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Printing
your Photos at Home - Useful Tips and Hints
for Best Quality
By
Ziv Haparnas
Digital
photography revolutionized the way in which
we take, view and share photos and also the
way in which we print them. Many digital
photos never get printed but there are still
many of us who prefer tangible paper prints.
Photos can be printed using a professional
service (in-store or online) or at home. In
this article we will give you tips for
getting quality prints at home.
A few years
ago getting high quality prints at home was
an expensive task that was only suitable for
semi-professionals who could afford it and
who had the know-how. Today low cost
printers can generate amazing quality prints
and sophisticated software can do most of
the processing work behind the scenes. The
result is that even amateur photographers
can generate very high quality prints by
pressing a single Print button.
There are a
few simple tips to follow that can help in
getting higher quality prints:
Edit
your photos: make sure that you
print exactly the photo that you want
printed. Using simple photo editing tools
(such as Photoshop or even Windows built-in
Paint application) you can crop a photo to
include just the area you are interested in
or crop out parts which you do not want in
the print. For example you took a photo of a
group of friends but on the left corner of
the photo there is a bystander that just
happened to be there. You can crop the photo
to include only your friends and thus
effectively eliminate the unwanted object
from the print.
When cropping
photos always remember aspect-ratio –
depending on the paper and the printer
you’re using sometimes you’re limited to a
certain photo size. For example if you print
on a special 4X6 photo paper any source
photo that is not in a 4X6 aspect ratio will
have to be either stretched, cropped or
parts of the print will be left blank. Make
sure that you crop your photo to fit a
specific aspect ratio if you’re printing on
a specific aspect-ratio paper.
More photo
processing can be done in order to enhance
your prints. It can include red-eye removal
(many software packages will do it for you
automatically) contrast enhancement and
more. For example if a portion of the photo
that is important to you is a bit dark – you
can “stretch” the color palette in a way
that this section will look more lit and
detailed. This will usually be on the
expense of “overexposing” other portions of
the photo that you care less about.
Always remember photo resolution:
Every photo is built out of pixels. The more
pixels in a photo the higher the photo
resolution is. We will not get into details
here about the correlation between mega
pixels and print quality but a general rule
of thumb is that to get good print quality
you need 300 pixels per inch or more. This
means for example that the biggest paper
size a 2 mega pixels photo can be printed on
is 4X6 while an 8 mega pixels photo can be
printed on an 8X10.
Pick
the right printer and paper: there
are many different printing each with its
advantages and disadvantages. They range in
quality and cost. To get the best print
quality you should use photo paper in
conjunction with a printer that supports
such paper. Photo paper and photo printers
are more expensive than document oriented A4
Inkjet printers. Choose the printer by
evaluating how many prints you will make and
how important quality is to you. If you
print occasionally for fun an Inkjet printer
with normal or photo paper is probably good
enough for you. If you print a lot and
quality is very important photo paper with a
photo printer is the way to go. As a rule of
thumb glossy photo paper provides the best
quality for color photo prints while matte
photo paper provides the best quality for
black and white prints.
Printer ink and maintenance:
printers need to be setup and maintained. It
is extremely important to follow the
instructions and to use compatible ink
cartridges. High quality compatible ink can
make the difference between low and high
quality prints. It is usually recommended to
buy ink from the same brand as the printer.
Some calibration is usually needed when
replacing ink and sometimes every few months
of use. Follow the instructions for such
procedures carefully as a calibrated printer
results in much better quality prints than a
printer that is not aligned and is poorly
maintained.
In conclusion
it is very easy to print your photos at
home. Just buying a mid-range printer and
hitting the “Print” button in your photo
viewing software will probably result in
good prints that are satisfactory for most
consumers. Following some simple tips can
enhance those prints to professional
quality. As technology advances and prices
go down experimenting at home with various
photo processing tools, paper sizes, paper
types and inks becomes affordable and is
probably the best way to find what
combination yields the best print quality
for you.
Ziv Haparnas
is a technology veteran and writes about
practical technology and science issues.
This article can be reprinted and used as
long as the resource box including the
backlink is included. You can find more
information about photo album printing and
photography in general on
http://www.printrates.com - a site
dedicated to
photo printing.
Article
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