It seems as if everything is becoming digital now days. As a photography business it is very common for customers to ask about digital photos. Everyone wants them to share on Facebook and other social networking sites. But do you really know what digital photos are?
Sure, you probably know that they are photos on a CD/DVD that you can see on your computer, that is probably a given for us all. But did you know that digital photos actually have quality to them? Just like you can eat a cookie from the gas station or you can eat grandma’s homemade cookies. There are some noticeable differences here.
In the design world this quality we’re talking about is called resolution. What is resolution; well the true definition is the amount of pixels per square inch of your photograph. Pixels are tiny little squares of color the computer translates to make the images we see.
Let’s break this down a little. Now, don’t be afraid there is a little numbers involved! Ek!
Ok, let’s say you have a digital photograph that is 4” by 6” at 300 resolution (also known as ppi: pixels per inch). Most things via internet are sized by pixels instead of inches. So our example here is 1200 x 1800 pixels. (If you like math you can figure this out 4x300=1200 and 6x300=1800!)
Now, computers need only 72ppi or resolution with the longest side being 800 pixels for it to fill your screen in high quality.
While printing requires at least 240ppi or resolution and 1400 pixels on the longest edge to print high quality, non-blurry photographs.
Sometimes photographers do not know about resolutions, especially a lot of photographers who have never taken any Photoshop classes or are self-taught.
Having this photographer as your photographer can be scary and risky.
Why? Because when a photographer gives you a digital photo it has attributes, and can be a gas station cookie or grandma’s homemade cookies or in our new learned terms has resolution and pixels.
If your photograph has a low resolution, and low pixel count you’ll never be able to print these without getting blurry yucky images. Remember these are images YOU paid for!
The better the resolution and higher the pixel count the bigger and better quality you can print your photograph.
So, if you’re getting digital photos only, make sure you ask your photographer for high resolution images with high pixel counts! A good reference is 240ppi or resolution and the longest side of the digital photo being 3,000 pixels or more.
Now, aren’t you glad you know how to not get ripped off for those beautiful photographs!
Just a little note here about
Searching for the Light, we offer both high resolution and low resolution digital photographs. High resolution to do all your printing at the best quality possible and low resolution to have just for the computer.
