Resolution, Pixels and Mega Pixels in Digital Photography
Many people don’t know the difference between image resolution and picture actual dimensions. Sometimes, clients come in a digital photography workshop and ask for an image of 300 dpi, not realizing that this only refers to pixel density and gives no idea about the actual size of the picture. When it comes to a digital image, it’s harder to actually transmute it mentally in real physic dimensions. 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. But in digital photography, saying an image is 20 x 30 centimeters makes no sense the same way as saying it has 300 dpi doesn’t make any sense.
the provenience of the word pixel comes from “pictures elements”, for short, Pixel, and these are considered to be the smallest divisions of a digital photography image. 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. No ordinary computer user could tell just how big a pixel is, or if it has dimensions, therefore another concept named image resolution must be used.
Resolution defines the amount of pixels that we can find on an inch of image, virtually. This is what the previously mentioned 300 dpi means, the resolution of a certain digital image. 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.
In early days of digital photography, the captors that produce the instant digital image in the camera’s memory were a real problem. This is why everyone considers mega pixels so important. Nowadays, most digital cameras have this number written on them, and it shows what the maximum density of pixels that apparatus can collect at a certain moment is. (When taking a picture).
We are all accustomed to ask how many mega pixels a camera has and then immediately decide if we want it or not. Lenses are very important, and so is the storing capacity device and the battery life. snapfish
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