Our Name Says It All
Since 1958 we have been obsessive about how well we serve our customers at Giant Photo. Year after year you have brought your prints, negatives, slides and photos to GPS for the best quality and personal service in San Diego and on the Web.

And now we do it even better! Giant Photo has gone completely digital! Since the recent move, no more developing tanks, no more chemicals - just scan it and print it with direct digital printing.

Click here to get map and directions to the new location. Stop by for a Sunkist Fruit Gem candy! More great reasons to come see us at Giant Photo Service:

• Increased quality with speedier turnaround times with all our digital services
• Get digital images printed, mounted and laminated at the same location
• Service is still our #1 priority with all your orders
  

Question:
You want to buy a digital camera. Seems like most have more options than a 2005 Cadillac. You can't go wrong with most of the major camera makers. But one question always comes up. "How many megapixels do I need to make sharp pictures?"

Answer:
Let's say you have a budget of $400. That will buy a good quality, 4 megapixel(MP) camera with some money left over for a memory card (the new "film"). But is 4MP enough for big prints?

Let's find out.

As a general rule of thumb, yes, 4 megapixels will be enough to make good quality prints, up to about 16x20 inches (and larger with software interpolation). If you want to make big enlargements, be sure set your camera on the highest resolution setting it can have, whatever it's called – Super-Fine, Super High, Extra Fine – they all mean "this is the most pixels I can put in your picture". Anything less than the highest setting, and the picture will be softer when enlarged.

OK, on to the printing aspects.

In printing pictures, PPI is what matters. PPI stands for Pixels Per Inch and it's how digital printers lay down the ink. It's simple. The more pixels in the picture, the clearer, sharper and larger photo you can make. 8 megapixel cameras are much clearer and sharper at large print sizes than 2 megapixel cameras because they provide more pixels for the printer to print. However, we have gotten large prints out of a 2 MP camera set on its highest setting, it's just not super sharp. We have found that you need to have a minimum of 100 PPI to make a decent digital print. Our large format printer prints at 600 DPI (Dots Per Inch), so it will give you the best looking prints ever (just don't confuse that with PPI, it's different).

Here's a visual illustration to show image quality versus size of the final print for three common camera resolutions:



So, if you're taking photos and want to blow them up to "Giant Photos", you need to have the resolution set to the highest possible resolution to get the best looking large format photo. And one thing to remember is that people don't view large prints up close like they do 4x6's. Viewing distance can help ease the pain of a softer photograph. Call us if you have questions about something you want to enlarge. We would love to serve you!

Keep Clicking!
Sincerely,

Your friends at Giant Photo,
- Alfred, Helene, Sue and Crew