Pixel dan Megapixels
A digital photo composed by millions little points called pixel. Pixel itself is the word from abbreviation of Picture Elements. Each pixel bring information that determining the color (hue), Color strength (saturation) and how bright that color ( brightness).
Because almost photo composed by millions pixel (1 megapixels = 1 million pixels), it makes our eyes can't recognize a pixel separately, you just can see the photo with smooth gradation between bright-dark, friction of color and tone.
If you want to see a pixel, you can resize your photo. Like photo bellow, this photo have resolution size 600 x 450 pixels.In small size like this you still can't see a pixel, all you see just smooth color.
But if we change the resolution become 100 x 75 pixel, we starting to see how the pixels arrange this photo.
Moreover with low resolution 40 x 30 pixel, each pixel box will seen like puzzle. We can see the pixel- this condition called pixelate:
Photo Resolution for Monitor Screen and Print
Resolution of digital photo measured in pixel per inch (ppi), and standard resolution for photo quality is 300 ppi. So if we know the number of megapixels in a digital camera, we also can know the optimum print size that can be produced by that camera.
For example, we suggest that a digital camera have resolution 6 Megapixels (MP) with the precise size is 2816 pixels (length) x 2112 pixel (wide)- so the total is 6 MP. To counting the optimum print size that can be produced by camera, we divide 2816 x 2112 pixels by 300 pp1 and the result is 9,5 and 7 inches. So a digital camera with resolution 6MP can produce photo print with the size 9,5 x 7 inches or 24 x 18 cm.
For monitor screen, the standard is 72 ppi (Windows) and 96 ppi (Mac), so the display in monitor screen actually is still far away from standard resolution for print (300 ppi). It means a photo still look good in monitor doesn't mean look good we we print it, but a photo that start to look "pixelate" when printed in 300 ppi , it can be smooth in monitor of computer.
Table of Megapixels vs Print Size of a Photo
In the table bellow is the sample table about how optimum your camera skill to produce a photo which is print in 300 ppi or 200 ppi. Generally, most of digital camera nowadays ( that start to approaching 24 megapixels as the standard resolution) have printing skill more than good that user need. Except if we want to make poster with big size in 200 ppi, our camera is very rare to be used suitable with the camera skill to get print photo, moreover usually we just see the photo on monitor screen. The Megapixel camera isn't the most important thing if you want to buy a camera.
| Camera | Print Size (300 ppi) | Print Size (200 ppi) |
|---|---|---|
| 6 Megapixels | 24 x 18 cm (9,5 x 7 in) | 36 x 27cm (14 x 10,5 in) |
| 7 Megapixels | 25 x 19 cm (10 x 7,5 in) | 39 x 29cm (15,5 x 11,5 in) |
| 8 Megapixels | 28 x 20 cm (11 x 8 in) | 42 x 30 cm (16,5 x 12 in) |
| 10 Megapixels | 33 x 20 cm (13 x 8,5 in) | 49 x 33 cm (19,5 13 in) |
| 12 Megapixels | 37 x 24 cm (14,5 9,5 in) | 55 x 36 cm ( 21,5 x 14 in) |
