How to get a good digital print?

[Lance]

Hi everyone,

I have tried scanning my photos, editing them, burning into CD rom and printing it out again into hard copy.
But the results I get from the lab I go to is rather disappointing. The quality lost is about 20-30% although I scanned my pictures using a high DPI res and large file size.
Anyone care to enlighten me, what are the possible reasons for the lost in the quality?

 

[Retro]

Aparently (according to the guy at one of the photo labs), they use a higher res scanner and if possible they would rather scan negatives. He also told me to scan into TIFF format and not JPEG so that editing can be done and quality no compromised.

This is what I was told. Maybe one of the more experienced CS members would care to verify it?

 

[linse]

(1) What resolution do you scan at? Assuming, you did not crop your photo and the final image is not magnified, I understand that the Fuji Frontier printers have a output resolution of 300dpi.

(2) What scanner do you use? If you use a $200 scanner, you can't expect the best quality.

(3) Do you sharpen your photos?

(4) Where do you print your photos? Some labs are better than others.

(5) What do you mean "the quality loss is about 20-30%"? Are the photos blur, different in colour/contrast, etc.

(6) Do you calibrate your monitor?

 

[Azure]

Try going to some of the Fuji FDI labs that print on Frontier. I believe some of them are willing to help you do some adjustment and even share tips on how to adjust your jpegs.

 

[Lance]

I scan at low res 450 dpi....even to the extent of 1600dpi.... scan both picture and negatives....quality still not sharp...image blur compared to the original print.

 

[CYRN]

Can you tell us the model of your scanner?

I assumed that you are using a negative scanner for your negatives.

 

[Lance]

Epson 1650. Should it be trashed?

 

[blizzy]

usually when i scan pics or negatives.... i have to sharpen it as they always look soft.

 

[CYRN]

Originally posted by Lance
Epson 1650. Should it be trashed?

Nope.. I think it a flatbed scanner, is it?

If you want a good scan from negatives you should use a flim (negative) scanner. (correct me if I'm wrong here)

If you scan your pic on the flatbed scanner, it's prone to analogue "generation loss" in quality.

Think these are your root cause.