How to: High Resolution Photographs

A high resolution photograph is a digital image that has an exceptional amount of detail.

Have you ever taken a digital photograph and wondered why the image appears distorted after it has been enlarged? A digital photograph is like a puzzle. Millions of tiny squares of color - or mega pixels (MP) -- piece together to create the image you see. When pieces of that puzzle are not saved to your camera or computer properly, details from your photographs will be missing as well. High resolution is a term used in digital photography that indicates an exceptional amount of detail in an image (Reference 1).

Instructions

1. Buy a digital camera that fits your photography needs. If you know that you want to print large images, a digital camera with a high number of mega pixels is essential to sustain high resolution. Mega pixels indicate the amount of detail recorded by a camera when you snap a picture (Reference 1). Mega pixels are measured in millions; therefore, an 8 mega pixel camera actually means that the camera stores 8 million -- or roughly 3266 by 2459 pixels -- of information in a single photograph (Reference 3). Your camera should have at least 8 mega pixels if you want to print 8-by10-inch high resolution photographs (Reference 3).

2. Prior to shooting, change the settings on your camera to RAW as opposed to JPEG or TIFF. RAW images store all unprocessed data in your camera and thus allow for full manipulation with no image loss in photo editing software later (Reference 2).

3. Enhance your photographs at the time of conception. Use natural or studio lighting, pay close attention to composition and color, keep subjects in sharp focus and use a tripod in low-light situations.

4. Upload the photographs to your computer. RAW images must be changed to JPEG or TIFF files (Reference 2). When saved to your computer, JPEG images are compressed and suffer data loss while TIFF files, recommended at the time of conversion, can be edited and saved after manipulation with no loss of detail (Reference 2).

5. Use photo editing software to make any corrections, such as to contrast or color, then save the size of your photograph to 300ppi prior to printing. PPI refers to the number of pixels per inch in an image, not to be confused with dots per inch (DPI), which is the number of dots used to comprise a printed photograph (Reference 4). At the time of printing, pixels become dots. Dots have spaces and pixels do not; therefore, 300ppi as an image becomes 150dpi as a print, which is widely accepted as a quality photograph (Reference 4).

References

• High Resolution
• RAW, JPEG and Tiff
• Megapixels Chart
• Photography Printing Guide