How to Prepare Your Images for Professional Printing

Photography Tips  •  Printing

Even though most of the photos we take are digital and displayed in a digital environment, the very best of them often deserve to come to life, as we print and proudly display them. If you’re thinking of printing some of photos for display—whether in a gallery or in your own home—Karl Taylor explains exactly what you need to do:

1. The first step is to calibrate your screen in order to make sure that the colors it displays are correct. Taylor shows a device and its software that he uses in order to do that, but there are plenty of solutions out there.
2. Next, you need to make sure that the image itself is ready to go from a digital medium (the screen) to a physical one, and for that you have to make just a couple of enhancements. Check the dimensions of the image and its resolution. The printer will specify the dimensions/resolution the image needs to have when printing it.
3. Sharpening is also something you can do in order to improve the image you’re printing. The difference between applying the Unsharp Filter is subtle (you can make it as intense as you want, though), but the effects are noticeable, and they improve the image. You can use the same filter to give photos a contrast boost to make it a little better when printed.

Making the picture sharper will ensure that when printed it will stand out and look its best.

4. Another filter that can be useful is the High Pass filter. Select it from the Other tab, then select a pixel radius setting. This will boost the sharpness of the image significantly, and that will look a lot better when the photo is actually printed.

You can use these tips to make sure your photo looks its best when printed out, and you can test different settings to find out what works best for you.