Are you confused about what “resolution” or “megapixel” means when you take a digital photo? Read this for help understanding these concepts, and what difference this makes when using your picture.
When you take a picture with a digital camera, you create a data file that contains the information about the photograph. One of the most important piece of information is the resolution of the photograph. Every photograph is actually a set of pixels, which can be thought of tiny dots very close together. Each pixel contains information about that specific dot on the photograph. The picture resolution (or quality) is better when there are more pixels, but the file size of each picture is also larger. A higher quality camera will have a higher pixel rate. The megapixel rate of the camera tells you how many pixels (or dots) the camera uses. For instance, a 10 megapixel camera contains over 10 millions little dots of information about the picture (usually something like 4000 x 2500 pixels), and will create a file that can be up to 10 megabytes in size. Because most cameras use compression technology when a photo is saved, the files aren’t usually that large (figure about 1/3 of the megapixel size).
It is important to know that different output devices also have different resolutions. Generally speaking, you don’t need the full resolution of a photograph to display or even print a 4 by 6 inch photograph. If you are displaying your photo on a screen, monitor or projector, you need even less resolution. And if you are loading it to a web page ore emailing it to a friend, it should be smaller still. Remember, the higher the resolution, the larger the data file.
Here are some recommendations for resolution sizes for various output types.
When printing a photograph, you will need to use a higher resolution than any other output device. If you print a large picture (8×10 or bigger), you should use the full resolution of your camera (at least 3 megapixels). For smaller photos, you don’t need the full resolution, but it doesn’t hurt to use it. Printing is the one time where the more resolution, the better.
For any visual that will be displayed, the resolution does not need to be nearly as high as for printing. The very best projectors and monitors don’t have resolutions that are over about 2000×1000 pixels, and even if they have higher resolution, you don’t need to use the full resolution for your picture to look great. I recommend no more than about 1000X700 for any picture that will be displayed on a monitor or projector.
For a picture that you are emailing or putting to a web site, the pictures should be no larger than 640X480. This will ensure good quality, and will not take nearly as long loading.
Any software that comes with your camera should let you save your pictures in different resolutions. I recommend always keeping the originals, and making copies in the resolution you need.
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