Yahoo Photos Reviewer's Comments

Yahoo Photos is reasonable online photo developing service that's a cinch to use and has fast turnaround times, but lacks in almost every other area that we felt important.

Ease of Use - Ordering Process:  

Yahoo Photos uploading process and ordering process was quite simple to use. The service offers ten free prints just to try it out, as well as offering easy-to-use controls to help you better manage who can and cannot view your photos once posted online.

Quality of Prints:  

To get a consistent quality measurement, we sent the exact same digital photos to each of the online photo developing services we reviewed. With the prints we received back from Yahoo Photos, we had some issues with color tones and with cropping, see comments below:

Below are the original photos. Click to Enlarge

Below are the prints developed by Yahoo Photos. Click to Enlarge

• People Inside: Although not as bad as the other prints received back from Yahoo Photos, the color and tone is slightly off in this picture, as compared to the original. We also noticed some cropping was done on this photo.
• Building Outside: We found this print was produced with quite a greenish tone to it, which is probably most noticeable in the pillars.
• People Outside: We noticed that this picture was cropped as compared to the original and was produced with slightly yellow tint.

Note: To check quality, we took each set of prints received from the online photo developer and laid them down, side-by-side for comparison.

Pricing:  

Although certainly not the most competitive pricing around, Yahoo Photos' per-print pricing is actually on the lower side of the online photo developing service scale.

Service and Site Features:  

Yahoo Photos offer a limited number of print-size choices, as compared to other services, but they do offer a few photo-based gifts, including: chef's aprons, keepsake tiles, luggage tags, mouse pads and more.

This service also features photo editing tools that help you correct redeye and enhance your picture's color.

Shipping Costs/ Turn Around Time:  

Yahoo Photos charged us $1.99 to ship five 4 x 6 inch prints, when that actual postage for USPS First Class was $.83—leaving $1.16 for packaging and handling costs. This amount is actually pretty normal as far as online photo services go.

Our prints shipped in a lightweight, cardboard sleeve, which was then wrapped inside a rigid, cardboard envelope.

Summary:  

Yahoo Photos offers pretty good per-print pricing, middle-of-the-road shipping costs and, if you have the Yahoo Instant Messenger, you can share your uploaded photos via chat. But this service doesn't offer many of the features that are standard on other services, like photo books, CD archiving, business cards and so on.