I am sitting in my studio/workshop listening to the Beatles and looking out at the glorious sun that is streaming in the south-facing window. What a perfect Port Alberni day.
What a perfect day to be out with a camera practicing the eight steps to perfection.
Cameras, they are all around us these days hidden in cellphones, iPads, iPods, eyeglasses, pens, hats and so on. I am sure that they all have their uses, but don’t expect to be making wall size murals.
Here are some facts about those hidden cameras:
iPad 2
Rear camera: 0.9 megapixels
Front camera: 0.3 megapixels
iPhone
Camera: 5 megapixels
iPod Touch
Rear camera: 0.7 megapixels
Front camera: 5 megapixels
Blackberry
Curve 8520
Camera: 5 megapixels
Nintendo DSI
Camera: 0.3 megapixels
T-mobile my touch
Camera: 3.2 megapixels
HTC Droid Phone
Camera: 8 megapixels
How many megapixels do you need? The short answer is, not a lot if you are just e-mailing photos to friends and family.
If you are going to be blowing photos up to 11” x 14” or larger then you need lots of megapixels. Here is a chart for the perfect printing resolution:
Print size 300 DPI:
4”x 6”— 2.2 megapixels
5”x 7”— 4.0 megapixels
8”x 10”— 7.3 megapixels
11”x 14”— 13.9 megapixels
13”x 17”— 20 megapixels
20”x 30”— 54 megapixels
Why 300 DPI? That’s the resolution at which the human eye would have trouble seeing the dots in the photo (300 DPI translates to a one inch square that has 300 dots x 300 dots = 90,000 dots or 0.09 megapixels).
When you blow up your photos to 20”x 30” or larger then you can get away with a lower resolution because the image is viewed from farther away.
A 10 megapixel image would produce an acceptable 20” x 30” print at 200 DPI. A 10 megapixel image would measure 2500 pixels per inch x 4000 pixels per inch.
As you magnify the image, you magnify the faults as well.
Play around with Photoshop or take one of my courses at North Island College. I am teaching “How to use your digital camera” as well as “BYOB” Mac 101class, and “Photoshop Elements for beginners”.
I am now going to repeat myself and say “back up your hard drive”. Attach an external hard drive of at least one terrabyte.
If you are lucky enough to own a Mac then it is child’s play. The program called “Time Machine “ will walk you through the process. The program will automatically record a backup of the latest data every hour.
Important data such as contracts, photographs, and addresses should also be burned to DVDs. Hard drives are far from perfect so double save.
Any questions? E-mail me at nsilverstone@telus.net.
Norman Silverstone teaches photography through North Island College and Eldercollege in Port
Alberni.