Resolution, Pixels and Mega Pixels in Digital Photography

3 April 2009

Messing up images’ resolutions and dimensions is not a laughing matter, but unfortunately it happens even in specialized environments. If someone tells you they want a picture printed that is of 300 dpi, you won’t be able to understand what they want, but sadly they don’t understand either why you can’t serve them. Compared to classic photos, that are a tangible piece of paper, the digital image doesn’t have physic dimensions that can be easily perceived. Normal pictures are only defined by two variables: length and width, so if someone says a picture is 20 x 30, we immediately understand what they want. In digital photography, it is not enough to give the length and width of a picture, as it’s not enough to give only the pixel density.

Digital picture can be divided into their smallest parts, with are called pixels. So, in order to obtain an absolute and accurate measurement of a digital image, we will use pixels instead of centimeters. So, image dimensions are stated like this: a 1024 x 640 pixel image. Unfortunately, the pixel dimensions are not easily perceived in real physic plan, so we have to use different measurement system, like resolution.

Resolution defines the amount of pixels that we can find on an inch of image, virtually. Remember the dpi concept previously mentioned? With all the variables available, real life dimension can be calculated, for example when we want to print a picture and we are not sure what paper format fits it best.

When digital photography was still young, the greatest problem producers faced was coming up with digital captors. This is why, the number of mega pixels that could be produced by a certain camera was considered important. This mega pixel number shows the amount of pixels a camera can process and transform at a certain moment and the higher it is, the better the camera sales.

Because it is so striking, people look at for mega pixel number when they shop for a digital photography device. But quality is also given by battery life, resistance and brand. photo printing services

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