The resolution affects the quality of your digital photography.
Your digital camera has dozens of complex and potentially mystifying settings for you to master, and even more if you shoot with a digital SLR camera. Of all these settings, perhaps the easiest concept for a beginner photographer to wrap his head around is the "resolution" setting, which controls the size of the photos.
Pixels
As you've surely noticed by visiting any electronics store or looking at a camera flyer, digital cameras are measured by megapixels. The megapixel number is a measurement of a camera's maximum resolution. Manufacturers arrive at these number by multiplying the number of active pixels on the camera's sensor. Pixel stands for "picture element" and pixels are really just tiny squares. Each digital picture is made up of thousands or millions of these tiny squares. If there are a million pixels on a digital camera's sensor, manufacturers describe it as "1 megapixel."
The Evolution of Resolution
The first digital camera ever made had a digital sensor with a maximum resolution of 100 by 100 pixels, or 1000 total pixels. This equals 0.01 megapixels. Since about the introduction of Windows 95, computers began to exceed the 640-by-480-resolution standard and to display images of much larger resolutions. The digital photography market first mirrored, then exceeded the resolution capabilities of computers. In 2011, computers have resolutions up to and exceeding 1366 by 768 pixels, or just over 1 megapixel. You'll have a hard time finding a still-functioning 1 megapixel camera in 2011. Digital cameras take photos 10 times larger than these resolutions.
Setting Resolution
Maximum resolution setting vary between different makes and models of digital camera. Generally, your digital camera will let you choose between a maximum setting, medium, low quality, and sometimes cameras feature modes like "email" and "Web," which take lower resolution shots with an emphasis on file size. The resolution settings are usually listed under "quality" in your main shooting menu, and might be indicated by "F" (fine), "M" (maximum) or "L" (low) on your LCD display. Higher-quality resolutions, which are indicated by larger numbers, take up more space on your memory card than low-resolution shots. Don't expect to notice much of a difference between resolutions on your camera's LCD screen.
Optimum Settings
Determining the best resolution setting for your camera depends on your needs as a photographer. If you plan to create physical prints of your shots, you should always shoot at the highest resolution available. A 5 megapixel sensor can shoot at a maximum resolution of 2592 by 1944 pixels, which will blow up to an 10 by 8 inch photo without distortion. If you just plan to put your photos on the Internet, you can afford to shoot at lower resolutions. Social networking sites don't display pictures at full resolution, and you'll be waiting a long time to upload maximum resolutions shots to websites like Facebook or MySpace. Aim for a middle ground for these photos; using a medium or low resolution will let you take lots of pictures without sacrificing quality too much.
Tags: digital camera, camera sensor, digital photography, maximum resolution, quality your, resolution setting
