Can you help me with photo resolution and printer problems?

Question

I know it's a little long but please read through, I need some advice:

I recently got married and was given a digital copy of all of my photos from the professional photographers that were at the wedding. The photos are quite small on my computer so I decided to copy and paste the files onto my hard drive and view them on my TV through my Xbox. Luckily for me I can now view them larger and choose which ones I want to purchase.

My problem: I am not willing to pay $60 for an 8x10 photo above and beyond what was included with my package. The photographers did a lovely job with the pictures themselves but on the day of my wedding they were rude to myself and my girls, they forgot important shots (none of myself and the best man), and they are now taking forever and a day to set up a meeting with me so I can order prints. I would much rather print off my own photos instead of going broke for photographers that can't even treat me well now that they've done my photos...

My Question: Since I can view the photos on my TV (which is a considerable size, enlarging the photos clearly at least a 9x15 size) is it possible for me to print them off at high quality? I can't even manage a sharp 4x6 for some reason and I'm not sure if it would be my photo printer or if I need to ask for digital copies of my photos in a higher resolution.

Should I:
- Invest in a better quality photo printer? Mine is definitely not one of the best out there
- Request better digital copies of the photos?
- Go to another establishment (Kodak store?) and have them print off photos?
- Order my photos from the photographers as there is no way around this?


This is making me feel very ripped off - missing important shots, neglecting my appointment, poor quality digital photos and parent albums starting at $1000? I just want to make albums for the people important to me without having to get a second mortgage.

Answer 1

It depends on the digital copies you received. If the original contract you signed with the photographers included the rights to the digital copies, then what you have are the originals and you can have them printed at home via photo printer or by a third-party. It is more likely, however, that you do not own the photos, and the digital copies you have are reduced quality samples for you to preview before ordering.



You could check the quality of the images yourself, but I'll recommend an alternative. Go to a local photo development center and explain the problem. Ask them to print one or two photos and then manually inspect them on the spot. I'd be very surprised if they came out in good quality and were not watermarked, but it's worth the effort.



~ EDIT ~

Also, what the guy below me said. Make sure you're actually opening the picture on your computer and not just looking at a preview thumbnail, but this would be a really... silly... mistake.

Answer 2

First off in print preview before printing the picture how does the quality of the photo look? if it looks choppy then you need to get better digital prints, but if the picture in print preview for 8 x 10 is nice and clear then it sounds like a printer problem. Solutions - First try cleaning the heads on the printer to do this refer to your printer manual, if its windows 7 your running you might try going under control panel>printers>find your printer right click on it's icon>printer preference>now click maintenance tab at the end. Include more info about Printer Manufacture and operating system or you could send me the photo your trying to print at [e-mail] and i can give it a look over. see if its the printer or the picture for you!

Answer 3

Take them to another establishment for printing, if the quality is still poor then you are stuck having to buy them from the photographer.



It is possibly that he has dropped the quality or even watermarked the photos to prevent you from reproducing them. Most photographers own the rights to the photos they take.

Answer 4

The photographer probably has given you fairly low resolution versions of the photos so you can't print good quality photos yourself. See if you can get him to give you the original high-res files from his camera (on CD or DVD). Then you can make good prints, or have them made, by any reputable printing service.

Answer 5

When you click on the image to open it, does it come up full size? You may be looking at thumbnail links of an album. When it brings up the image full size, can you left click on the displayed photo and save as a file. Don't really have and answer for this one.

Answer 6

HP