How do I get a higher DPI?

Question

I use an Olympus SP500UZ and usually setting it on the SHQ setting for best qualitiy. My photos still come out at 72 dpi which excludes me from some contests. A contest I want to enter now says I must have 300 dpi at minimum 4"wide and 200KB, The photo I was to enter is 72dpi and 130KB. How do I fix this, and if I can't how do I take future photos that would be 300 dpi.
Anything involving numbers fries my brain. I hate math!

Answer 1

Unfortunately You can not add Pixels that are not already there.

DPI Mean Dots Per Inch, Or Pixels in an inch, this is also called resolution. If you capture something at four times larger then you need it then it can work. Otherwise you are asking to make $100 in to $1,000. It just wont work.

So the only way to make it work is to get a new camera. I recommend a Digital SLR.

Answer 2

72 dpi at 4 inches means they want the picture to have 1200 pixels minimum. you need to set your camera to produce an image that is at least 900x1200 pixels resolution, or higher when shooting. The 72 dpi is simply a file printing specification that can be changed later in photoshop or other photo manager and then saving a copy. If the picture meets the pixel count, then try using a sharpening tool to raise the jpeg file size.