper and google in the video search engine.
      There are few example on top list result

  • Missing a lot of important details that would affect a person’s interest in ordering. And you included details that are obvious. You dedicated several sentences to packaging, which is great to know things will arrive safe. But no information about image clarity, ink contrast, unwanted/unexpected cropping, paper size availability/limitations, paper edge cut cleanness, paper bow/curve/flatness, etc. Also no order processing details, if the website interface for ordering was efficient or confusing, or unexpected limitations, provided order fulfillment updates, disclosed the name of the processing lab, etc.

    And this sentence:

    “I can’t actually show you this, but the paper isn’t terribly heavy in terms of gsm. I don’t have a scale to quantify it but it’s light, but heavier than one of my local shops’ paper, and about the same as the other.”

    I haven’t ordered from either shop, so I couldn’t relate to this information. If you found out the processing lab, did you call to enquirer about paper weight? Or since it’s about the same as a lab you use, maybe ask them so you could provide that info in your review?

    Sorry to be negative, I eagerly clicked into this article because it’s info that really interested me. But the only real review offered is that it was well shipped. Safe shipping is obligatory when ordering from a lab, and the lowest threshold of expectations.

    Since even the worst processing labs can ship safely, I kinda feel like I spent more time on this comment than you did on the article.

    • Shaka1277

      Your comment is in no way wrong, but I made this as a brief Reddit post that wasn’t written with the intention it would spread anywhere. The post was re-shared here with permission, I didn’t put it here. If you think the quality is lacking for a DIYP article, that’s something to take up with the editors. I’m also evidently nowhere near as qualified to talk about the prints as many of the DIYP/PetaPixel/Reddit commenters, but I wrote the post specifically for the /r/photography community, not as a cohesive, detailed website article.

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