NBC TODAY: Home Photo Printing

As digital cameras become more popular, the trend of printing your photos at home on your computer is catching on like wildfire. But is it really time to say sayonara to your local Fotomat? BestStuff’s Corey Greenberg shows us how to get the best looking photos from today's latest digital devices.

Why is home photo printing such a hot trend?
As consumers switch over to digital cameras, the first thing they discover is how much fun it is to print your own photos at home instead of having them developed at a local photo lab. Instant gratification, and the ability to optimize the quality of the photos using the latest PC software, is why home photo printing has taken off in such a big way.




Can any computer printer handle photos?
No, you need a "photo-ready" color printer. Most lasers are black and white only, and even some printers that claim to be photo-ready aren't really up to the task of delivering prints that look comparable to what you'd get from a photo lab. The good news is that upgrading to a superior photo-ready printer is unusually affordable these days thanks to the PC price wars -- the excellent Epson 780 ink-jet printer I use for my own photos at home retails for just $99! It's a great, no-frills photo printer that does excellent black text for documents and gorgeous, detailed, full-resolution color photos.




For a little bit more ($250) Epson makes printers with more features like the 785EPX that takes digital film cards directly for PC-free printing.




For those who want the state of the art, "dye-sublimation" printers like the $999 Olympus P-400 deliver prints that can look even better than your local photo lab.



What are the tricks to getting the best looking photo prints at home?
Using the right paper is key. While most photo-ready printers will produce decent looking prints on regular paper, you really need to use special photo paper in order to get the most realistic looking photos. And while you can use any old copier paper for black and white text printouts, be sure to use the same manufacturer's photo paper with your printer -- each is optimized to work best with the other, so use Epson paper with Epson printers, Canon paper with Canon printers, etc.



What about getting rid of "red-eyes" in digital photos?
Anybody who prints photos at home should get a copy of Adobe's new Photoshop Elements digital photo optimizer software. It's the best $99 you can spend on getting the best looking photos at home. Elements lets you easily correct for red-eye, improper lighting, and even adds a professional fill-in flash effect to pictures to bring colors and backgrounds to life.