Guides

Straight answers about photographs, sizes and what survives being printed large — including where each one stops being true.

• How to get relatives to actually send you the photos

  Chasing a family for pictures is the hard part of any group gift. What works is asking for one photograph each, with a reason, and a real deadline.

• How big can you print an old family photograph?

  The limit is set by the damage, not the megapixels. A faded 1974 snapshot carries a 12x12 print; the same image at 20x28 is enlarged past its detail.

• Can a photograph of an empty room be a memorial?

  Yes, and it is often the truer choice. The place is what people can still see once the faces have gone soft - but the room has to be one they actually knew.