How to Get Great Quality Digital Pictures For Putting On To Canvas
October 8, 2009
Digital cameras are great. You can snap away on an automatic setting and just concentrate on capturing the special moments in your child’s life, without worrying about all the technical stuff. Overall they deliver good quality even on totally auto mode and the great thing is that you can see the results on the screen immediately, so you know what you are getting. When it comes to enlarging our best photos though, sometimes we might be disappointed in the results. That cute picture of our toddler blowing bubbles may have looked perfectly sharp in a small image, but starts looking blurry and disintegrating when you blow it up large enough to print on to canvas. How can you make sure that your digital pictures will be good enough quality for putting on to canvas, when you finally do capture that perfect picture?
If you want great quality pictures to print large, you should get to know your camera a little beyond the auto settings it comes with. Most digital cameras come with options that you can set for quality and size of image. If you get into the habit of taking all your photographs on the best quality settings, you will always have the option of printing large.
So get out your manual or fiddle with your camera menu until you find these settings or variations of them:
1. Picture Quality You may have a choice of Normal, Fine and Superfine. Always set it at Superfine for a really sharp image.
2. Picture Size This is often shown as the number of pixels e.g. 2048×1538 or might just show as Large, Medium or Small. Set your camera permanently to the largest size available. You can always reduce the size on your computer afterwards, but you can never make the image bigger.
3. ISO This is the equivalent of the old film speeds and helps you take pictures in low light. An ISO of 50 gives you the best quality, while ISO 400 helps shoot in dim lighting conditions, but will not give you such a sharp image. Set it to ISO50 unless you need more light and don’t expect a picture taken at ISO400 to enlarge well.
Different brands of digital cameras may have slightly different versions of these settings (mine are from a Canon Powershot) but these are the main variables to look out for. Once you have set these to the finest quality settings, you will know your photos are the highest quality possible for your camera.
The only drawback to shooting at the finest settings all the time is that you use up space on your memory card more quickly, as each photo takes up more space. Solve this problem by buying yourself a spare memory card, so that you always have back up when you are out and about. Like having a spare film in your camera bag, it makes sure that you never miss a great photo opportunity. Transfer all your images from both memory cards onto your computer regularly, back them up and then delete them from your camera, so that you always have plenty of space available on your camera for new pictures.
Now you have the security of knowing that any time you catch a gorgeous picture of your baby looking too cute for words, you will be able to make a beautiful canvas print of it without worrying about the picture quality.
Mum and Photographer
If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
Link to this pageComments
Got something to say?
- Sign up for our FREE eBook and discover how to take wonderful and interesting photographs of your children:
