Bay Photo Metal Print Review - 2021 Edition
- About Bay Photo Lab
- Bay Photo Lab Hours
- Bay Photo Products
- Bay Photo Promo Code
- Bay Photo Return Policy
- Bay Photo Reviews
- Bay Photo Metal Print Review
Bay Photo Metal Print
Bay Photo is a well-known printing operation that many people rely on for all sorts of prints, metal included.
Last year, I ordered a Bay Photo metal print for the 2020 edition of our $100 metal print shootout. I wanted to give Bay Photo another go this year, so I've included them in our 2021 challenge. For metal and other types of prints Bay Photo has a solid reputation. This includes canvas prints, so be sure to read more about the best photo canvas prints companies on PhotographyTalk.com.
Here's how the metal print companies stacked up this year:
In this review, let's focus on Bay Photo's metal print. I'll explore a few details about Bay Photo and discuss the quality of the print I ordered from Bay Photo for the 2021 metal print shootout.
Check out the winner of our 2020 Best Metal Print Company $100 Challenge to see how Bay Photo did last year.
Table of Contents
About Bay Photo Lab
Over the last four decades, Bay Photo has established themselves as a top printing lab in the United States.
Based in California, Bayphoto is known for excellent customer service. If you need help, knowledgeable support personnel will help you via email, phone, or online chat.
Additionally, many folks give Bay Photo praise for their high-quality and detailed prints. Further praise is given for speedy delivery.
Popular Metal Print Companies: Metal Mouth Prints, Bay Photo, and Artbeat Studios
Bay Photo Lab Hours
The Bay Photo physical locations in the San Francisco area are open M-F 9:00AM to 6:00PM, Saturdays 10:00AM to 5:00PM, and Sundays 11:00AM to 5:00PM. You can visit the location at 715 Soquel Avenue, Santa Cruz, California, 95062. You can also call the store at (83) 425-1100. Their Bay Photo Lab Soquel location has the same hours. Drop by at 2959 Park Avenue Suite A, Soquel, California, 95073 or call (831) 475-6090.
Of course, customer service is available by phone. Simply give them a call at 1-800-435-6686 between the hours of 6:00AM to 6:00PM, Pacific time.
You can also order Bay Photo metal prints and other products online anytime of day or night.
Bay Photo Products
Bay Photo has a vast selection of products for printing your images.
This includes metal, canvas, or acrylic prints. You can also order books, albums, and cards.
Bay Photo even has business supplies like magazines, business cards, and brochures in case you need business-related printing done.
Bay Photo Promo Code
Depending on the time of year, you can find all kinds of Bay Photo promo codes.
At the moment, they're offering 15 percent off metal prints. You can also get 20 percent off ornaments.
Additionally, Bay Photo promo codes and specials are announced each week on Facebook and Twitter, so if you want to save some cash, be sure you follow their social accounts.
If you sign up for a Bay Photo account, you can also score 25% off your first order. Nice!
Bay Photo Return Policy
Bay Photo Lab does not accept returns. All sales are final.
However, Bay Photo strives to ensure that the prints they ship out are packaged carefully and arrive to you unscathed. If your print arrives damaged, just shoot Bay Photo an email at [email protected], give them your order number, and they’ll let you know what to do.
Bay Photo Reviews
At the time of writing, Bay Photo has a 4.4 out of 5 stars rating from nearly 1,400 reviews on Facebook. On Yelp, they have a 4 out of 5 stars rating based on 119 reviews.
Bay Photo Metal Print Review
In the video above, you can watch the unboxing of my Bay Photo Metal Print and get the scoop on the quality of this print. I've summarized my thoughts below as well.
After unboxing the print, the first thing I did was take a minute to inspect the quality of the image.
Specifically, I'm looking for things like sharpness, color rendition, and whether there's any obvious banding.
Overall, Bay Photo did a fine job with these features. There's a little bit of softness in the foreground of the shot (due to printing...not because the image was soft). Likewise, the colors are just slightly off from the original - nothing offensive, but also not as accurate as I'd like.
The edges of the print are nice - clean and without burrs.
On the back, the mounting plate is a piece of aluminum wrapped around a piece of foam. There are multiple hanging points, which is nice, but the mounting plate is 1/8-inch off-center, which is not a small amount. On the positive side, there are rubber knobs on the mounting plate to help prevent damage to the wall.
Overall, this is a perfectly fine print. It isn't the best I've ever seen, but it's also far from being the worst!
Of course, it isn't just the quality of the print that's on the line here - it's also the packaging the print arrived in.
Obviously, printing companies need to pay attention to the way they package metal prints, because if the packaging is sub-par, the print could easily sustain damage.
In this case, Bay Photo did a great job ensuring that the print was well-protected. The print was taped on all four sides to a cardboard cover. There was also plenty of paper padding inside the box to give the print added protection.
So, in the end, this is an average to good metal print. I doubt it will be the best one of this year's bunch, but I'm sure it won't be the worst, either.
Stay tuned for more metal print reviews from our 2021 metal print shootout!
