Storing photos & printing

[Fabolous]

Hey guys, so I've been going through some old photos I've been meaning to "process". But this time around I actually want to print these out and stick em on my wall. Before this I used to just resize to a smaller size (maybe high enough for a desktop b/g) and be done with it. But now I don't want to loose any detail after processing so I try and keep a maximum resolution as possible (usually shoot at 5 MP) after the crops etc.

I usually save as JPEG (they are from a point and shoot so are JPEG to begin with), is this as good as TIFF, since the images "start" as JPEGS? and also has anyone done heavy processing with PS and then printed these photos? How do they come out? Also I'm setting all my prints to 300 pixels/inch - is this enough for normal sized prints?

Cheers.

[robo git]

With JPEG, if you do lots of separate edit sessions you will notice a loss of quality.

If it's just one/two edits (and you save at High/V.High quality) you'll be OK for what you're doing.

300dpi: May find this prints smaller than you want. Many printers are designed with 72dpi in mind, but that's not particularly high-rez. This will depend on what printer you're using, the printing software, and the settings of both.

[Fabolous]

hmm ok. I was planning on using those kiosk things or giving it some shop to print for me, on photoshop, at 300 DPI most photos are 5-7 x 5-7 inches. If that's correct then that should be an OK size. Also when printing can the photos be any size or do they have to fit (will they be resized to) the "stock" photo sizes??

[robo git]

I don't know - I've not used those photo-kiosk things :D

At a guess I'd say keep your photos in as high a resolution as possible but crop them to the aspect ratio of the paper-stock they'll be printing on. 5x7 stock? Crop to 5:7 ratio to maximize the amount of paper they cover.

[talan]

I've hardly printed anything at all. The GF prints photos in the kiosks occationally from her IXUS 6MP and the photos come up pretty good and im pretty sure she doesnt even shoot at 6MP. Pretty sure the size is the standard 5x7. But try to print in matte, comes out much nicer.

[Fabolous]

Printed some photos today at DSE power house, came out pretty nice. A bit dark though, 300 DPI is def the way to go. One at 150 DPI was pretty average.

[wirehunt]

It wouldn't be hard to do a small sample test just to see....