my digital camera

[mollymoo]

Hi i have two different digital cameras a canon and a sony and when I download the pictures from either camera then open them in Photoshop the image information is telling me it is 72dpi. This is too low for printing which should be 300. Why are my pictures so low in resolution when they are taken with 5mmegapix and on fine setting. Please help as my pics look good on screen but do not print out very well. Thanks

[Thunderchild]

althought the picture is 72 dpi it can still be 5 Mpixels. if on photoshop u go to the image/image size... menu u will see the size and resolution. probably the picture is reported as 72 dpi and a metre or more in size. u will also see the number of dots to the picture as confirmation.

the reason 72 dpi is used is because this is the default resolution of monitors and web images.

i suggest that u alter the size and resolution in such a way that the number of pixels stays the same but it is in a better size and resolution for u to handle.

as for printing r u using a photographic printing head in your printer ? and photo paper. if you print with the normal colour printing head and normal paper it will be a disaster especially on low quality paper (not very consistent) as the ink exspands in the paper making it look out of focus.

u could try to use light card and lower the level of ink in the printer settings this is not a definit solution but often helps. i got away doing cd covers like that for quite a while it takes some experimenting.

if on the other hand u r using a photo head check that all the sittings r correct that includes correct head paper ecc.

[Chillum]

In addition to the good info above, think of it this way. A decent quality print needs to be roughly 250 dpi (dots per inch). Therefore, it follows thaht an image which is 250x250 pixels, would give you a good quality print at a size of 1" squared. An image which is 2500x2500 pixels would give a decent 10" print. Above this, and the quality of the printed image will begin to deteriorate. Remember, as Thunderchild says, paper selection, ink quality and printer speed settings are all very improtant to achieving decent results.