fz20 blurry pics

[Nome]

When I veiw my pics on the computer they are very clear. When I get them developed 6x4 they appear blurry has anyone got any ideas please. I use the camera on the auto settings pict size 2560.

Thanks

[jcon]

2 thing you can check. First, where are you getting them printed, and how many times have you had them printed and noticed this problem? It may be your monitor, and it may not be. I dont think its the camera if they are looking sharp on your monitor. My guess would be its where you are getting the printed. Try somewhere else and compare. Just a shot in the dark :D

[Nome]

on the monitor at the 6x4 size they are not sharp untill I enlarge them some 6x4 on the monitor looks about the same as when I get them printed

[genece]

You are not telling us enough...it has to do with how you are handling the pictures.

First what operating system is on your computer?

And what software are you using to view or edit the photos.

And while it makes no difference at what DPI you have the pictures saved at to view them on a monitor you want them saved at 250 to 300 dpi to print.
And at 300dpi that works out to a 6.5 X 8.5" photo.
Now you can not just reshape that to a 4 X 6 there are portions of the photo that need cropped out and unless you follow some rules to do that you will get pixlated pictures.

Tell us more about it and see if we can help.
If you take the original size photo to your store ... a 4X6 should be much sharper than on your monitor but you are at their mercy as to how they crop the photo.( not a good idea)

[pipe]

to: "Nome"
Before printing the picture I reduce the size in program (PhotoShop, PaintShop) to the size I like and re-sharpen.
Every reduction of size makes the picture blurry!

[road_rascal]

I had a similar problem with a larger electronics store who also stated they 'specialized' in digital printing. I took a group photo of workers at my plant and gave a copy of the files (on a burnt CD) to a friend. She took it to this store and for some reason they did additional post processing to the photo, which was absolutely unneccessary, and the photos turned out way too blurry. I took the exact same photo file to another place and it turned out great (at a do it yourself kiosk).

[tim11]

Before printing the picture I reduce the size in program (PhotoShop, PaintShop) to the size I like and re-sharpen.
Every reduction of size makes the picture blurry!
Why do you need to reduce the size of the picture before printing? You can just take the file to the print shop as is.
The reduction of the size itself doesn't lessen the picture sharpness but only what you do after that. In Photoshop, when you click SAVE AS, JPEG Options windows pops up. Choose Image Option - Quality: 12, Maximum or pull the tag to LARGE FILE. You must have a large file if you want to retain quality.

Nome, I believe it was the way you handled the file after editing it. If a file is sharp on monitor, it should be sharp in 6x4". As a test you can take the unedited original file to print and see the difference.

[pipe]

to: "tim11"
"Why do you need to reduce the size of the picture before printing? You can just take the file to the print shop as is. "

Well, that is what I do and photos are sharp. I prefer to control the quality to the end, if I can.

[David Metsky]

Well, that is what I do and photos are sharp. I prefer to control the quality to the end, if I can.
But the print shop isn't going to reduce the size of the on-disk image either. The printer handles all that, and the more information it has the better the image can be. Your monitor is only 72dpi, the printer can handle much greater than that and will do so without you needed to reduce the size of the image.

If you can, the file you give to the printer should be as large as possible so it can produce the best photo.

-dave-

[genece]

I do not believe you should reduce the file size however you should at least crop the photo to the size you want printed.
Photos are taken by most consumer cameras at a 4/3 ratio
and prints are not that ratio
A 4 X 6 is a 2/3 ratio
a 5 X 7 is a 5/7 ratio
a 8 X10 is a 4/5 ratio

If you do not crop it to fit ...the developer will or they will stretch and/or distort your photo to fit their paper.

[pipe]

to: "David Metsky"

Well, when I make thumbnails for my website I see how blurry they are after reduction, so I have to re-sharpen each one. I do the same before printing, specially, if I want little format like 4x6.

[David Metsky]

If you resize in PhotoShop or whatever, then yes, you need to sharpen. But that is because you are doing a lossy conversion in JPG. When you are printing an image, a different form of resizing is happening. You don't need to resize the image, the print driver is much better at doing that and doesn't need to sharpen the image afterwards because it isn't throwing away information.

As just mentioned, the cropping to fit the ratio of your print should be done, or the print tech will do it for you.

-dave-