New digital camera.

[Data]

I just purchased the Olympus stylus 300 with a 64 meg xD card. This is my first digital camera and I thought I would ask few question. I will take most of the pictures in the second highest quality mode 2048x1536.

What process do you use to get the digital pictures to paper.?

Do you have your own picture printer? Do you use a online site? I see that Wal-Mart now processes the digital pictures for .26 each.

Is the quality of the $150 dollar picture printers the same as an online sites? Will the printer cartridge cost eat me alive in these printers?

Do you modify the picture before printing it or is it best to print the original from the camera. The reason I as this is because if I view the same picture on two different computer is will look different.

If anyone has any tips on using this camera please let me know.

Thanks, Data

 

[Lan-Lord]

Hi Data,

I use imagestation.com. I have been very happy with them. They have unlimited photo storage and the prints come back looking really good. I just had a photo printed at 16x20 and it is impressive.

Using an online printing service really is not an option unless you have or can use a broadband connection though.

For me, "rollilng your own" photos is too big of a pain, and to really do it right, it will be pretty expensive. I mean doing a Holiday Card or something is fine, but if you want to print photos to frame and matte, or to put in a photo album, the quality of paper and ink will not hold up for the long term.. (of course you have digital so you can reprint easily.. that is the counter argument)

Wal-Mart and Sams have a great photo system. They use the fuji frontier printing system which is the caliber of printer that one will want when developing photos... My issue with Wal-Mart/Sams is that they only do matte finish. I prefer glossy, so that is my only reason for doing it online (.49c for a 4x6, but they do have specials for .29c for a 4x6) . If you have a Costco near you, they have the fuji frontier system AND will do glossy.. and the prints are close to the same price as Sams/Wal-Mart.. (.25c/4x6 I think)

I dont have any info on the picture printers, I personally would like to have/try one out, especially if they do a good job. I would be interested to hear other's opinions on them.

As far as editing the photo prior to printing, I do and I get a better looking photo as a result.. Some online printing services have an ICC profile that you can apply to your photo that will calibrate the photo's color space with the color space of the printer.. I have not gotten into that and dont have much info on it (imagestation does not do that)

As far as looking at the photo on 2 different computers and looking different, that will take a little trial and error. If you are really concerned about how the photo is rendering on your computer system, you might want to make sure that your monitor/color space is properly calibrated.

I personally shoot at the max resolution that the camera supports.. If are positive that you will only be printing 4x6's then your setting will be okay, but if you ever want to go bigger, you may need the extra resolution. just my .02c

here is the photo that I had printed at 16x20.

Enjoy the new cam. Printing with digital is so much nicer in my opinion. Doing it online makes it that much easier too..

 

[copilot]

Ok here is my .02 cents.
If you are just staring out, Purchase a printer you can afford. I use two printers but it is a job and income for me. As far as online versus taking it in to the store, I'm going to call Lan-lord on this one and say he has never made a living doing pictures.
Matte finish hides mistakes and is better when people are handling them. I do nothing but matte finish because it brings out more color in the picture. Online, that is a touchey thing with me because it almost cost me 2 weddings, I can't afford screwups. I myself along with other local photagraphers use Sams as a developer, reason being I'm on a first name basis with all of the employees there and when I walk in they know I drop a hundred dollars or more at one time and I get what I pay for. Yes it don't hurt to start small and get big.
The setting you are using on your camera is good up to 8x10's don't let no one tell you different cuz that is almost the same as my e-10.
My 2 printers are Yes I'm a HP junkey a hp deskjet 895cse (150.00) And a hp7550 (370.00).
Enjoy and work with your camera. There is nothing wrong with trial and error.
I use the best setting on still portraits shots only.

 

[TxCowboy]

Excellent advice from Lan-lord and Copilot!! I'll throw in my opinions.

I do not print any photos at home. I personally can't justify the cost of paper/printers/ink/time etc when I can get them done so cheaply elsewhere. I am sorry but I do not believe that any home affordable home printer can print a image at the archival quality of the Fugi Frontiers or other mini lab systems. Those big printers don't cost thousands upon thousands of dollars for nothing. I had a guy tell me that any HP printer would print photos exactly the same and as good as the Fugi Frontier. I laughed and told him if that was true, it would be whole lot cheaper for Wal-mart's photo center to buy 150 HP printers.LOL Seriously though, it is just a personal preference. I like the ease of using Wal-Mart.

As for the online prints......I've only used Wal-Mart.com and as Lan-lord said the prints were glossy. I personally like the matte finish. For that reason I won't be using Wal-Mart online any longer. I know all the people in the local Wal-Mart photo center by name and they really help me out.

The HQ setting on your Stylus 300 should probably be good. The best advice I can give is to shoot some photos in HQ and in SHQ and write down which are which. Have them printed and see what you think. Chances are on 4x6's and 5x7's you might not even tell much difference.

Photo editing software......I use Photoshop Elements 2 and really like it. However, it has alot of advanced controls that you probably will never use and without some type of training (class, book, cd, etc) it might be a little difficult to learn. Don't get me wrong, it's not rocket science but it is just a very powerful little program. Your camera probably came with Camedia Master? If so install it and test it out. It is a very basic program and not too difficult. It will let you get your feet wet in very basic photo editing. (cropping, bightness, contrast controls, etc)

One thing I would suggest is, if you don't already have one, go buy a USB memory card reader. They aren't expensive ($20-$30) at places like Wal-Mart and you won't have to use your camera batteries to upload photos to your computer.

I can't think of anything off hand but if you have any more questions ask away!!!

 

[AnnieAK]

Just to play devil's advocate: Now that I'm pretty much only taking digital pics, I do all my own printing of my pics, The difference between me and most others, I suppose, is that I don't really print out all that many. I do send some over the Internet, so those I actually downsize to less than 100kb. As far as printing 3x5s or 4x6s, I probably only do 100-200 per year. Mostly, I just keep the file pics on my computer, and we look at them on the monitor.
Regarding home printers not being as good as Wal-Mart, I disagree. I know a pro and I've also seen on the various photo forums on the Web where pros do their own printing. Epson has long-term inks, and that the brand I've seen mentioned most often. I like HewlettPackard, I have an HP computer, 2 HP printers, and 2 of the old-time (probably collectible by now) HP reverse-Polish notation calculators from the 1970s! But, for my prints I have an Epson printer that I paid about $170 for two years ago. I've probably done several dozen 8x10s in addition to the small prints, and I like being able to get things to come out exactly as I want them. I think that's the key. Don't print your own unless you really like to mess around with editing software, colors, cables, paper, and such. It does take a fair amount of time and effort, and if what you really want is snapshots to show to family and friends, then wal-Mart is the way to go.

 

[copilot]

I'm with you on that Annie. I also think that wallyworld and such are sat up to mass produce. Kinda like buying a car, plenty of dealers to buy from but if you want a race car you don't buy it at the dealer.
The Hp 7550 that I have I will put up against Wallyworld or any other, now if to make 50 to 100 prints right now then go to another place and save on the time of editing and ink. All though you can take your flash card or cd or what ever your pics are on, go to Sams like I do edit, crop yourself and have them print the pics for you on their machine. It takes time to do these things but it is a finished product that you want not something they glance at and says well it is almost lunch time so I'm going to push these through as is.

I like this Bannana dude.

 

[Data]

I would like to thank everyone for their input. My brother just recently bought an Epson picture printer. I am going to do some comparison between his printer and the local Wal-Mart. Most of the printing that I will do is family pictures. I have a 2 yr old and one on the way. With a 35mm camera we would take pictures every now and then, but now I think we will take a lot more and only print the good ones. My 2 yr old will have spots in her eyes for a while from the number of pictures that I took this weekend.

Once again thanks for the info,

Data

 

[Haymaker]

Hey Data,

For your image printing stuff you should look at www.ShutterFly.com sometime. They will give you 15 prints free the first time you use them, and it's real easy too. All you do is upload your photos on their web site and they send them to you. Every time you refer someone too you get another 15 free prints.

It's worth looking into...

 

[TxCowboy]

Annie & Copilot, I want to say that I might have came off wrong in my post after I re-read it. I'm not saying that printing your own photos is stupid, nor am I saying they prints are high quality.(not that ya'll implied I did.lol) I do know that alot of pros print their own photos on archival paper with great success, no doubt about it. I'm just not convinced the quality of a home printer is up to that of a professional laser printer. However, I could be wrong. I have seen photos printed from home printers that, when laid down next to professionally printed images, no difference in the two could be seen. But my fear is what the home printed photos will look like in 20-30 yrs? Just my fears I guess.

I think Annie sums it up well though, it really just boils down to whether you want to mess with printing them yourself. I enjoy the photo editing but don't have the time, patience, or desire to print them.lol

Great advice all around.

 

[AnnieAK]

...which brings up another point!
Storage.
Family photos are priceless, and if something happens to one of them, you will want to get another picture made. The good thing about digital photos is that you can always keep that digital file around should you want to make more copies of it. The thing is, you have to keep that file and also be able to find it and use it in 5, 10, or 20 years. So, figure out some way to keep those files, either on your computer(the files space really adds up!) or on CDs or somewhere. (Then when CDs start getting out of date, it'll be easy to dfind them and copy them over to the new media!)
But do it soon. If you're just starting to take pictures of your kids, you'll be racking up the photos left and right!!
My Mom has dozens of pictures taken everwhere from the early 1900s (her parents wedding picture in 1915) up through WWII pics of the 40s and into the 50s. Many of them are in extremely poor shape; you're scared to touch them because they might fall apart. How nice it would be if we could replace them. My sister-in-law and I have scanned and reprinted some of them but you just can't replace the ripped or badly damaged ones.