Lightly Toasted

Things you should be aware of before buying prints of digital photos online

Can you tell if the resolution of photo prints are going to be as good as the online galleries you view?

Well, the simple answer is no. There are very few guidelines, little documentation and digital photography is just not upto speed, yet! This is where knowledge of digital darkroom techniques and photo tools(software and hardware) used play a humungous role. Before you buy photos online inquire if:

1. The files printed for you are less than 240 dpi (dots per square inch) — you may flatly refuse to accept files below 240 dpi resolution. They look scaly, sometimes dotted or noisy. I process my files at 300dpi.
2. Are the photos printed in a colour worthy lab — the colour representation would otherwise be inaccurate and appear either too muddy/flat/dark/or simply insipid. In other words are the photographers tools colour calibrated with the lab where the prints are made? The only way to ensure this is that the photographers camera profile matches the colour profile of the lab devices and the printer recognises the profiling. But why is so important?. I use Optical from ColorVision to calibrate my monitor anywhere I work. And my prints are printed by a colour worthy lab.
3. Were the photos shot in JPG mode of the digital camera. I assume digital here as most use digital thesedays). JPG shooting is a waste of time and insincerity to photography work. Though if you are after a small size print (say 4×6″) of a big JPG photo it should be fine. But honestly, JPGs don’t scale very well. They were never meant to. JPG’s are meant for one job, that is to produce a scale down(low quality) version of a true image. You may read more about this on the JPG site. This is why JPG files are prevelant on the web. They look fine on the browser — but wouldn’t render the same details on print. They were not designed to. Buying JPG prints is NOT RECOMMENDED.