Filter
Top Products
Microsoft Picture It! Companion Guide
Chapter 2: Making the Most of Your Camera
8
The first section of this chapter contains information specific to digital cam-
eras: concepts such as resolution and compression that don’t have direct
counterparts in film photography. Later sections cover universal photography
concepts that apply to both film and digital cameras.
About Digital Cameras
If you’re new to using digital cameras, several camera features may seem
foreign to you. Some of these features, such as digital zoom and compression,
did not exist with film cameras because the technology did not exist. But it’s
important to understand what these features do and when it’s appropriate to use
them (or, in some cases, not use them).
Photo Quality
A digital photograph is composed of tiny colored squares called pixels (short
for picture elements). Like a mosaic, the pixels blend together to form a picture.
Each digital photo consists of a set number of pixels, ranging from a few
thousand to millions. When a digital camera takes a photo, it creates a digital
file that specifies the number of pixels and the precise color of each pixel.
Pixels are not a set size, so they can shrink or enlarge if photo size changes.
When a photo is enlarged too much, the individual pixels become visible,
making a poor-quality photo.
The original photo on the left was saved at high resolution, and you can see sharp detail. The
photo on the right has been saved at such low resolution that you only see the individual
pixels.