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Digital Photography
Terms
Digital photography brings with it a whole
new set of terms and abbreviations that
requires getting used to if you've been
using film cameras in the past. Many of
the terms are totally unique to digital
cameras and photography, and if you don't
understand them there is a good chance that
you won't be able to get the equipment that
you really need for taking digital photographs.
So let's review some of the most important
digital photography terms to help you understand
them.
* Pixel - everything in digital photography
actually begins with the pixel. Simply put,
it is the very smallest part of a digitized
image. You can think of it as a.dot that
when combined with lots of other dots around
it, makes up an entire photo image
* Resolution - this usually has to do
with the total number of pixels in a photograph,
and the higher the resolution, generally
the sharper and better quality the picture
is.
* Megapixel - this simply stands for one
million pixels. The more pixels that make
up a photograph, the higher the resolution
and better quality the image will be. So
a digital camera that takes a one megapixel
image will usually not have anywhere near
the image quality of a camera that takes
a four or five megapixel image. And the
differences become even greater when the
photograph is enlarged.
* DPI - this stands for dots per inch
and often applies to printers or monitors.
For instance, most laser printers have a
resolution of around 300 dpi, whereas most
monitors display only 72 dpi. Photo quality
inkjet printers usually come in at least
1200 dpi.
* Megabyte - this stands for an amount
of computer memory that is somewhere around
one million bytes of file storage.
* JPEG - this acronym stands for Joint
Photographic Experts Group and is now a
recognized format for the storage of images
is in most digital cameras.The JPEG format
allows for quite a bit of image and file
compression, making files that are in this
format much easier to display on the internet
and send to others by e-mail. However, the
kind of image compression that is used by
the JPEG format can also cause some loss
of image quality and so is not suitable
for high quality prints.
* Memory card - all digital cameras have
to store the digital files on some kind
of removable media, and most often it involves
the use of a small memory card. These cards
come in various sizes depending on how much
storage space they have available. A few
digital cameras are also able to store files
directly on CDs instead.
* LCD - this stands for Liquid Crystal
Display, and these are usually found on
most digital cameras to help the photographer
preview the scene before taking the photograph,
and then review that image later on after
the photo was taken.
These are the digital photography terms
that are most commonly used today, and understanding
them will help you better select and use
the digital equipment that you buy.
About the Author
Francesca Black enjoys photography as a
hobby and manages content at Future Photo
http://www.future-photo.com
and Photo Wizard http://www.photo-wizard.net
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