Digital cameras are great. Take a photo and immediately see your results. If you don’t like it, delete it and take another. With the size of memory you can buy for a camera today it is possible to hold hundreds of photos on one stick or disc of media. But at some point, you will need to empty that disc so that you can take new photos.

Now that you have moved those photos to a computer, CD or other type of storage, you will eventually want to print them out. If you have kids, you are probably taking photos on a daily basis and need to send some copies to the family. Uploading photos to these "photo finishers" as they are sometimes referred to, can really simplify the photo sharing for your family and friends.

In Store Printing

Many stores today have a "Photo Kiosk" where you can put your photo memory, CD etc into a computer and print your photos out within minutes. The most familiar one would be the Kodak Kiosk. Normally located near the photo lab in a store, the large yellow kiosks are hard to miss.

Many different resources can be used with the Kiosks. The Kodak kiosk for example accepts just about every type of digital camera media including Compactflash, Smartmedia, Memory Sticks and xD-picture card media. If you have already saved your photos to a CD or floppy disc, they are accepted as well. Some camera phones may be compatible to wirelessly transfer photos to these kiosks. You can also bring in a photo and scan it to make changes or copies.

Once you have your photo loaded, you then have the option to print several different sizes of your photos. From a sheet of wallets to an 8 x 10 as well as photo cards for birthdays, Christmas etc. You will also have access to many editing tools such as "zoom and crop," "remove red eye," "add text" and much more. The photos are usually ready within a few minutes.

Some of the more familiar stores that usually have the Kodak Kiosk are Target, CVS, Walmart and many others. Check your local stores websites or the Kodak website for more information.

Upload Photos and Order Online

Instead of going to the store, and possibly having to wait in line for a photo kiosk to become available, you can upload your photos and order them off of a website. Many sites now offer service within one hour.

Below is a review of some of the more popular sites. They all offer the same basic services, but each one has their benefit. Some offer free online storage for an unlimited amount of time. Some offer one-hour service. Some allow you to put photos on many different products such as mugs and t-shirts

Snapfish.com

This site has recently lowered its price from 19 cents for a 4x6 photo to only 10 to 12 cents. (Price depends on if you participate in their pre-paid option) This price cut has just happened within the past 2 weeks so look for other companies to follow suit.

As mentioned before, to get the best price you would need to purchase prints ahead of time. (Pre-paid prints) So for example you can order 1000 4x6 prints for $99.99. This would equal out to ten cents per print. However once you add in the shipping and handling fees this price can increase a few cents. If choose not to do the pre-paid, the same 4x6 will cost 12 cents per print. Again, this is a few cents more when shipping is added.

Shipping prices vary depending on the number of prints you order. Standard shipping on 1-5 prints is 99 cents, 6-15 prints would be $1.48 and 16-25 is $1.97. From here on out you add 49 cents for each additional 10 prints.

Snapfish has one of the widest selections of items you can put your photos on. Aprons, baby bibs, neckties, placemats and even on boxer shorts.

Kodakgallery.com

Until recently Kodakgallery.com was known as Ofoto.com. Currently Kodakgallery.com controls the largest market share when it comes to "photofinishing sites" at 50%. This is according to InfoTrend. With a user friendly site and unlimited amount of storage for an unlimited time, Kodak has one of the better sites. You do have to order at least one photo every year in order to keep the free space, but you can’t beat that for a minimum of $1.75 per year.

Up until the price cut by Snapfish, Kodak had some pretty competitive prices. Its possible that they may drop prices in the near future to compete with Snapfish, but no word of that yet. Currently you will pay 25 cents per 4x6, 99 cents per 5x7 and 3.99 for an 8x10.

Shipping is also a bit higher and is broken down a lot more than the way Snapfish does it.

1-10 photos $1.49

11-19 photos $1.79

20-49 photos $2.49

50-75 photos $3.99

76-99 photos $4.99

100-149 photos $7.49 and this continues on up to 300 photos.

A bit too complex if you ask me. Again, you have the option to add your photos to mugs, shirts or even a deck of cards. Unfortunately photos on boxer shorts does not seem to be an option here.

Shutterfly.com

Shutterfly is the last of these top three sites dedicated to "photofinishing." Shutterfly’s prices remain ridiculously high and it would seem they would need to lower prices as well now thanks to Snapfish, but so far this is not the case.

Their basic prices are 29 cents for a 4x6, 99 cents for a 5x7 and 3.99 for an 8x10; however they do offer pre-pay packages, which lowers their prices significantly. You can order 500 prints for $99 which brings the price per print to 19 cents. Once you add in standard shipping though it will bring it up to almost a quarter per print. Shutterfly also offers "Portrait Packages". You can get 20 5x7’s, 5 8x10’s and 5 sets of wallet prints for $29. (Don’t forget shipping)

Shipping is about as crazy as Ofoto’s.

1-10 photos $1.79

11-20 photos $1.99

21-30 photos $2.49

31-50 photos $2.99 and again this goes on up until 300 photos.

As with the other 2 sites, feel free to put your photo on a Tote bag, magnet or mouse pad. For those of you looking to compare prices on the photo boxer shorts, Snapfish still looks to be the only carrier of this sure to be popular item.

One-Hour Online Photo Printing

Many local stores now offer the option of uploading your photos to them, ordering and you will be able to pick them up within one hour as well as several other options.

Wal-Mart

A very well known store providing this service is Wal-Mart. They have great prices and offer three options when ordering photos. They can be ready in one hour, delivered to the store or delivered to your home. Choosing one of the first two options will eliminate any shipping charges. The cheapest way to go is to have the photos delivered to the closest Wal-Mart in your area. Delivery may take several days, but there are no shipping charges for this option.

If you need photos quickly, selecting the one-hour option is still a pretty good bargain when considering some of the websites already mentioned.

Standard shipping rates to your home are as follows: 78 cents per order and 4 cents per print.

Below are most of their basic prices. Not included are again the options to have photos plastered on puzzles or plates etc. (Still Snapfish is alone with their photo boxer shorts)

Size One-Hour Standard (remember shipping rates apply when mailed to your home)

4x6 19 cents 12 cents

5x7 $1.47 58 cents

8x10 $2.84 $1.96

Photos you upload to Wal-Marts website will be stored there for a period of 60 days at no extra charge. If you would like to purchase "Storage Space," prices will vary from $3.70 for 50 MB of space for a period of 1 year up to $55.50 for 100 MB’s of storage for a period of five years. Depending on the pixel size your digital camera uses, the size of your photo in MB’s can vary greatly. Check your camera's manual for this information to determine how much space you would need.

Sam’s Club

Sam’s Club is a subsidiary of Wal-Mart. They mostly sell bulk items and you must pay a membership fee to belong to the store. Though the owner of Sam’s Club and Wal-Mart are one in the same, prices do vary. Sam’s Club has some better deals on their online photo printing.

They again offer the options of getting your photos within an hour, having them mailed to the store or mailed to your home. Sam’s Club has the best deal on shipping prices. A flat fee of $1.95 regardless of the number of prints in your order. This price is only for ordering prints. If you want to order gadgets with your photo on it, this price will vary. For a 4x6 photo, prices range from 11 cents to 17 cents. Complete prices are as follows:

Size One-Hour 2-3 Day in Store Standard shipping to your home

4x6 17 cents 15 cents 11 cents

5x7 68 cents 56 cents 56 cents

8x10 $1.96 $1.58 $1.58

Shipping fees only apply on deliveries to your home, not to the store.

After uploading photos to the Sam’s Club website, they will be accessible for a period of 30 days. After that time they will be automatically deleted from the website. You have the option to buy "Album Space". Prices range from $10.59 to store 100 photos for 12 months, to $105.90 to store up to 200 photos for a period of 60 months.

CVS

CVS is another pretty common store that offers the ability to upload photos and then pick them up at their closest location. At the moment they do not offer a one-hour service. Though I have have found them to be pretty reliable their prices are a bit higher. If you order is more than five dollars then there are no shipping fees when picking up your photos in store. When under five dollars you will pay $1.49 for delivery. Delivery prices to your home depend on weight. Any orders fewer than six ounces will cost you $1.95 for standard shipping. 6-12 ounces will run you $3.95, 12 to 24 ounces is $7.95 and anything over that will be $9.95.

Prices for prints are the same regardless of whether you pick them up or have them shipped. 29 cents for a 4x6, $1.49 for a 5x7 and $3.99 for an 8x10.

Wrap-up

Though I only mentioned 3 stores for ordering your digital prints there are many more out there. Check your favorite stores website for photo information. There are also many other websites out there that offer photo finishing. The ones mentioned here are the top three. Personally I have found it much easier to upload photos to a website and pick them up in store, than to purchase a good photo printer that will have to be maintained, and can be quite time consuming. Storing photos online can also make it easier to share photos with family and friends. They may also purchase those same photos themselves if they so desire. Try doing a google search for "photo printing" for many other sites with all of these same features.