Advice on using photos from digital cameras

Selecting your image
If you are planning to use an image from your digital camera, the most important thing to remember is that the size and quality of your original image, will have a direct impact on the photographic quality of your canvas.
The chart below is designed to illustrate the maximum recommended canvas size that your camera (depending on its Mega Pixel rating and set at the highest quality image capture setting) can reliably reproduce.
If you want a canvas that is bigger than your camera can handle, it can be done, but the image will begin to pixilate. To obtain the best quality image it is advisable to set your camera to the highest resolution. It is then very important that you select a canvas size suitable for your image.

Calculating how big an existing digital photo can be blown up
To calculate how big an existing digital photo will blow up to before it starts to pixilate, simply divide the dimensions in pixels, by 72.This will give you it's dimensions in inches.
To illustrate by example:
My photo dimensions in terms of pixels is 1950 x 1500
I divide this by 72
My final dimensions are = 27.08 inches x 20.83 inches
In centimetres this is: 69cm x 53cm

Please note that the canvas itself has the effect of softening the image, so we can go a little larger than this calculation would suggest, before the image begins to degrade. This should, however, be used as a rough guide.

Increasing the size of an existing digital photo
To increase the size of an existing digital photo, simply use the resize tool in you imaging software programme.
Here you should be able to choose the size of the image in cm or inches. Make sure you set the dpi to 72 and you will be able to see on screen the sort of reproduction quality that you can expect from your resized picture.

Resizing images can result in very big files at 72dpi, so we do ask that when you send us the picture, you save it at 300dpi, but at a quarter of the size you want it.

Here's how the full process should work:
1) I want my picture printed at 50cm x 40cm.
2) I resize the existing image to these dimensions with the setting at 72dpi.
3) I check on screen what the result looks like when viewed at 100 percent (1:1)
4) It looks OK and I want to send it in.
5) I then save it at a quarter size (50cm x 40cm / 4 = 12.5cm x 10cm) with the dpi setting at 300dpi.
6) I send the file in!

Sending us digital images
If you are sending us digital images, you can either upload your images straight to the site or send them to us on a CD or DVD.