Need tips on how to capture that perfect photograph for your photo card invite? For starters, if you send us a blurry, grainy, dark or badly lit photograph  then your announcement will reflect these flaws. We do not want that! So here are some tips that we hope will help you capture the perfect photograph(s). One of our best pieces of wisdom is to keep it simple.

VERY IMPORTANT:  Required photo resolution and file format for sending photos
Ideally, we need a 1200x1800 pixel image to get the best Baby for your 4-inch x 6-inch print (at 300dpi). A higher resolution is even better! A lower resolution may work for a collage design, which incorporates several smaller size photos. . If using a digital camera, set your camera to the highest resolution possible (Please refer to your owner's manual for more information about setting the resolution on your camera).  Also, please make sure your e-mail program does not try to automatically resize your photo(s)

Lighting
Use natural light if possible--either outdoors or coming in through a window. But avoid bright, direct sunlight. You especially want to have good lighting around your face to prevent shadows on the face. You also can use a flash along with lamps or bright lights, again being careful to avoid shadows. You may be surprised that cloudy, overcast days provide ideal lighting for pictures. On overcast days, the soft light flatters faces. Indoors, try turning off the flash and use light coming in from a window to give you a soft, almost glowing appearance.

Focus
. Check your manual for instructions on how to focus your camera. Photos that are out of focus may be blurry, which we can not fix. Blurry photos may also be caused by shooting too close or movement while shooting the photo. If you are getting a lot of blurry photos, try stepping back, and read your camera's user manual on focusing and optimal close-up distance to shoot from. We will not be able to use a blurry photo. Often times, if you are looking at the photo from a digital camera, you won't notice how blurry it is. In fact, we had to make this photo rather large to imitate what it would actually looklike in print. If in doubt about a photo, check your photos by zooming in on them. If it lacks sharp features such as the blurry photo does, as compared to the nice, sharp photo on the left, please find a sharper photo to replace a blurry photo.

Use a simple background
An uncluttered background focuses attention on you, resulting in a stronger photo. .

This brings us to cropping, probably one of the number one problems we face with photos (other than getting the original, uncropped photos). Often times, a customer orders a design with, lets say, 3 horizontal photos. But they send in 3 very tight, close-up vertical photos, which if we did crop them horizontal, we would cut off a head or something very important to the photo. Keep in mind, when matching photos to a design, the orientation of the photos needed for the designs photo area dimensions. It's not that a vertical photo cannot be cropped square or horizontal...but look at your photos and envision what a particular crop would include or lose in your photo. fYou can take any photo, and see what a square, vertical or horizontal crop would look like.

Take lots of pictures!
We've taken upwards of 100 photos to get 5 great photographs. This is pretty easily done with a digital camera these days. Sometimes you can take a whole roll of film to get one great photograph. I

The Film and The Camera
The best type of film to use is 200 or 400 speed film. Anything higher will be too grainy. Use a camera that has a lens that will focus. Please do not use a disposable camera.