professional-quality prints of digital photos?

[topaz]

I have a few digital photos (3000x2000 JPEGs) which I would like to turn into high-quality prints suitable for framing.  How should I go about this?  While inkjet printers have gotten stunningly good at photo reproduction in the last couple of years, my experience has been that it's very hard to find paper that will really hold the color well for more than a few months.

Where should I go?  A printer?  A photo shop?  Any recommendations?

Comments

[catya.livejournal.com]

i have some fancy hp photo paper - have you already tried that?

I have gotten prints done through photos.yahoo and shutterfly and been happy with both (i do this every may for mother's day pix)

[qwrrty.livejournal.com]

My father has printed some photos on his inkjet printer using some fancy Kodak photo paper, and they've come out looking absolutely photo-quality to my lazy eye, but fade rapidly over the next few months. I'd really like to avoid that here if possible and don't know how to tell which magic photo paper is the right way to go.

Thanks for the recs. have you found that the photos you print through Yahoo and Shutterfly hold up well over time?

[harimad.livejournal.com]

Consumer Reports did a thing on printers, photos and photo paper. IIRC their conclusion is it's hard and/or expensive to get the key ingredient - really good photo paper - so go to a shop for your high end needs.

[qwrrty.livejournal.com]

I suspected as much, but wasn't sure. Consumer Reports! I should have thought of them. Thanks.