digital photo printing resolution

[glenpinn]

hi everyone. just a problem with printing photos.

i have a dv video camera that takes still photos (1.7mp) and the photo resolution size is 1536x1152 when transferred to my pc. i then copy the photos (uncropped or resized) to a cd disc and go get them printed at a photo shop using thier kodak digital imaging printer system.

my problem is that when i get the photos printed, they are not printed at the 1536x1152 resolution that they were taken at, and the top, bottom and both sides are cut off quite a lot.

if i print the 1536x1152 res photos at 4"x 6" size, the actual photo prints at about 1501x1013 (top and bottom is really chopped off a lot)
if i print them at 5"x7" the printed image size is about 1501x1083.
if i print them at 6"x8" the printed size is about 1501x1117.

so the bigger i print them, the closer they print to the actual size (1536x1152) that appears on my pc screen (at least in height that is)

i have taken them to another shop who uses fuji digital printing system and they printed out almost as perfectly as they were taken, with hardly any chop outs, but this store charges 4 times the cost of the other store, and the fuji image quality and paper they use is horrible compared to the other kodak store i want to use.
the kodak store dont seem to know why the photos are not printing to the actual image size as it appears on the pc screen (like the fuji pics) and thay said it must be the resolution of the original photos causing the problem ????

i also wanted to know is there a specific resolution pattern we should crop a photo at to have it printed, if i was to crop a 1536x1152 res photo to say 1200x1152 (cut off the ends only) to just fit what i need, surely the photo cant print to 4"x 6" and still look perfectly normal, as your printing an almost square image onto a rectangular size.

i understand the resizing of photos is to simply reduce the resolution and file size, which i only do if i email my photos, in all other cases i always leave my photos at full resolution, especially to print at or to edit (currently using my 2003 microsoft picture-it 7.0 and just purchased adobe photoshop cs 8.0 to learn)

any help or advice much appreciated.....GLEN

[hellinvader]

if u already got a PS CS, u dont need to worry about cropping resolution any more. u can simply select the crop tool, and type in 4inx6in, it'll automaticly crop your photo to 4"x6" proportion and keep the original resolution within the crop.