Megapixels Matter

After you’ve snapped your photos, you can add finishing touches with photo-editing software to ensure your digital memories look their best. Something as simple as cropping a photo can produce a better image. For example, you might want to eliminate the top, bottom, or sides of your snapshot so you and your best friend fit squarely in the middle.

When you crop photos, however, you are also eliminating pixels. Pixels are the core ingredient of any digital image, and one megapixel is equal to 1 million pixels. Camera manufacturers use megapixel ratings, such as 10MP, to tell you how many pixels a particular model uses. This number also relates to a photo’s resolution, which is measured by the total amount of pixels in an image. So, the more pixels an image has, the higher the resolution is.

When you’re armed with a camera that has a high number of megapixels, your photo prints will be sharp and detailed, even if you decide to crop the original images you shot. For example, your favorite photo of Grandma might start out as a 10MP image, which will let you produce a large, high-quality photo print. But when you are done cutting out your nephew making a face in the background, it might end up as a 6MP image—this will still produce a large, high-quality print. However, if the image started at 6MP and was cropped down to 2MP, the low number of pixels would result in a print that looks pixilated.

Be Flexible

Your photos won’t always turn out just right, but with photo-editing techniques, such as cropping, they can be greatly enhanced. If you take into consideration the number of megapixels your next digital camera offers, your photo editing won’t affect the quality of your image printout. A digital camera that has 7MP or more will let you crop your photos to perfection and still have plenty of pixels left over to print large prints for your fireplace mantel.

by Tessa Warner Breneman