When is the last time you developed a roll of film? Five weeks ago? Five months? Five years? We live in the digital age where digital cameras are like cars to us. We pick one that looks nice, take it for a test drive, and buy it if the money's right. Do we know everything about it? No, but we need to know certain things in order to get the best performance out of our purchase.

Now when it comes to cars, we haven't got the answers, but when it comes to digital imaging, KAT can help.

Our digital imaging tidbit is all about one word, QUALITY.

Take Sandra's story, for instance.
Sandra has a big job ahead of her. Her company assigned her the task of putting together the annual faculty calendar. She enjoys taking pictures and is excited to take on the project. Since Sandra owns a digital camera, she is planning on snapping some photos around the office of the staff.

She takes a few photos of her boss in her office to send to the design company as examples. Sandra wants to get everything right the first time, so she contacts them about putting the calendar together and explains her artistic expectations. She sends the designer the example photos for review. He replies quickly with some interesting news:

Sandra,

Great photos! I applaud you for your preparation and foresight. You've got a nice eye for photography and they look great on a computer screen but there's a small problem. The RESOLUTION of your photos is TOO LOW to use for print. Don't worry, it's likely that this problem can solved quickly and easily.

First, why don't I explain why this is the case:

~ RESOLUTION is the amount of pixels per inch ( or DPI ) in a digital image.
The most common RESOLUTIONS are 72 DPI (this is your typical "on screen" resolution)
and 300 DPI (ideal resolution for print)
~ PIXELS are just tiny squares of color that make up an image
~ The HIGHER the resolution, the more pixels per inch, the better the print quality.

Now let's talk about your photos. You've got some great photos and they work perfectly for viewing on a computer or on the web. The photo you sent was taken at a size of 640 pixels x 480 pixels. On your screen it looks like this:

On your computer screen (72 DPI) this photo looks to be about 9 in. x 7 in. One would think this would be okay for a calendar. However, the ideal print size of this photo is about 2 in. x 1.5 in. at 300 DPI (that's less than 25% the size of what you see on screen). On your screen, photos look smooth because the pixels blend together, but on paper we see them clearly. See the examples below.

  

Hopefully this illustration helps you understand pixels and resolution a little better. After all, we want you to get the most out of your photos whether they are used in a project or being printed for personal use. Image quality is the most important element in taking digital photos. My advice to you is to set the image quality of your camera to its highest setting. You can usually find the setting in the menu. Since each camera is different, here's a chart that shows you what size prints will look nice with the digital camera you use. It's important to note the MEGAPIXEL number.

Sandra has a 3.1 megapixel camera and, after setting her image quality to its highest setting, she was able to get photos that, while not ideal for print, worked out for her office calendar project.

So, after all this talk about pixels and resolution, the way to get quality imagery is to PREPARE.

Here are a few tips:

• ~ CHECK YOUR BATTERIES ( low batteries can reduce image clarity in some digital cameras )
• ~ CHECK YOUR IMAGE QUALITY SETTING ( should be located under your camera's main menu )
• ~ TAKE TEST PHOTOS ( print out a few or send them to your designer before taking important photos )

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