essentialphotokit2 digital photovideo Virgin Media

Digital & Tech

Essential photo kit pt.2

Check out page 1: Digital camera tips

Computer

Digital cameras have limited memory space, so whether you choose to store your pictures online with a service like Photobox or burn them to CDs/DVDs, you are going to need a computer. It's certainly good practice to back up your photos frequently and thus avoid the nightmare of losing them all if your hard drive bites the dust.

Once your images are stored on a computer, you can improve them using image editing software, share them via an online album, or simply send them by email. However, if you are planning on the latter, try and make the pictures smaller by opening them in a image-editing program and setting the resolution to 72dpi ─ you'll greatly reduce the time it takes to receive the file.

Printer

If you are planning on printing a lot of colour photographs at home, then it may be worth looking at some of the dedicated photo printers on the market that come with ink already embedded on the paper.

However, although you could potentially save a small fortune replacing expensive ink cartridges, these dedicated devices can be restrictive because they only tend to produce 4x6 prints.

An alternative way to save some money would be to choose a printer that uses a range of ink cartridges without built-in print heads. That way, you can replace them separately at a low cost, rather than paying for a whole new combined ink/print head cartridge when just one colour runs out.

Do bear in mind that if you are using picture editing software to print your photos, you should set the resolution to at least 225dpi. Higher resolution means better quality.

Back to the Photo and Video Centre
Read our tips on taking good pictures
Find out more about colour, light and composition with our advanced guides
Find out about enhancing your pictures

Page Number
Page Navigation

Domains from just £1.99 with free sitebuilder

Web Space with Blogs, Email, Photogallery and free easy-to-use website Builder. All this for £1.99/month

Useful links

More on Digital & Tech