Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Ordering by mail and Print quality

As you may know we accept prints through the mail. We used to think that with prints we can control the quality better, but it isn't always the case.
Yes, when we scan we can control the parameters of the scanner and make sure we get the best scan possible but what if the actual print is low in quality? Well, in that case, there is really nothing we can do.

So, what is a good print and how do you get one?

The quality of prints highly depends on the printer and the paper.
* The old 1hr developing machines usually give good results.
* Photographers that make prints for you will usually use the highest quality labs.
* Online printing: quality varies. If it is defined as a lab you will probably get good quality printing.
* If you are printing it on your home printer it really depends on the quality of the printer and the paper. Make sure to use the best quality when printing and use high quality photo paper.

How to tell if your print isn't good quality:
* If the colors seem "patch"
* If you see lines going across
* if you see the printing "dots".
Bad quality printing Original image

Quick reminder: If you are sending us the order through the mail, make sure to print and fill out the order form

Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Combining several photos

Often we are asked if we can combine several photos to make one lamp. As a mother to two boys, I know that it is hard to find a picture where they both are smiling their faces clean and their eyes open ("How can they blink at the exact time the camera clicks?").

The answer to this questions is "it depends". We have done quite a few lamps made of combined images but it depends on the orientation of the images and the size of the final piece.

So, your best bet is to send the images to us and we will let you know how or if we can combine them.

A few samples of images we have combined:



3 images combined into a 5x7 horizontal lamp

This can be possible when you have narrow single images.

+ = both kids smiling :)

This type of combination is possible only in rare cases where the background isn't problematic.

Wednesday, May 7, 2008

4x6 lamp orientation limitation

The light affection 4x6 lamp is only available in the vertical orientation.
The limitation is purely because of technical limitations with the light
bulb size. A 4x6 horizontal lamp will have the light bulb sticking out and
that just doesn't look good.
Can we work with horizontal images?
In some cases it is possible to crop the image to be vertical. For example:
It is quite easy to crop the following horizontal to a vertical 4x6 proportion