Having photo trouble? Perhaps the colours don’t seem as rich, or maybe the person you took the photo of has red eye or is framed in such a way that makes the picture seem not quite right or dull.
Have you considered manipulating the elements of the photo to get the picture you want? Perhaps deepening the colours of the background, sharpening the image to bring it into clearer focus, removing redeye, moving the subject so the picture is framed better. Sound difficult? Well it doesn’t have to be. There are a number of ways you can do it. Software for manipulating images is usually built into many of the cameras and particularly the photo printers on the market.
“In terms of photo corrections, most people are getting rid of red eye,” said Liam Shiel, key account manager, Canon consumer imaging, Ireland of Canon Ireland. Shiel said most people will use and work on the software they get with the camera or printer with hobbyists and professionals opting for tools such as Photoshop Elements.”
Pixma perfect
Shiel said Canon’s Pixma printer software allows you to pick the photograph and underneath that you can select and select the size of paper and the borders and so on and then straight to print. “Other than that you also have the option with the printer software to get rid of the redeye. You can also do face enhancements with software called ‘easy photo print’ that comes with the Canon Pixma printer. This incorporates the rule of thirds to satisfy the way our eyes look at things. If I just take a close-up it’s not as good as if the subject is standing beside something or doing something. It makes it more interesting to the eye to have a shared background … that’s the rule of thirds.”
It’s all on the camera
Mark Robinson, product manager for Epson photo products agreed with Shiel and said the majority of users tend to utilise the camera or printer manipulation software. “If we’re talking about a general snap shooter then once you’re in some sort of manipulation software when you press the print button that will bring you to the properties and drivers wherein you can tick the boxes for what you want to do: quality of the picture, enhancements and restoration. All these things can enrich the colour and corrects things such as too much backlight.
“If you’re a more advanced user products such as Epson’s R1800 and R2400 come with profiles preloaded on the driver so you can utilise colour management – in the print setting you can let the printer or Photoshop determine the colours and then you apply one of the preloaded profiles.”
Get it right first time
Tim Potter market manager for HP’s Photosmart products emphasises the key to getting a good print is taking a good photo so instead of using a lot of time, paper and ink, try and get the picture right the first time. Whereas Damian O’Neill, electronics and accessories brand manager Dell Ireland and UK, underlined the need for a heavy-weight, high resolution, glossy coated paper in addition to ensuring the settings on the printer correspond with the paper type and quality of print you’re attempting.
Raw materials at the ready
As you’ve probably read in this magazine before it’s best to stick with the ink and paper from the vendor who manufactured the printer. This is because, quite literally, the ink and paper are made for each other and the chemicals in the ink react a specific way to the chemicals on the paper.
All the vendors recommend experimenting with different styles of paper such as matt, satin matt, gloss, semi gloss and so on. Pick a paper that you like and holds the photo best. This is all objective and down to the eye and preference of each person.
Single ink tanks for each colour
Most of the photo printers from the major vendors all offer high quality printing. There are, however, some things to look out for when buying a printer to get the best possible image. One thing to watch out for is a memory card slot for the camera’s memory card. This will enable you to edit your pictures without a PC and with that in mind make sure the printer is capable of editing – ask the retailer.
Canon’s Liam Shiel suggests looking for a printer with single ink tanks for each colour preferably four to six tanks as opposed to two cartridges holding multiple colours.
Go mono
HP’s Tim Potter recommends turning your colour snaps into black and white. What you need to do is raise the contrast and the saturation and then convert to black and white. You get better black and white shots this way because if you convert straight from colour you just get shades of grey. Here you want all the shades – black, white and grey in between.
Get a flexible friend
According to Dell’s Damian O’Neill the choice of purchasing an inkjet or dyesub printer is all about flexibility. “If a customer is looking for a solution which can only print photographs on one type of glossy paper then a dye sub printer could be considered.
However inkjet technology enables excellent photo quality printing on a variety of photo paper so that customers are literally able to print their own reprints and enlargements.”
Expert view
Doreen Kennedy is a professional photographer and graphic designer and on occasion, uses editing techniques in Photoshop to get her images just right.
“I use Photoshop and Photoshop Elements. The sort of stuff I use it for is cropping down images, going in close on a subject and removing parts of the picture that you don’t want and colour corrections. For instance if you take a picture indoors and you use tungsten lighting you can get a yellow glow on the picture. Here you can reduce the colour thereby removing the yellow to make it look more natural. The cropping tool is also very useful as is the clone tool where you can superimpose images and replace objects with something else. Other important things you can do are sharpen the image to bring it into focus or softening a picture by blurring it.”
Tips for top results
1. When taking you photos on a digital camera, allow for a margin around the edge. Digital cameras largely have a 4:3 ratio sensor therefore when you print using a conventional photography sizes (6×4″ or 5×7″) a small amount of cropping is inevitable.
2. For the best quality photos that will last, ensure you use the printer manufacturer’s paper and ink which are designed to work together for best results.
3. When printing your photos go into the printer driver and select the type of paper you are printing onto.
4. When printing your photos go into the printer driver and select the correct mode. For example print your photos using a photo setting. This will select the correct quality and resolution for your pictures.
5. If you want your photos to be borderless ensure you tick the box on the driver otherwise the printer will print your photo with a small boarder.
6. Ensure you load the paper into the printer the right way round according to your printer manufacturer’s specification. For example, Epson printers are glossy side facing forward.
7. Be creative – experiment with different paper finished such as semi glossy. Why not try printing your photos in black and white or sepia.
8. Ensure you set your camera to the maximum resolution if you want to enlarge your photos. Most photo printers are capable of printing borderless photos up to A4.
Subscribers 0
Fans 0
Followers 0
Followers