[ale] OT: printing digital photographs

[James P. Kinney III]

You're screwed!

The print your own digital pictures business is a fabulous way to blow
reams of $$. Archive the pics onto CD's and teach some discriminating
process that will choose the one or 2 good pictures out of the 128 on
each flash disk. It is a load cheaper to mail a CD (and let the family
print the ones _they_ like) than print a ream or $.40 prints and mail
that. 35mm film processing is less than $.40/pic.

If you just have to print the pics, any of the Epson photo printers are
quite nice. Some of the HP versions (and Epsons) have builtin storage
media slots for directly printing from the camera. That is a BAD THING!!
In encourage using lots of rather expensive photo-quality print paper.

The key to good prints from the digital camera is 2 fold.
1. Good resolution on the camera. 4x5 prints from a 2 megapixel camera
are OK. 8x10 will look like crap. To print 8x10, you need better than 4
megapixels resolution.
2. Photo quality paper. It will be glossy (or the new matte finish - not
quite as good) and expensive. The print time will be s l o w .

For the really good prints, use the printers from Epson that have the 6
ink tanks. There is a mid-tone tank they use that is half the intensity
of the standard CYMK colors. This makes for very smooth color tones for
skin.

I would also suggest enrolling in a local community college photography
class. Most of the pictures people take are just crap! Out of the last
10 rolls of film, I actually got 1 good shot. A pro will shoot a roll on
a subject expecting 2-3 usable shots. 

On Tue, 2003-08-19 at 08:32, John Wells wrote:
> My wife has gone picture crazy since our daughter arrived.  I bought a
> digital camera around the same time, thinking I'd save $$, but I think
> it's just allowed her to snap away indiscriminately ;-).
> 
> Anyway, Wolf Camera is making a small fortune each week from my wife's
> visits to print out the photographs she's taken.  I think on average, a
> 4x6 runs about 40 cents.
> 
> Has anyone analyzed whether it's cheaper to buy a printer and print your
> own or to take it to a store and have them do it for you?  I'm thinking
> about forking up the cash for a photo-quality printer, but have to wonder
> if I'll really save any money in the long run, considering ink and paper
> costs.  Course, I don't see my wife's shutterbug tendencies abating
> anytime soon.
> 
> Assuming you can in fact, save money, can anyone recommend a good,
> affordable, quality printer?  I'd like to be able to print 8x10" and down.
> 
> Thanks for the input!
> 
> John
> 
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-- 
James P. Kinney III          \Changing the mobile computing world/
CEO & Director of Engineering \          one Linux user         /
Local Net Solutions,LLC        \           at a time.          /
770-493-8244                    \.___________________________./
http://www.localnetsolutions.com

GPG ID: 829C6CA7 James P. Kinney III (M.S. Physics) <jkinney at localnetsolutions.com>
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