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Digital Photos and Photo Labs - 6 Things to Consider
The popularity of
digital cameras has skyrocketed in recent years. Every
event or celebration you go to now has at least several
people snapping away. Once you pay for the camera and
memory cards, your costs are zero, until you actually
have a picture you want to print. You can take 40 pictures
of your new child, niece, nephew, grandchild, etc, and
if only two good shots came out of that, then you only
pay for those two.
The question is - where should you print
those two masterpieces?
Owning your own photo quality printer
is definitely faster. There are even people who take
a small printer with them and make prints for other
guests right away. Almost as easy as a traditional Polaroid
camera.
Is it cheaper?
The large chains have jumped into this
fray in a BIG way. Wal-Mart, Blacks, Business Depot,
and many others. With all this competition comes low,
low pricing. A typical 4x6 print from a big chain is
cheaper than the retail cost of the do-it-yourself paper
that the same chain sells in their photography center.
And at home you still have to pay for the ink!
Here are 6 things to consider when getting
a photo lab to print your digital pictures.
(1) Price. All the major players have
priced their 4x6 size very competitively. The larger
sizes though, like 5x7 or 8x10, are usually higher in
cost than what you can do it for at home.
(2) Drop Off. Can you upload your digital
pictures to them via the internet (very convenient)
or do you have to deliver them on a floppy or CD?
(3) Delivery. Does your photo lab let
you pick them up in the store, or do you have to wait
for the post office or a courier? Picking them up at
the store should be a no-cost option. If you can pick
them up, is the location easy to get in and out of?
(4) Timing. How fast do they work? One
photo lab has a reputation of having most orders ready
in one business day. Another is a bit cheaper, but takes
a week.
(5) Quality. You may have to talk to
relatives, friends, and co-workers about this one. Find
others who have already tried various printers. One
photo lab's web site states that they will not print
a picture with too low a resolution (nothing under 150
DPI allowed). This can be inconvenient, but assures
you of a quality print.
Speaking of resolution, a 4x6 printed
at 200 DPI requires a digital print that is 800 by 1200
pixels. An older model 1.0 megapixel camera can do this
easily. If you have a more modern 3.3 megapixel camera
you can create a 200 DPI print that is 8x10. One of
the advantages of a better camera, say a 5 mp, is that
you can "crop" part of the picture away and
still have the 3.3 megapixels required for an 8x10.
There is one more item you need to be
concerned with.
(6) A standard "snapshot"
for a photo album is 4x6 in size. That is a ratio of
1.5. Most new cameras have a photo ratio of 1.33! What
happens if you send a 1.33 picture to a photo lab and
ask for a 4x6? They cut off ("crop") part
of the picture you took, making it shorter on its longest
side. You may not like the part they cut off! The best
internet upload systems for photo labs allow you to
indicate what can be cut off. Alternatively, use a program
on your computer to make the digital picture the correct
size and ratio before uploading.
Memory for digital cameras is getting
cheaper all the time, so load up on memory, take lots
of pictures, and proudly display the ones that turn
out well.
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