Getting the most out of your pictures

Printing out pictures can be an adventure for many consumers who use photos in their home or small business. There are many different types of software which can tear apart a photo and add all sorts of neat features. But one thing remains the same -- you need a good photo. A poor photo will still be a poor photo. If it is out of focus, bad lighting, or the wrong format, it will not transfer well into the layout of the piece or even worse print out and look like the puppy barfed all over the paper again. Be sure that photos are sharp, clean and crisp. The subject of the photo should be properly framed within the shot. An important term to understand is DPI--dots per inch. If you have a 300 DPI photo that will be printed out at 1200 DPI -- you will have one blurry photo because a photo with less resolution is being printed out on a printer with a high resolution. If you only need 300 DPI, use a print out with that same amount or just a little higher. Otherwise, reshoot the photo, save it at a higher DPI and you will be fine.