Comparing Print Services for Digital Pics

[stgamba]

I wanted to try out a few photo printing services after purchasing a Canon PowerShot A80. I used shutterfly.com, which PC Magazine awarded an Editor's Choice, and a local Target store.

As expected, the same prints from Shutterfly were better exposed and the color was more accurate than the Target prints. The Target prints had a red push and were mostly overexposed.

There is one problem: the shutterfly prints have a lower resolution. On a few of the shutterfly prints, I cropped them on their website, so I can see how changing the photo can lower resolution. On most of the prints however, I simply uploaded the jpg file from my camera to my laptop, then to the shutterfly site with no changes to the file. In the case of Target, their machine made the prints directly from my CF card. Can anyone tell me why the lower resolution from the shutterfly website and is there anything I can do about it?

[Sebastian]

There's a possibility Shutterfly resamples the files for their output. I suggest you contact them, they are after all the ones that printed them.