Digital Printing

What have you done with the photos you’ve taken with your digital camera Hands up if they are languishing on your hard drive waiting to be printed. If your hand is up you are not alone. Well I have my hand up too! But I’ve promised myself that two years worth of digital photography will see the light of day before Christmas.

The problem is that we expect to do out own digital printing. Its supposed to be a feature. This “feature” puts many people off buying a digital camera in the first place. For one thing its not cheap. First you may need to upgrade your printer, or buy a photo printer. Then there are the running costs, which come as a shock to most new printer owners. The price of inkjets and photo paper doesn’t encourage much trial and error.

Having assembled all the equipment we then have to spend some time working out how to use it. Suddenly we have a hobby that we really didn’t want and don’t have time for. We just wanted a nice easy way to take fantastic photos. How much simpler it was to take a roll of film into the photo shop and collect the prints an hour later!

Well, here is the good news, you can still take you photos to the photo shop. Not only that but you can delete the duds first. Now that’s an improvement on film. Even better you can email your digital images to an online photo lab and receive the prints back in the post. If you have Microsoft Windows XP you can just click on “Order Prints” in the My Pictures folder and off they go. What could be simpler

Ok so what about all the cool stuff you can do with digital images You can do that too, but you don’t have to. The best thing for non experts to do is very little. You can crop and usually adjust the contrast and brightness with a single click using the software that came with your camera. If the software can manage red eye removal too, that is a trick worth learning-its easy.

The thing to remember is that digital images are free. Take lots. You can ditch the duds and still have one or two that are good for printing. Then you won’t need to bother with a lot of tricky time consuming editing.

Another option, useful if you do not own a computer, is to use one of the self service kiosks that are springing up in urban and tourist centers. These machines allow a little simple editing and you get your prints instantly. Over the next 12 months these are likely to be more widely available.

For more information about printing your digital photos check out http://tinyurl.com/4fm3q .

About The Author

Liz Beresford owns and operates the web site Digital Cameras and Accessories, which provides information and resources for digital camera buyers, particularly new buyers. You can find the best value digital cameras, equipment and accessories online at the Digital Cameras and Accessories shop.

http://www.digital-cameras-and-accessories.com/

So you have this great digital camera and you’ve taken lots of great photos. Now what Well you could go to a store and have them print your images for you, but isn’t that what you did with film The point of all this great digital technology is that you can print your own photos at home without having to pay someone else to do it. Here are some tips to help you get started:

1. It’ll seem like a lot of money at first but spend the money to get a good printer. Six color at least. Ink jets are wonderful for printing snapshots. You won’t need more than that. Also look around at the computer brands that sell computer packages for digital printing, the printer that they recommend is perfect for printing photos at home.

2. Buy some photo editing software. There are lots of brands out there many of them for pros but you can easily find software under one hundred dollars that will have lots more options than you will ever use. Look for software that has automatic settings so that the computer can automatically color correct, auto focus, brighten, or darken, etc. At least until you learn number 3.

3. Learn your equipment. Take the time play with the settings. Don’t try to print perfect photos right away. Most people with a little time and practice can learn to do basic photo special effects. Give yourself the time to learn.

4. There is one place that you are going to have to spend some money and it’s on paper. You can have a great image but unfortunately you cannot skimp on paper. Get the nice thick glossy paper, it’s worth it. I’ve tried the cheaper paper, which is good for test prints, but you need the high quality stuff for good prints.

5. DPI, dots per inch. Depending on your printer and your software you may be able to print up to 1200 dpi which is probably unnecessary for what you’re doing. For up to a 4 by 6 inch print you only need about 300 dpi. Most people cannot see the difference between a 300 dpi an a 600 dpi at 4 by 6 inches. For 5 by 7 or 8 by 10 you can go up to 600 dpi.

These steps will help you on your way to printing great digital photos at home. Remember though make sure that you have fun printing all those memories.

FYI Just so that you have a frame of reference, I’m a professional photographer and I have a six color ink jet that I paid less than $300 for and photo editing software that I paid less than $100. I print my 5 by 7 images for shows at 600 dpi.

About The Author

Copyright 2004 Kelly Paal

Kelly Paal is a Freelance Nature and Landscape Photographer, exhibiting nationally and internationally. Recently she started her own business Kelly Paal Photography www.kellypaalphotography.com. She has an educational background in photography, business, and commercial art. She enjoys applying graphic design and photography principles to her web design.