Are you running a real estate agency or any businesses that are doing a lot of printing? If so, printers are your best operational partners.
If you have a great quality printer – whether it’s colour or black-and-white – one of the best things about it is the fact that you can print off your product photos from your PC, laptop or phone. It might be a grainy snap on a sheet of A4, or it could be a professional-quality portrait on heavy photographic paper, it doesn’t matter. As long as you know what you’re doing, you can get the best photos possible from that humble machine you bought from any trusted online stores like cartridgepeople.com; here’s how.
Choose whether to print direct from the camera or from memory
If your HP printer model allows you to choose between printing straight from the camera or from memory (USB, for example), then give both a go to see which one works best for different photos. One might work better for low light or black-and-white images, while the other produces finer details. Remember when shopping for printer accessories to use a coupon to make it cheaper, view here to see how you can save!
Use the auto-fix force
Almost all printers that can produce photos have an autofix feature that analyses the information in the image and adjusts it to get the optimal result. There may be contrast fixes, red-eye remover and so on. Usually these widgets improve the result (after all, that’s what they’re there for), but sometimes they can remove a bit of the magic, too. Have a fiddle with the settings and experiment to see what happens. You might need autofix for some effects and not for others.
Preview any images that you’re direct-printing
If your printer can work directly from memory cards, you may only be able to see a printed index sheet; but you may also be able to use a preview screen with some models. If you can use the preview screen, then do, because it’s a big advantage.
Using the preview screen is faster as you don’t have to print out several times, and of course it also saves valuable ink and paper.
If you’re printing out several not-quite-the-same photos (different light filters or settings, for example) you’ll need to see the subtle differences in the flesh to really see them.
Get to know the editor
Many Hewlett Packard printers have editing features, especially in the preview screens, so practice with them. You may just have the basics, like red-eye removal, cropping and so on, or you may have the ability to adjust contrast and brightness, or to add graphics or lettering. These editing features are very user-friendly.
Wait until you see how the photo looks before you edit it
If it’s a photo you really want to take care of, a really important image you want to show to a big client, then don’t fiddle with it too much until you know how it’s going to look on paper. Preview screens are great, but they’ll never give you the exact look of the real thing. With valuable images, do the cropping first, print out and only then start doing any more editing that you deem necessary. You can always print out a few versions to compare and contrast after you’ve done some editing.
Use the right paper
Of course, the better the quality of the paper, the better the image will be. If you’re printing out an image to frame or sell, then only the best will do. A photo on a list of properties you’re going to hand out to prospects on many places in your neighborhood, or one that’s destined for life as a fridge magnet will only need plain paper or basic photo paper.
Cover photo credit: torbakhopper / Flickr
