1. Megapixels

2. Intro When you are going to purchase a camera, two very important questions should be asked:

3. First Question First will it be a point and shoot or an SLR?

4. What the heck are megapixels? Second how many megapixels is this camera?

5. Objectives Learn what Megapixels are. How Megapixels relate to maximum print sizes. What DPI and PPI are. How to figure out the maximum print size based on the pictures resolution. What is resolution and how is it calculated. How to calculate an area.

6. Why is this useful? A Camera is a tool; use the right tool for the job. Making an educated decision about what camera to purchase. If you have a picture you will know exactly how large you can print it without losing quality.

7. What is a Megapixel? A Megapixel is 1 million pixels Pictures are made up of little dots called pixels. Pixel stands for PICture Element They are arranged horizontally and vertically

8. How are megapixels calculated? Multiply the number of horizontal pixels by the number of vertical pixels. It is exactly like calculating area. A 3MP ( megapixel) camera has 2,048 horizontal pixels and 1,536 vertical pixels, for a total of 3,145,728 pixels. We would simply call this a 3 MP camera.

9. Find an unknown dimension Example 35=7Y 7 X 5 is 35 so we divide 35 by 7 which equals 5. 24=8Y 32=Y – 4 12=Y + 9 Bonus 3Y + 8=20

10. Answers to examples 24=8Y Y=6 32=Y – 4 Y=36 12=Y + 9 Y=4 Bonus 3Y + 8=20 Y=4

11. Find the Megapixels Find the Megapixels for the following pictures: 4300X2600 3228X2300 2300X1800 A Picture is 12 MP, it’s length is 5300 what is it’s width? Remember to round the number to the nearest million.

12. Answers 4300 X 2600= 11,180,000 or 11MP 3228 X 2300= 7,424,400 or 7MP 2300 X 1800= 4,140,000 or 4MP 5300 X 2,264 for 12MP

13. Bonus You can use this same idea to find the total square footage of an area. 53’ 26’ Find the total square footage

14. Bonus Answer 53’ 26’ 1378’

15. Part 2

16. Resolution Resolution is basically your total pixel count If the pixel count ( or resolution) is small, the image quality is poor.

17. What is the difference between dots per inch and pixels per inch???? PPI refers to the square pixels in a digital image, with NO spaces between them. DPI refers to printed dots AND the spaces between them. PPI DPI

18. Printing When printing on paper, resolution is also how many pixels you have per inch. This is the image resolution and has nothing to do with the technology by which the print is made. (Inkjet, Laser) Adding or taking away pixels is called resampling, and can cause loss of quality

19. Printing 150 DPI ( 300 PPI) is the accepted standard for printing photographic quality images. Printers usually refer to the number of rows or lines per inch (LPI) 150 LPI is simply 150 rows of 150 Dots Per Inch

20. When a digital image is prepared to print, pixels are converted to dots. Dots have spaces between them. 300 pixels becomes 150 dots AND spaces, so 300 PPI becomes roughly 150 DPI.

21. More Pixels = Better Quality 72-ppi and 300-ppi images; inset zoom 200% PPI is used to describe how densely the pixels that make up an image are packed within a span of an inch.

22. Are all cameras equal? Even if two cameras have the same number of pixels, it does not always mean that the size of their pixels are also equal. If an SLR camera has a greater “digital Sensor area” than a compact camera, then each pixel from the SLR will be larger in size than each pixel from the compact camera

24. So Why do we care how big the pixels are in size? A larger pixel has more light-gathering area, causing the individual pixels to be further apart, making it easier to control image noise and tonal distribution. The image will be smoother and more detailed

25. How do you know how large you can print your photo for maximum quality? You take photos of your sister’s wedding. You have an 8 megapixel camera. This is 8,000,000 pixels Your resolution is 3264 x 2488 If you have 300 PPI, you will divide 3264 by 300 and 2488 by 300 You get 10.88 x 8.29. So the biggest photo you would want to print for maximum quality is 10 x 8

26. Here is a chart to help you (numbers inside colored boxes are megapixels) Inches @ 300 DPI ( numbers inside colored boxes are megapixels)

27. MegapixelsPixel Resolution* Print Size @ 300ppi Print size @ 200ppi Print size @ 150ppi** 32048 x 15366.82" x 5.12"10.24" x 7.68"13.65" x 10.24" 42464 x 16328.21" x 5.44"12.32" x 8.16"16.42" x 10.88" 63008 x 200010.02" x 6.67"15.04" x 10.00"20.05" x 13.34" 83264 x 244810.88" x 8.16"16.32" x 12.24"21.76" x 16.32" 103872 x 259212.91" x 8.64"19.36" x 12.96"25.81" x 17.28" 124290 x 280014.30" x 9.34"21.45" x 14.00"28.60" x 18.67" 164920 x 326416.40" x 10.88"24.60" x 16.32"32.80" x 21.76" Megapixels vs. Maximum Print Size Chart