Get the Photos You Want: Learn to Crop

The photo from a 3.2 mega pixel camera can print a fair quality 8 x 10 print at 200 dpi. So, why do people buy 4, 5, or even 6 mega pixel cameras?

Well, maybe they want 11 x 14 prints, which at 200 dpi require a 6 mega pixel camera.

However, more importantly, a higher mega pixel camera lets you “crop” your photo. That is where you cut away part of the photo, not only giving you the photo you want, but also making the photo smaller in pixels. As long as you start with more pixels, it is easier to cut stuff out and still keep enough pixels to make it good for prints.

Speaking of cropping, look at the ratios of common print sizes.

a 4 x 6 has a 1.50 ratio
a 5 x 7 has a 1.40 ratio
an 8 x 10 has a 1.25 ratio

What about cameras?

Most newer point-and-shoot digitals have a ratio of 1.33 !!!

What do the photo finishers do when you send them a 1.33 and ask them to print a 1.50? They crop the picture where they think you want it cropped.

How often are they wrong?

A great thing about ordering on-line through the better quality photo finishers is that the web site shows you where the cropping will occur and allows you to change it. That is a great feature.

A better solution, though, is to learn how to do the cropping by using your home computer. Programs like Photo Shop and Paint Shop Pro have pre-defined cropping tools set to the same common ratios as I listed above. Simply open the photo file in your paint program, choose the crop tool, set to the correct ratio, and choose the portion of the photo you want to print.

Now, just save all of the newly cropped files in a separate folder for easy uploading to your retailer or to a memory card that you take in to their 1 hour service.

There are 3 common guidelines to consider when composing a photo

1. know your subject
2. draw attention to your subject
3. simplify

By cropping your photo, you not only assure that you get the photo you wanted; you also follow guidelines # 2 and 3 from the list. Happy cropping.

Richard Killey is an amateur photographer who shares the love of his hobby with readers of his website. Visit http://www.photosbyrichard.ca to read other articles of interest.

The Myth of Megapixels

For most things in life, more is better.

As a business it’s better to offer more features, more services or more products.

What individual doesn’t want to have more money, fame, or control over his or her life?

So the same rule should apply to megapixels. And that’s how the myth got started.

The Megapixel Race

Think of the rush to add more megapixels to digital cameras like the arms race between the U.S. and Russia back in the 80s.

Each camera company felt the need to overcome the other, and the one number that made comparisons easy was megapixels.

It makes sense.

How would you rather compare 2 different digital cameras? Is it easier to tell that they are different because one offers low noise at ISO 800 while the other only offers ISO 400?

Isn’t it much simpler to say: “This one has 4 megapixels and that one has 5″?

It made comparing cameras a lot easier. Notice the use of past tense.

Why doesn’t it work any more? Because today there are many cameras that offer the same number of megapixels.

It’s no longer enough to compare cameras on megapixels alone. Now you actually have to understand more camera terms to find the one camera that you really like.

What Megapixels Are Good For

During the rush to add more megapixels to digital cameras, something got lost along the way: what megapixels are good for.

What also got lost was the fact that not everyone NEEDS an 8.0 megapixel camera.

Despite what the ads and salespeople tell you, it’s just not necessary for most of us.

Megapixels are good for one thing: printing your digital photos. The more megapixels your camera has, the larger the size you can print.

An 8.0 megapixel camera will produce beautiful prints at 12×16 inches, while a 4.0 megapixel camera is limited to 8×10.

What do the pros use? Anywhere from 16 to 22 megapixels. This is what’s required for magazine and advertising work. It’s no coincidence that their cameras cost anywhere from $8,000 to $15,000. You pay a lot of money for that many megapixels.

So what about average Joe photographer out on the street?

If he rarely needs to print photos larger than 8×10, then a 4.0 megapixel camera will suit him just fine. No need for anything more than that.

Find Your Megapixels

The first thing that you need to decide before you go out and shop is how many megapixels you really need.

Here’s a quick rundown of how you might use your digital photos and the appropriate number of megapixels for each one:

1. You want to e-mail to friends and upload to websites - 2 megapixels will get the job done. If you’re never going to print your photos, you don’t need a huge amount of megapixels. Less megapixels results in smaller file sizes for your digital photos, and will make it easier for you to e-mail them to everyone you know.
2. You make standard prints - while 2 megapixels is enough for a 4×6 print, I recommend you go up to at least 3. This just gives you some additional breathing room if you get a spectacular shot and decide you want a 5×7.
3. You don’t like tiny prints - if what really gets you going is a nice 8×10 print, then you’re going to want 4 megapixels or more.

When you decide on the right number of megapixels first, you’re going to save a lot of money.

First, you’ll save money on the camera itself, since the price of a digital camera is directly related to the number of megapixels it can capture.

Here’s the real kicker: you’ll also save money on the hidden cost of owning a digital camera. What do I mean by this?

Photos with more megapixels result in larger files which require more storage space. When you get an 8 megapixel camera, you are also going to have to pony up for at least a 512 MegaByte memory card to go with it to store all of those giant files.

Furthermore, all of those files are going to take up a ton of space on your computer’s hard drive. If you’re not diligent about weeding out the photos you don’t like then your hard drive is going to fill up fast.

With a 2 megapixel camera, you can get by with a 64 MegaByte memory card, and you won’t have to worry about running out of room on your hard drive for a very long time.

In Conclusion

I hope this article has helped to debunk the myth of megapixels for you.

If you already own a digital camera, now you know what all of those megapixels are really good for.

And if you’re just about to get a brand new digital camera, you’ll save yourself a lot of hard-earned dough by making the right choice about how many megapixels you really need.

——————————-
Chris Roberts purchased his first digital SLR camera 3 years ago, and hasn’t looked back. He continues to learn and write about digital SLRs to this day on his web sites, the Digital SLR Guide and The Best Digital SLR For You