Hi All, I thought I'd post our experiences so far with Pictage for others new to this industry, who are contemplating it. And also I guess to rave and rant about a few products.

Proof Books

Bonsai (5x5) Hardcover, "Timeless"cover style- IMHO, print quality was great, much better than something like MyPublisher. Seems fairly durable. Wish the price was just a bit lower.

Birch (8x11) Hardcover, "Simple" cover style w/ Black background. - Love the book, but after showing it in about 5 client meetings this book has already started to show wear. The black cover color actually seems to retain fingerprints/smudges and all I could do to get it off was wipe with a damp cloth. The color in the spine has shown some wear and started to fade also. This wouldn't be much of a problem, except for the fact that a book with an entire wedding (for us about 600 images) costs about $125-150. If I turn around and try to make even a little bit of profit and sell for $200, well at that price the quick wear is just not acceptable.

Solution: Just stay away from the black cover until they fix this. I actually sent pictures of our book to my pro consultant and was allowed to reorder a replacement with a different cover. So far so good.

Proof Prints

I know this is a bit controversial at the moment. We used to use Costco for proofs and honestly, they were quite good as long as we color corrected ourselves. Then we tried Pictage and were very impressed with our first several batches. Now, have gotten a couple of orders with the GA return address (I guess that is EZ-prints?). I must admit, in our experience the print quality has decreased. They are noticeably darker, less contrast. We did a test with an exact batch from Costco and the costco prints are much better than the recent Pictage proof prints. We are going back to Costco, no shipping fees, 1 hour turnaround...sorry Pictage, you lost our $ on this one from now on.

Final Prints - Enlargements

Just recieved a couple of 18x24's for our displays and we love the print quality on these. We do our own color correction so I cannot attest to those who leave that to Pictage, but we're very happy with the enlargements.

Willowbook Flush Mount Album

We initially joined Pictage because of the free Album promo. The flush mount Sequoia album is nice, but compared to a local binder we work with..I feel the pages are not as thick and sturdy as I would like for a flush mount, and we opted for the brushed metal cover for the Willowbook....that thing is just too darn heavy. Clients seem to prefer the more traditional flush mount album over the Willowbook.

Pictage Album Design Service

I posted about this in Pam's thread. So far, as a time saver, seems good. I have yet to complete this process but I plan on buying the prints from Pictage and using our preferred album binder.

Event cards

We tried this recently along when showing the reception slideshow and people seemed to like it. The concept is great, but the images on the Pictage event cards are pretty small. At PartnerCon one of the speakers mentioned that instead of these tiny event cards, make your own 4x6 sized template, split in half so you have 2 cards with bigger images and event info and order bulk prints. Think we'll go that route.

P3 Credit Card Processing

Simple, convenient, free. A couple of clients found it odd when we offered our initial credit card acceptance service thru Paypal, plus there was the service charge. This P3 service is pretty awesome, especially when a client hasn't mailed the check and you are just a few days before the wedding.

Billing Statement

One word - Confusing! Let's just say I feel the need to double check that sample discounts are being applied and confirm that I am not getting the occasional double charge (rare, but it did happen).

Anyway, as I mentioned, this is our first year to the business. There are some complaints I've made to Pictage, but so far the benefits are outweighing the cons. We are operating on a budget so just thought I'd chime in with our experiences using Pictage. Hopefully someone may find this useful.

Just curious...have you calibrated your monitor with Pictage? I was having the same problems - dark prints, etc. I had to "calibrate" my monitor by holding their prints up to my monitor to make it match what I saw on the screen. Since I have done that - I haven't had a problem.

Hi Jill, My monitor is calibrated. I did not use the little sheet Pictage gave us though, but that seems a non issue since their calibration print is a 'final print' not a proof. Since the Final Prints are just fine for us, yet the Proof Prints are not, it seems to me to be the printing lab differences and not an issue of my calibration being off.

Again, no problem with the final prints and other great services, but we will not use Pictage for our proofs no matter how much they insist there is no difference.

I didn't use the actual calibration print - I had a few test prints (of my own images) sent to me by my pro rep that were printed as proof prints -with all corrections off. Then you can just set your monitor to match your prints. If you call your rep they will do that for you free of charge. It worked for me so it might be worth a try.

I just got the Willowbook as a sample and it really exceeded my expectations. The design service is worth the pictage price. Has anyone used the design service with a Leather Craftsmen book?

Thanks Shane, I truly appreciate this thread. Very honest, fair and informative. It truly helps me evaluate my options with Pictage and what to look for.


Billing Statements
I agree with you assestment, specially about the statement. In my case may be that I am not good reading statements. Also, I haven't read the instructions... I know they made it easier than before. I always end up bothering Michael Caro for an explanation Sorry, Michael...

Sequoia Album
I also had the same experience with the Sequoia. They are nice and theye xceeded my expectations, but at the moment my clients seems to prefeer the one coming from Renaissance "The Book". Maybe is because I got the aluminum one instead of the most traditional leather. Anyway, my album of choice right know are from GraphiStudio.

Album Design software
The design software is very nice. A time saver. Easy and versatile to use. It can be an option for those who don't have album design software and if they don't want to use the Willow Books they can do what you do.

Final Prints
The final prints I have seen (from my clients) are great. No complaints whatsoever from anyone. As a matter of fact, repeated customers, so it most be good. My only complaint is that they are a bit more costly that other labs, specially when they take the 10% of every sale. The prints that came with my Sequoia were great.

Proof
Very controversial. I haven't had any experience with them (I don't give printed proofs) but I will be trying them to see for myself in case one day I have to use them. You have given me what to look for. Thanks.


Great thread!