Shutterfly, one of the better-known photo printing services, makes a claim I’ve never seen for any other product: 100 percent happiness guaranteed. In the end, I wasn’t exactly unhappy with my Shutterfly photo prints, but Editors’ Choices Nations Photo Lab and Snapfish made me even happier. Still, Shutterfly offers a vast array of products onto which it can print your precious visual memories, and while it’s not among the least expensive of the services, it delivers decent quality.
Pricing and Starting Up
4-by-6-inch prints cost 15 cents each at Shutterfly, which is middle-of-the-pack compared with the competition. Snapfish and York Photo Labs charge just 9 cents for the same size, while Nations Photo Lab charges 27 cents. Walgreens Photo’s 4-by-6 prints cost 29 cents for the first 50 prints, and 20 cents beyond that.
My test batch of 18 4-by-6 prints, three 5-by-7s, and one 8-by-10 cost $9.66 plus $6.48 shipping, and $1.48 for tax, bringing the total to $17.57. This compared with just $8.05 at Snapfish, $8.49 at York Photo Labs, $14.91 at Nations Photo Lab, and $17.81 at Walgreens Photo. Keep in mind, though, that Snapfish and York offer the first 20 and 100 4-by-6 prints free; after that the price for each is still only 9 cents per 4-by-6.
Like most photo printing services, Shutterfly offers a wide range of objects on which you can emblazon your photos—cards, stationery, calendars, personalized gifts, home décor, and more. In fact, it offers more type of objects than most. Beyond the expected mugs, magnets, and posters, you can choose flowerpots, blankets, cellphone cases, pillows, shower curtains, and even pet food bowls. One clever thing I didn’t see was a necktie, which York Photo Labs offers. But other than that, if you need an unusual object to print your pictures on, Shutterfly should be one of the first places you look.
Books in particular are a strength, with a professional custom-designed option for just $9.99. That’s, however, on top of the starting price of $19.99 for an 8-by-8-inch softcover book, which matches Snapfish’s price for that size. Snapfish doesn’t offer a design service, but really, I expect that most people who get to the point of uploading their photos will want to choose the pictures themselves for their photo book. For Shutterfly’s Make My Book service, you need to submit at least 60 photos. Cards for every occasion—holidays, graduation, wedding, birthday, and many more—are also available starting at a mere $1.39.
Uploading and Organizing Images
You can upload photos directly from your PC or import them from Facebook or Instagram for printing. The Shutterfly uploader asks you to install the Flash plug-in, which most major browsers are eschewing of late. The initial upload tool doesn’t support drag and dropping photo files onto its window, though once you’re in one of our galleries, you can click Get More Photos, which opens an upload window that does allow drag and drop. Only JPG files are allowed; Nations adds the more pro-level TIFF format, as well.
After uploading photos to your online gallery, you’ll discover that Shutterfly’s editing options are more limited than those you find in Snapfish. With Shutterfly you can only fix eyes reddened from flash, crop, and apply four effect filters (B&W, Color Tone, Saturate, and Soft Focus). You don’t get any lighting adjustments like you do with Snapfish.
A really nice touch is that you can print text on the back of your photo—very handy for remembering distant relatives or travel locations. I didn’t see this option in Snapfish or Nations. There are also some interesting photo size choices, including 5-by-15, 8-by-24, and 12-by-36, for panoramic shots, but Nations also offers those sizes, though Walgreens Photo does not.
When checking out, you can pay with PayPal, which is more convenient that Nations’ credit-card only method. After completing my order, the Shutterfly site didn’t tell me the expected ship day for Ground, as Snapfish did. Shutterfly lets you pick up your photos at Walgreens Photo, Target, or CVS, but I chose to have my order printed at the company’s labs and mailed, so that I could see the service’s best quality.
Shutterfly also offers a decent mobile app, from which you can upload photos from the device for printing. The app lets you see any photos you’ve uploaded from a computer, too. From the app, you can not only order prints, but also mugs, iPhone cases, canvas prints, cushions, and other items. Unfortunately, the mobile app doesn’t let you edit photos or share online galleries. Those are things that the Snapfish app can do, however.
The Results
My photos arrived in some of the best packaging of the services I tested, with only Nations beating it for protective shipping materials. The 4-by-6s, 5-by-7s, and 8-by-10 each came in their own separate sleeve, with a cardboard outer envelope protecting everything. Definitely better than York Photo Labs’ thin paper envelope and Snapfish’s loose 8-by-10 in a cardboard overnight envelope.
Like several of the services I tested, Shutterfly uses Fuji Crystal Archive paper, which is pretty good. It yields a sharp image, but the colors tend to be oversaturated. Only Nations Photo Lab among the tested services used Kodak Endura professional paper. One thing I liked about the Shutterfly photos was that the filenames were printed on the back, even though I didn’t specify a title to print there.
Photo: Michael Muchmore, Canon EOS 6D and EF50mm f/1.4 USM lens. Model: Justin Pietropaoli.
The smaller prints were all perfectly acceptable, but on enlargements the colors weren’t as natural as the results from Nations Photo Lab. They were about on par with York Photo Labs, a little oversaturated with some highlight detail loss. A portrait with a black background was a truer black in the Nations print.
Shutterfly also offers online sharing of photos and galleries you’ve uploaded to the service. You get your own Share site, and can post events, such as birthday parties, and sports events. You can specify that viewing your gallery requires a sign-in, or you can make it publicly visible. You get a variety of site designs, including seasonal option, and the resulting site can play full-window slideshows of the included images. And of course, people viewing the mini site can order photo prints from Shutterfly.
Snap the Shutter!
Shutterfly has a few feathers in its cap, but overall, it’s a middle-of-the-road service. Print and image quality is average, pricing is average, and the website experience is neither wonderful nor terrible. The feathers: Packaging is excellent, online shareable galleries, and the service prints the filename or photo title on the back of photos. If those things are paramount to you, then Shutterfly is worth a look. For the best image quality, however, look to Nations Photo Lab, and for the best value, look to Snapfish, our two Editors’ Choice photo printing services.
PROS
Decent print image quality. Online galleries for sharing. Lots of photo-printed gift options. Prints photo filename on back of paper. Imports photos from Facebook and Instagram. Good print packaging.
CONS
Comparatively expensive. Weak online photo editing. Odd upload system.
BOTTOM LINE
Shutterfly offers a wealth of products upon which you can print your photos, and excels in packaging, but its site, image quality, and pricing are all mediocre.