So who is reliable and trustworthy. Who to send family shots to at a sensible price and who to send clients work to? Even the best labs can have an off day and there are probably horror stories for most labs out there. I will post a US version at a later date (although for consumer prints CVS has proven great for me).
For UK consumer prints I use www.foto.com, after sending them thousands of shots over many years they have never failed to provide me with faithful renditions. The prices are low, very low, mainly due to having a large central printing house for all of Europe (it would seem, my prints arrive from mainland Europe). The downside is a few extra days delay and slightly higher postage costs but at 4-5p 6-8 cents per 4×6 I can handle a few p extra postage. Before placing an order I would use their calculator to ensure you know the total as the postage can bump up orders, especially for larger prints. Having said that they are one of the cheapest places for larger prints I have found, especially considering they have a pretty advanced backend and good tools for uploading \ selecting cropping etc. They have a wide range of other products, I have only ever ordered one photo mug which arrived chipped, my only dissappointment with them and most likely due to the postal system.
Professional prints are a little more complicated, there are a few companies to use. For small to midsize prints (and film processing) http://www.peak-imaging.co.uk/ does a great job. I have used them for prints and film processing (E6 mainly, C41 and B&W when I am lazy) and the results have been to a very high standard. They pride themselveson quality, price is obviously therefore higher but if you want a zero risk buy they are the place to go.
Larger prints would go between two places, B&W prints to http://www.digital-monochrome.co.uk/page4668.html and colour printing and film scanning to http://www.blueskyimages.co.uk/.
One last site, I haven’t tried but intend to soon is http://www.snapmad.com/about.php.
