Camera Pixels Beginners help please

[leefhall]

Hi all
I have made a start to Wildlife Photography, nothing good yet but i'm learning. Pixels: The understanding I have is the amount of pixles determines the size of the print, the Camara I hve goes up to 10mp, My question is; Do I use the highest pixle setting to get a better quality shot? or do I use the amount suggested for the size print i would like? I have plenty of space on my SD Card so no worris there.
Dont worry about many more daft questions i'm attending a starters course on Digital Photography in a couple of weeks. Help appreciated Lee

[RoyW]

Hi Lee,

I would suggest that you always use the largest image size that you can. You don't have to print at the maximum size, but you then have the option of printing a large photo when you get a shot you like. It also gives you more chance to crop/enlarge a section of the photo and still get a good print.

Roy.

[Jim Ford]

You've paid for the pixels - use 'em all!

Jim

[Geoff F]

In my opinion, the tutorials on this site are one of the best learning courses you can find Basics of Digital Camera Pixels Check out and read all of the tutorials here, which go from beginner to advanced level.

Also worth a look is The Luminous Landscape

Basically the answer to your question, which works out a bit more complicated than it sounds, is - Yes.

A lot, however depends on what you are doing with the photos. If you are printing at, say for instance, 6 x 4 ins and 300 pixels per inch then you will have extra pixels to lose if you shoot at maximum resolution. Even more if you just want the images for internet use. And, to retain maximum quality the resizing needs a bit of care, even when going downwards.

For a considerable resize, like reducing a file of 3000 x 2000 pixels at 300 ppi to internet size of around 800 pixels by 96 ppi then I prefer to do it in 2 stages and resharpen the image slightly afterwards.

But, and here is the catch, although using a smaller file size may sound ideal if you are intending just using small output sizes; what happens when you 'accidentally' take that stunning photo which you want to print at A3 size, maybe it is such a rare event that the press will be fighting each other to purchase it! And the resolution is so small that the image is useless.

So my advice is always use the maximum quality settings - just in case.

Does this make any sense? Come back if you need any more information.

Geoff.

ps. the next stage is to think about shooting using RAW instead of JPEG; providing you have the software to convert and edit it. But the freebie kit works OK.

[leefhall]

Thank you makes sence. Eastenders on TV good time to read those web pages Geoff ty eveyone

[Mick_S]

Originally Posted by Jim Ford

You've paid for the pixels - use 'em all!

Jim

Simple but the best advice I think, also stick with best quality jpegs for now and take loads of pics and learn from your own experience, move up to raw later if you find it useful.


Mick

[Ed Tyler]

Always shoot in the highest possible quality, as already said you can reduce the size of the image later.

If your worried about card space, get another card but don't compromise the quality of your images.

Good Luck and keep the questions coming.

Ed

[cosmicma]

if anyone is interested i have a resolution calculater for microsoft xl
it allows you to imput your photo resolution and will tell you the print size at a particular DPI or you can input the print size you want and the resolution and it will tell you the dpi it will be printed at

all in all quite handy to have
just load it into microsoft xl

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/cosmicma/rescalc.xls