Even with the lowest pixel available in your digital camera, you too can produce photos and prints at home that can look better than those made in photo labs. Digital photo printing has come to a point where everybody is given the choice to either produce the output by themselves or to get assistance from outside. So when you opt to do it yourself, avoid the two mistakes often made by first timers of digital photo printing.
Mistake # 1: Digital camera is not set to the highest image quality.
Solution:
The first thing you should do is to set your digital camera to the highest picture resolution available. This can be found in the camera’s setup menu, and usually indicated as either “quality” or “size”.
In addition, when your digital camera offers you to select between TIFF and JPG when saving your photo, opt for TIFF. TIFF images appear much cleaner, crisper, and more detailed than the JPG version. However, you have to take note that TIFF files have larger sizes than JPG that your digital memory card may not be able to save many photos. Moreover, most digital cameras have memory cards that could only hold a few high resolution TIFF images. To answer this problem, you could either buy a larger memory card that will cost you almost $100, or just settle with choosing images you like best and discarding those not at par with your tastes.
Mistake # 2: Printer is not set up for the right resolution and paper type.
Solution:
Second, when you go to your printer’s settings in your computer find your printer’s setup and put to highest quality color digital photo printing. This is sometimes indicated in dpi (dots per inch). Still, some printers have a “Quality versus Speed” setting which makes you choose between faster printing or better looking photos. When you’re doing documents, it is better to use the Speed setting, while for photos, go for Quality.
Finally, choose a photo paper rather than plain paper. The reason why manufacturers produced and named them “photo” papers is because they’re definitely for this type of use. Photo papers come in either glossy or matte finish.
And take note of the brand of the photo paper. Particular printers choose to work only with photo paper of the same brand. It’s not that manufacturers wanted to get even the paper market to their side; it’s just that printers and papers are usually designed around each other.
For better results, just stick to the same brand as that of your printer. Even with the introduction of third party substrates, certain problems such as smearing and unnatural color balance will just show in the end when you choose to use other brands.
About Digital Printing Company
Digital Printing Company offers high impact digital printing solutions from prepress scanning and graphics design to customizing documents using Variable Data Imaging technology. They specialize in short run printing of books, manuals, and flyers, as well as large format printing of posters and trade show graphics. For more information, visit their website at www.digitalprintingcompany.com.
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