Answers
One page per question, each answering it in the first sentence. If the question you have is not here, ask it.
What size photo do you need for a funeral service?
Three sizes cover almost every service: 8x10 inches for the portrait on the register table, 5x7 for the program, and 20x24 for the easel print at the front. Whether your photograph can fill the larger two depends on its pixel dimensions, not on the file size or how good it looks on a phone.
What are the photo requirements for a funeral program?
A funeral program photograph should be at least 300 DPI at the size it will be printed, which for a typical 5x7 photograph on the cover means 1500x2100 pixels. Programs are held at reading distance, so they are the least forgiving thing at a service — a photograph that looks acceptable on a 20x24 easel print can look visibly soft on a program.
Why will a photo saved from Facebook not print properly?
Facebook re-encodes every photograph you upload and keeps a smaller copy — commonly no more than 2048 pixels on the long edge, and 960 on older uploads — so the file you download is not the file that was taken. At 2048 pixels a photograph prints an 8x10 at about 192 DPI, which is soft but usable, and it falls just short of 300 DPI even at 5x7.
How do you photograph an old print with a phone so it prints well?
Lay the print flat in bright indirect daylight, hold the phone directly above it so the print fills the frame with the edges square, turn the flash off, tap the print to set focus, and take several. Done carefully, a 12 megapixel phone photograph of a 5x7 print holds about 576 pixels per inch of the original — close to what a 600 DPI flatbed scan gives you.
The only photo we have is too small to print. What now?
Print it at the largest size it can genuinely do, and let that decide the size of the frame rather than the other way round. A smaller print that looks like her is better than a larger one that does not, and an enlargement can add perhaps a size to what is possible — it cannot recover detail the camera never captured.
How do you blow up a picture for a funeral?
Start by finding out what the picture can print at, then choose the frame size from that answer. A photograph needs 4800x6000 pixels for a true 300 DPI 16x20, and 3200x4000 for an acceptable 200 DPI one — enlarging a file past what it holds produces a bigger print, not a better one.