Your Photo Family
We are here to help you get the best images for gifts, safekeeping, presentation and display or passing your memories to others.
Technical Details
Size does matter. We understand metric and imperial sizes and can adapt to suit your requirements. Pixels and resolution matter. A postage stamp enlarged to a poster is going to need some detail from somewhere. Also your typical 6"x4" photo has the same relative aspect as an 8"x12" photo but not the same as a 5"x7" or 8"x10", so resizing a photo may result in cropping of the sides or top/bottom depending on similarity of the aspect ratio.
Image Sizing. Just like your TV, pixels and size matters. A small file size will only allow you to print a small image. A large file will give you the flexibility to choose your print size. Also the better quality the image the better the results. A HDTV is around 2 megapixels but the light from the screen appears to blur the pixels to appear smooth. A photo or print doesn't have that luxury. For example a typical file of 500kb might be 3 megapixels but highly compressed and fuzzy much like the TV. A 9.2Mb file might also be 3 megapixel but uncompressed and very clear more like a 4K TV.
Feeling weighed down by choice? Let us explain your options and assist you to make an informed choice. We have many variations for you to see and handle to get a clearer picture of your options.
Photographic Reality
Let us make one thing clear, professional photographers spend a lot of money on good quality equipment, not just to be the best images sometimes, but to get the best images in almost every situation and it allows them to print at the largest size when they choose to print them.
For the rest of us, we can get by with minimal gear, and that includes the camera in your phone, most of the time. Depending on your camera/phone having it set correctly for the intended use of the image is important, otherwise it reduces your choices later on. Additionally phone cameras would be the most common cameras to have dirty lenses (fingerprints, dust etc.) and also are the least favourable for low light exposures due to the size of the lenses.
So, while you may take a fantastic shot with your phone that you may never have been able to take with a much better camera (due to opportunity) there will be compromises with just how good a print can be made from them.
Sizing Table (typical for good quality)
The following table is a typical size guide for "good" quality photos and how large the file size is required for printing.
Please be aware .jpg files (and some others) are compressed and each time they are saved after editing (called lossy compression), they will reduce in quality. The table below shoes .jpg compressed with either medium quality (45) or high quality settings (100).
We typically print at 300dpi and images in the table below are set with this. Lower resolution images such as internet sourced will likely be 75dpi and be much smaller and not have as many total pixels resulting in a blocky mess for the same print size. Somewhere between these could result in acceptable printed images.
Our kiosks will not transfer files that are less than 50kb, irrespective of the final print size required.
| Standard Size Print | 8"x10" Enlargement | Poster/Canvas (16"x20") | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Number of Image Pixels @ 300dpi | 1800x1200 (2.16MP) | 3000x2400 (7.2MP) | 6000x4800 (28.8MP) |
| File Size .jpg (Low/Medium/High Quality) | 67kb/189kb/2.2Mb | 176kb/557kb/6.7Mb | 582kb/2.4Mb/23.5Mb |
| File Size .bmp/.tif | 3.6Mb | 12.0Mb | 44.1Mb |
| File Size .png | 3.0b | 10.7Mb | 40.1Mb |
Examples
Either the file size is too small, has been compressed too much or has been scaled too much in an editing program. Older digital photos were never intended to be viewed printed, just electronically. Printed photos typically have a resolution (number of dots per square inch) of 300dpi, but your computer screen is typically 75dpi. That means the image that looks mostly OK on your computer will only look as good at 1/4 of the size printed. (there are many factors that contribute to this). If you are downloading from the web, Facebook, Messenger or MMS (on your phone) you will probably find these have been resized by the device to 75dpi. The example image shows possible outcomes for different compression (low, medium, high) or same compression but saved with different number pixels or dpi settings.
A common complaint when resizing images is where do we get the rest of the detail?, or why is the whole image not visible? A standard photo ratio is 6"x4" which is 1:1.5. The next size is 5"x7" which is 1:1.4. Most are 1:1.5 ratio but think that a 16"x20" is 1:1.25. So as you can see if you want to resize to a different ratio some of the image will need to be cropped either the sides or the top/bottom. For a quick check, divide the longest by the shortest sizes of the photo and then the intended finished size and see if they are the same ratio. The example image shows the difference between 6x4 and 5x7 in both landscape and portrait orientations. The red border is the 5x7 (or any variation from 1:1.5 to 1:1.4). Other ratios will likely produce more drastic results.
Your phone (or even compact camera) is probably not set to its' highest level. 2 Settings need to be looked at here, the first is number of pixels, and the other is compression. Just because a 12 megapixel image can be taken doesn't mean it is set to take that. Also compression is usually on by default and is often set to high. The best images are when the pixels are at the maximum, and the compression is low or off. Be aware this will require more on board storage and you WILL need to manage them more than what the default settings will.