With most people using digital cameras, often people end up with poor quality pictures when they go to enlarge them. Often times, the problem is that the image doesn’t have a high enough resolution. But, before we can talk about the basics of good resolution for printing pictures, we first have to start with the basics.
What is Resolution?
Resolution is the number of dots per linear inch in a printed photograph or could be the number of pixels on a display screen.So, when you hear the word “mega pixel” it’s referring to the number of pixels which ultimately impacts the quality of your resolution.
Either way, when you take a digital picture you want high enough resolution so you can have crisp and clear pictures especially when printing out pictures.
The problem is that sometimes people don’t realize the importance of resolution and are instead concerned with taking as many pictures as possible on their memory card. That’s why many people shoot images in low resolution because it takes more memory to shoot in high resolution. And more memory requires more memory cards and ultimately costs more.
However, if you want to print out pictures for giving as a gift or for displaying in a picture frame you should be shooting in high (or at least medium) resolution.
Image Resolution
The best advice for getting high quality pictures is to use the highest possible resolution on your camera. As technology continues to improve, the resolution of digital cameras will continue to get better. So, instead of giving specific mega pixels for printing different sizes of pictures, simply set your camera to the highest resolution possible (or the largest number of mega pixels) and you should be able to print a quality picture up to common photo sizes like 8×10 or possibly even larger.
Taking pictures in high resolution simply gives you more options for what you can do with your pictures. If you have a high resolution picture, you can always resize the picture for a smaller print. So, if you want to be sure that your photos will look good in a beautiful picture frame then make sure you’re always shooting your pictures in the highest possible resolution.