This generally will not be an issue with modern cameras, but if you are using early digital cameras, it is something to look out for. Despite the importance of megapixels, the number of megapixels is not the mark of a great camera. You will get a better value per dollar investing in higher quality lenses and gear, rather than choosing the camera with the highest number of megapixels. Once you have hit roughly 10MP, all photos should be fine for most work. Occasionally, photographs will need to be taken that can be displayed in enormous formats.
At times like these, it is important to have even an even higher megapixel camera to take the photographs with.
Situations where this can come up include:. All of these situations warrant grabbing a higher megapixel camera, as it can make images clearer at these large sizes or introduce more variety in post-production edits. As such, it is important to consider how your photographs will be most viewed or used when considering how many megapixels your camera needs.
If you are planning on printing your photos, you very likely need a high-megapixel camera. This is due to a number of factors, but the most important one is achieving PPI. PPI stands for pixels per inch and is a measure of how dense a photograph is.
Essentially, this is the resolution of a photo and determines how blurry or clear the image is. To achieve a clear print of a photo, the recommended PPI is At any amount less than this, images become blurry and lose lots of detail.
This is why, if you have ever tried to print an image off of the internet, it is likely that it came out blurrier than expected. Most images are exported and finished at 72 PPI, which works wonderfully for digital viewing but quickly becomes unacceptable for printed photographs. In a slightly confusing turn, there is also an aspect of megapixels and resolution called DPI, or dots per inch. This is how many dots of ink a printer places per inch and is tied closely to PPI.
Due to the density of pixels required to achieve high-quality printed photographs, even small prints require a high megapixel camera. The basic formula for figuring out how many megapixels you need to print photographs at what size is as follows:.
Using this formula, some common printing sizes need the following number of megapixels for quality prints:. If in doubt, it is best to round up when looking at cameras to ensure that you meet the requirements for printing in the highest quality.
For large-screen viewing, higher megapixel photos are almost always worth it. This is less important than for printing out photographs as the viewing model is still digital, but the same reasons apply; it is important for photographs to be clear and crisp. The megapixels needed for clear digital viewing are actually tied to the resolution of the display, rather than the size itself.
Still, for most intents and purposes, larger displays will have higher resolutions. As it is unlikely you will know the exact resolution needed for certain displays, it is best to stick to high megapixel cameras while shooting. This is likely the least common reason to need higher megapixel cameras. However, rare times it could come up include:.
If you are planning on taking nature photos or other shots that may later be bought for uses such as these, it is best to be safe and use as high a megapixel camera you can. For many photographers, the ability to zoom in on work and keep a clear photo is the best reason to invest in high megapixel cameras.
The ability to zoom in clearly and reframe a photo in post-production can save photographs and help capture details more clearly. While it is not a tool that most photographers want to rely on, the simple reality is that mistakes happen.
Having a high megapixel camera allows for reframing and saving a shot, rather than needing to throw it away. The reason a high megapixel camera is necessary for this is to ensure that the image does not get blurry. When reframing a photograph digitally, two things are happening.
One, some of the photo is getting cut out, reducing the total size. Two, the image is being zoomed in on. Having more pixels in the photo, which only happens through higher megapixels in the first place, lets both of these things happen with no discernable reduction in quality.
This trick can be used in a variety of ways, even when not necessary. Details can be found and focused on that otherwise would be missed, or elements pulled out and repositioned without losing quality. As cameras have become more advanced and able to capture more detail, the number of changes available during editing has grown as well.
Being able to zoom in after the shot is taken opens up another avenue of creativity for photographers to work with and provides a great reason to invest in a high megapixel camera. The size of image files changes dramatically depending on image resolution, format, editing, compression, and other factors. The general range for photograph sizes is 1 to 6 MB per shot.
When saving images or transferring images from the camera to a computer, it is highly recommended to save in the highest quality you can. The better the image quality, the larger the file size. As such, if you are doing heavy amounts of photography, it is likely worth it to invest in a large memory card and hard drive. You should work in the highest image quality available during editing, so that most options are open to you.
For example, in an uncompressed photo, it is likely you can zoom in and reframe a photo without losing quality. However, in a photo that has already been compressed to a smaller size, doing this same action could result in the photo becoming blurry and low-quality. Photograph size is one of the largest factors on image file size.
The more pixels are present in an image, the larger the file size will be. This means that higher megapixel camera will produce files that are larger than other cameras. There is little to be done to reduce the size of a file on this front until after editing. It is important to keep as many pixels as possible while editing and touching the photo so that many options are available.
Once an image has been successfully edited, the resolution can be reduced to an acceptable amount for easier storage. When considering reducing the size of an image, consider where it will live. If the image is to be printed, especially in large sizes, touching the resolution could be disastrous. However, if the image is intended to be viewed digitally or uploaded to a website, reducing the size to reasonable numbers is the smart thing to do.
The same photo, saved at different JPEG quality levels, will yield wildly different file sizes in megabytes. Dots per inch dpi is just plain meaningless most of the time. You can use this number, along with the photo's resolution, to find how large it can be printed or displayed on a particular device. But to be useful, you need to know the dpi of the device in question--for example, most inkjet printers give good results at no more than about dpi.
Here's the annoying thing, and what is no doubt tripping up Sue: A dpi value is usually stored as metadata with your digital photo. That's really misleading, especially when a program resets the dpi value for some mysterious reason. As a general rule, you should ignore the dpi value and pay attention to the photo's resolution in pixels.
That's the real indication of a photo's size. Get published, get famous! Each week, we select our favorite reader-submitted photo based on creativity, originality, and technique. Here's how to enter: Send us your photograph in JPEG format, at a resolution no higher than by pixels.
Entries at higher resolutions will be immediately disqualified. If necessary, use an image editing program to reduce the file size of your image before e-mailing it to us. Include the title of your photo along with a short description and how you photographed it.
Don't forget to send your name, e-mail address, and postal address. Before entering, please read the full description of the contest rules and regulations. He merged the images using Photoshop CS5. Since I was shooting into the sun, with the quince blossom backlit, I used the camera's flash to fill and brighten the front of the flower. To see last month's winners, visit our September Hot Pics slide show. Visit the Hot Pics Flickr gallery to browse past winners.
Have a digital photo question? Image Size is the dimension - length and width - of an image in digital format. This can be measured in pixels px , the format we use, or inches etc. Image Resolution , or dpi, is the amount of dots per square inch of an image when it is printed.
The difference between these two is that image size designates how large your image will be viewed on monitors, and resolution reflects printer quality.
Excerpt from this article: How many pixels are in a megabyte? Images have more than one file size, and I don't think anyone has come up with good terminology that distinguishes which size is being referenced at any time. A megapixel photo might "weigh" less than a megabyte on your hard drive. Or it might "weigh" as much as 6 megabytes.
The file size depends on several factors, including the number of megapixels, the file format you're using such as JPEG or RAW , and the amount of file compression used to save the photo, which is sometimes referred to as the quality setting.
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