Re: Need help with digital pix

[Chad Attlesey <davinci@uswest.net>]

>> Is there a way to transform digital images to magazine printing quality
>> slides other than shooting the images from your PC screen?
>> I try to get an article published in a German aquarium publication and they
>> can't use my digital pix.
>> TIA

Your images were probably rejected because of the resolution at which they
were sent.  Unless you spent several thousand dollars for a high-end digital
camera, your images, I am guessing were less than 1280 x 1024 pixels.  Most
magazines/print media usually (in my experience in non-aquarium
publications) like to see images that are at least 300-400 dots per inch.
Say you submitted images that were 640 x 480 pixels (the most common
resolution for digital still cameras).  The magazine could only reproduce
your images at 2.13 x 1.6 inch.  This is a pretty tiny image and, given the
topic, probably of no use to the magazine.  Blown up larger than this,
things start looking lousy really fast.

Digital cameras are great for online/internet/digital documents but have
limited use in print work.  The best (and cheapest) bet for print work is to
take pictures with your 35mm or other film camera, have the images you want
to use printed at 8 x 10 (usually a few bucks at your local film shop) and
get yourself a nice flatbed scanner that is capable of scanning at least
1200 dots per inch (optically, not digitally interpolated, there is a
difference in quality).  If you hunt around a little, you can get one of
these flat bed scanners for less than $100.00 US.  I see them occasionally
now as little as $50.00.  Until the cost of CCD cameras comes down and the
image resolution goes up, this is still the best way, IMHO, to create high
quality digital images for publication.

My 2 cents worth.  Now back to your regularly scheduled apisto discussions.
Sorry to go off topic.

- Chad



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