Where Do I Start?

Where do I start?

This is not a rhetorical question, I am genuinely in need of a bit of guidance when it comes to learning a bit more about digital photography.

Let's look at the basics I thought - 10 minutes of web searching later and I was more confused than when I started! I got distracted by a learn digital photography site which had a title SIZE MATTERS (yes it was as big and bold as that) and as a bloke, it naturally drew my attention to it!

Well it went very quickly from the intro about pixels - little square blocks of binary code that make up a digital image - into gobbledegook!

At this stage I started comparing pixels as a cross between magic and science. Thinking Pixels were Pixies and the gobbledegook (how do you actually spell that word?) was a hobgoblin, which naturally made me think of HobGoblin Ale - beer drinkers know what I'm talking about - and you can see my focus on the topic in hand was drifting!

Anyway I forced myself to focus and went back to learning. If you fancy a bit of an education, the article in question is linked HERE (they like bold letters to gain attention so I thought I'd stay on theme).

What is a pixel? It's a Noun meaning -

A minute area of illumination on a display screen, one of many from which an image is composed. The word pixel is based on a contraction of pix ("pictures") and el (for "element") so Picture Element

So does the difference between 4 mega pixels and 5 mega pixels really make that much difference?

When it comes to printing a photograph - in a photobook for example, then yes it does. The higher the mega pixel rating of the camera, the higher the resolution (that's the quality measured in Dots Per Inch - DPI) i.e. dots of print on a page - the more dots per inch of paper the better quality the image.

To place this into context - An iPhone 4s has a 5 mega pixel camera which will produce a 8x6inch printed photo at 320dpi - good enough quality for a printed photo!

Tip for the Day:
When you're taking a photo of your children - get on their level - firstly, so that you're taking a photo of them looking directly at the camera and secondly, so you can ask their advice on how to change the operation mode on the camera!