Digital Photos - Now Time for Printing

[rtresco]

I've been in the web development arena for seemingly forever, so I pretty much know the in's and out's of imaging for the web. Now I'm ready to start printing images, and the print world is a whole new ballgame for me.

I have the following toys at home to play with:

• Fuji FinePix 3800 camera (3.24 MegaPixals)
• HP PhotoSmart 7350 printer

Instead of wasting paper, I thought I'd hit the imaging gods up on this forum for some advice about where to go from here. Any rules of thumb / helpful links regarding questions like:

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What image size/resolution is most appropriate for the physical dimensions for my desired print-out? For example, how should I set my camera for capturing to properly print a 3x5 photo? 4x6?...

If I crop a piece out of my photo, is there a method to proportion it so it looks right (no gaps) in a stadard-sized (e.g., 3x5) printout?
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I don't plan to get this right on the first try, but just hoping to save a tree or two.

Thanks.

[5speeder]

Go to www.photo.net,

which IMHO is the best resources for photography on the net.

To try to answer your first question:

You will want 300 dpi quality print or at least 200, so for 4 by 6, so for 300 dpi you'll want 1200 x 1800 pixel = 2.1 megapixel.

About cropping different print size have different aspect ratio; 4*6 for example has the same aspect ratio as the 35mm format which has 24*36mm negative. 5*7 on the other hand has similar aspect ratio of most consumer grade digicam (which has 4:3). So depending on the print size and the aspect ratio of your particular camera, you might not have to crop at all.

[rtresco]

Originally posted by 5speeder
Go to www.photo.net,

which IMHO is the best resources for photography on the net.

To try to answer your first question:

You will want 300 dpi quality print or at least 200, so for 4 by 6, so for 300 dpi you'll want 1200 x 1800 pixel = 2.1 megapixel.

About cropping different print size have different aspect ratio; 4*6 for example has the same aspect ratio as the 35mm format which has 24*36mm negative. 5*7 on the other hand has similar aspect ratio of most consumer grade digicam (which has 4:3). So depending on the print size and the aspect ratio of your particular camera, you might not have to crop at all.

Thanks 5speeder. That explanation makes it really simple. So, multiply the dpi with each dimension. For a 5 x 7 print at 300 dpi...

5 (300) x 7 (300) = 1500 x 2100 recommended digital capture size

Regarding the cropping, it appears that is best to preserve the perspective to avoid headaches.

Thanks for the link also... I'll hit that site this weekend.

[rtresco]

Hey 5speeder. What software do you use for printing digital photos? I discovered that PE's Print Preview screen allows you to scale and position an image within the dimensions of the output paper size. Very quick and simple.

I've also had really good luck using Office Depots' high glossy paper, which is much cheaper than HP's and highly recommended on many digital photography forums.