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by Jim Martinsen
A
short time ago a leading digital photography magazine conducted a
survey and discovered while Americans were buying digital cameras with
more megapixels, most of the people surveyed did not know how to get
the pictures from the camera to their computer. When the camera's
memory card was full, they simply bought another memory card.
Let's assume you have read the manual that came with your
camera.
You don't need to wade through every page and grasp every
detail,
but you MUST
know how to set your camera's resolution. If you can't
understand what the manual is telling you, try an Internet search for
"camera resolution."
 |
 |
| Picture taken with the camera
set at the highest jpeg resolution then reduced for
the web. |
Same picture taken with the
camera set at the lowest jpeg resolution then enlarged for
print. |
Digital
camera images are made-up of tiny colorful squares known as pixels.
Every picture you take has millions of pixels. One megapixel is one-million pixels. The more pixels an image
has, the higher the resolution. Large prints can be made from high
resolution images. Keep this in mind as you set the resolution of your
camera. Use the highest resolution JPEG option your camera offers and
you should still be able to get a lot of images on your card. Simply
put, a JPEG image is a compressed image. The picture information is
squeezed to a smaller size before it's stored on your memory card.
Typically, a camera will offer several JPEG settings. Again, use the
highest JPEG setting your camera offers. Why?
- A 4
megapixel camera set at
2240x1680 resolution will give you a photo quality 8x10 print. It would
be hard to buy a digital camera today with less than 4 megapixels.
- Too
many people only look at how many images they can store on their card
and always set the resolution to allow the greatest number of pictures.
This is a BIG
mistake. You may be happy with your pictures until you
catch that fish of a lifetime, and you capture it on your low
resolution setting. You will not be happy if you want an 8x10 print, or
you want the picture published in a fishing magazine.
- Keep your
camera set on the highest JPEG resolution it
offers and invest in a few additional memory cards.
- Digital
pictures can
easily be reduced for e-mailing.
- Digital
pictures should not be enlarged.
Also,
keep in mind your computer monitor cannot use picture resolution higher
than 96
ppi (pixels per inch). A photo suitable for magazine reproduction must
be a minimum of 300 dpi (dots per inch). Just because it looks good on
your computer screen does not mean it is going to print well. Computer
monitors and print-on-paper are two
entirely different technologies. It's apples and oranges - OK!
So. . .
High resolution image
= GOOD
Low resolution image =
BAD
Taking the Picture.
. .
- Shoot at the highest
resolution possible.
- Whenever possible photograph, then release
your catch.
- Rinse any blood off the fish.
- Take the picture on the
water, not in the kitchen.
- Compose your picture in
the viewfinder.
- Crop tightly, no one
cares what shoes the angler
is wearing.
- Concentrate on the fish
and the face of the angler.
- Make sure the bill of the
cap is not casting a heavy shadow over the angler's eyes.
- Use fill flash.
- Nix
the sunglasses.
Oh
yes, you do know how to get your pictures from your camera to your
computer, right?!
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