Printing old photos in 8x6

1

1980-f

Messages
4
Name
Simeon
Edit My Images
Yes
I want to send some old photos of varying sizes and shapes to be printed in 8"x6" format but I'm struggling to make it work. I've scanned them at 600dpi, cleaned them up using Photofiltre software, then pasted each one on a grey background of 8"x6" in portrait or landscape, depending on the original photo's shape. However, to make them fit the background and thus be printable in the centre of the background without cropping, I have to reduce the size of most photos. When I send the resulting images to an online photo printer, many of them are rejected as the resolution has been reduced too much. The minimum required for an 8"x6" print is 2400x1800 px.

I need to maximise the resolution and not crop the photos. How do I make this work?
 
Where's this 'background' come from? A digital background just has pixel dimensions, not inches or mm. So haven't you made your background 2400 x 1800?

You will then size your images at less than that before pasting, making sure that the resolution of both image and background is the same (300 ppi).

I know nothing of Photofiltre. In PS one might normally use canvas size rather than paste.
 
Last edited:
Ah, you might be right. I created a grey background and pasted the photo on top. I'll check. Thank you.
 
1980-f said:
Ah, you might be right. I created a grey background and pasted the photo on top. I'll check. Thank you.
Click to expand...
If you were doing the pasting in Photoshop or something 'similar' and the resolutions were different it would flag that up and ask you if you wanted to proceed.
 
Forget the grey background. If you're scanning at 600 ppi off the old prints you should be able to get twice the linear dimensions from the new print., though you may lose a tiny bit on straightening etc.

Some printers will try to maximise the image size by cropping, if the aspect ratio is different (eg if you have 4*6" old prints and want 6*8" new prints); the trouble is you don't have control over their crop in most cases. If possible opt for the whole image. This might result in extra white space if the aspect ratio is slightly different; you can always crop this with actual scissors! Otherwise, use your photo editing software to crop to exactly the aspect ratio you want for the paper size. That let's you control which bits get left out.

EDIT: oh and if you have access to the negatives you might get a better quality scan, though it takes slightly specialised scanners to get it (eg Epson V500).
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top