PCMech Forums - View Single Post - How many dots per inch is "photo quality?"

Felix · 10-05-2000, 07:25 PM

My 2¢: just some general thoughts about digital and conventional photos.

Conventional photos are unbeatable in terms of quality and possibilites. I.e. think of making a poster from your favourite holiday picture or something similar, or even the unbeatable easy handling to get your holiday pictures. In addition, color durability over the years is proven these days.

Digital photos are unbeatable if you need your pictures instantly, or if you plan to edit / publish them digitally. I.e. you have a complete color lab in your computer if you have the right tools and you can get a quite good picture even from a useless shot. Think of sharpening tools and color saturation and such. I use Photoshop 4 for all my stuff and I do sharpening and tone value correction on every single picture. IMHO printing a picture without the basic adjustments is wasting expensive photo paper.

To print them I would suggest a good ink jet printer. Stay away from a color laser printer! They are not good for printing photos except the really expensive ones ($5000.- and more).

This leads to the question what will you do? If you want to experiment, you need pictures in your computer. This can be done also with a scanner. If you need speed then a digicam is the solution. If you want to make family or holiday pictures then there is no way but the good old conventional camera. Or do you want to buy a notebook or a lot of memory cards to store the pictures taken during a holiday trip?

and don't forget: A drilling machine doesn't make a carpenter. Maybe it's a good idea to join a photography class. Learn to look like a camera. The camera looks quite honest. It sees what is really there but not what we like to see. Another good hand rule is, if you focus an object and think "well, now it's good", go one step closer before pushing the trigger. Most people have too much margin and too few object on their pictures.

BTW my solution to avoid bad pictures was to buy a new camera. The old one (some autofocus thingy for about $200) made most pictures bad, so I went and bought the Canon EOS 300 for about $450. Its autofocus is really fast and you see what you get before you push the trigger. Since I have the Canon most pictures are really good, contrary to before.

I don't want to "take away" your digicam. It just depends on what you are doing - like always. Hope this helped a bit.

And finally: Check out the various tutorials, including photoshop, from adobe. It's great free stuff!

[Edited by Felix on 10-05-2000 at 08:29 PM]

10-05-2000, 07:25 PM	#11
Felix Member (10 bit) Join Date: Mar 1999 Location: Zurich, Switzerland Posts: 797	My 2¢: just some general thoughts about digital and conventional photos. Conventional photos are unbeatable in terms of quality and possibilites. I.e. think of making a poster from your favourite holiday picture or something similar, or even the unbeatable easy handling to get your holiday pictures. In addition, color durability over the years is proven these days. Digital photos are unbeatable if you need your pictures instantly, or if you plan to edit / publish them digitally. I.e. you have a complete color lab in your computer if you have the right tools and you can get a quite good picture even from a useless shot. Think of sharpening tools and color saturation and such. I use Photoshop 4 for all my stuff and I do sharpening and tone value correction on every single picture. IMHO printing a picture without the basic adjustments is wasting expensive photo paper. To print them I would suggest a good ink jet printer. Stay away from a color laser printer! They are not good for printing photos except the really expensive ones ($5000.- and more). This leads to the question what will you do? If you want to experiment, you need pictures in your computer. This can be done also with a scanner. If you need speed then a digicam is the solution. If you want to make family or holiday pictures then there is no way but the good old conventional camera. Or do you want to buy a notebook or a lot of memory cards to store the pictures taken during a holiday trip? and don't forget: A drilling machine doesn't make a carpenter. Maybe it's a good idea to join a photography class. Learn to look like a camera. The camera looks quite honest. It sees what is really there but not what we like to see. Another good hand rule is, if you focus an object and think "well, now it's good", go one step closer before pushing the trigger. Most people have too much margin and too few object on their pictures. BTW my solution to avoid bad pictures was to buy a new camera. The old one (some autofocus thingy for about $200) made most pictures bad, so I went and bought the Canon EOS 300 for about $450. Its autofocus is really fast and you see what you get before you push the trigger. Since I have the Canon most pictures are really good, contrary to before. I don't want to "take away" your digicam. It just depends on what you are doing - like always. Hope this helped a bit. And finally: Check out the various tutorials, including photoshop, from adobe. It's great free stuff! [Edited by Felix on 10-05-2000 at 08:29 PM]