PCinfospace

This refers to a digital camera.  In the days of the film cameras nobody worried about this.

In digital imaging, a pixel (or picture element) is the smallest item of information in an image. Pixels are normally arranged in a 2-dimensional grid, and are often represented using dots, squares, or rectangles. Each pixel is a sample of an original image, where more samples typically provide more-accurate representations of the original. The intensity of each pixel is variable; in color systems, each pixel has typically three or four components such as red, green, and blue, or cyan, magenta, yellow, and black.

The word pixel is based on a contraction of pix (“pictures”) and el (for “element”).

When you take a picture the elements of light (Red,Green & Blue) are stored in a form of media.  This media is normally an SD or other card. These are very small and can store quite a few pictures.  The number of pictures that can be stored on the card depends on the storage size and the resolution (explained below) the camera is set on for that picture.

The number of resulting pixels in the image determines its “pixel count”. For example, a 640×480 image would have 307,200 pixels, or approximately 307 kilopixels; a 3872×2592 image would have 10,036,224 pixels, or approximately 10 megapixels. The higher the megapixals the sharper a printed picture will be. In earlier cameras that were only 2 Megapixal you could only print picture 5×7 if you wanted them to look sharp. In today’s cameras (10 or more Megapixels) you can easily print very large pictures. If you would have printed a large picture with the old cameras the picture would be “pixelated” and would be very blurry.

The pixel count alone is commonly presumed to indicate the resolution of a camera, but this is a misconception. There are several other factors that impact the resolution. Some of these factors include sensor size, lens quality, and the organization of the pixels (for example, a monochrome camera without a Bayer filter mosaic has a higher resolution than a typical color camera). Many digital compact cameras are criticized for having excessive pixels. Sensors can be so small that their ‘buckets’ can easily overfill; again, resolution of a sensor can become greater than the camera lens could possibly deliver.

It should be noted that the higher the resolution the more storage it will take up both on your storage media and on your computer.  You should know what you plan to use the picture for.  As an example: if you plan to use it for a web site you can take it at a very low resolution.  If you plan to publish the picture in a magazine (or other printed media) you need to have it as high as possible. Keep in mind that if you have your camera set at a high resolution you will not be able to store as much on your media card.

Media ports are now available on many computers and printers.  You don’t have to use the hardware that came with your printer in that case.

As you can see this can become very complex. You can easily go to a search engine to find out more information about this subject.

Although it may seem strange to have cameras and PCs in the same article it is certainly the wave.  The reason is that many people store pictures on their computer.  They may also print these pictures, email them or cut them to a CD or DVD.  Other uses may be possible.

How do you get the pictures from the camera to the computer?

There are several ways to do this. You do need a USB cable that is for your specific brand of camera. Mostly you do not need any software if you have Window XP or higher. A software program is available in the operating system that allows you to move them from the camera to the computer.  Some computers now come with multimedia ports.  These ports allow you to use the media card and put it directly in the computer.  This allows you to insert your SD, MicroSD and other card.

What do I do after I have them on the computer?

The tricky part is what to do with the pictures after you have moved them. You can just store them and look at them when you want to. If you want to change the size or appearance of the pictures you will need photo editing software that has the ability to edit them according to your needs. There are many of these on the market and most cameras come with this type of software.  Adobe Photoshop is the top of the line editing software.  It is somewhat complex and expensive but is great if you want to have maximum ability to change your picture any way that you want to.

One thing you should know about keeping pictures on a computer is that there are many ways to lose them forever.  You could accidentally delete one.  A virus could attach the file(s) and/or make them susceptible to spreading a virus to some other computer through email. Your computer could crash.  If so you may lose all of what you had on the computer. It could be very expensive to restore files after a crash. In some cases you may not be able to get them back.

In order to protect your valuable pictures you need to back them up.  Put them on CDs or DVDs.  I am recommending DVDs because they have a much larger storage capacity.  You can also buy an external USB drive.  These are getting bigger and cheaper every day.

Another valuable piece of information to know is that most picture files are big.  If you have a small hard drive you could fill it up rapidly.  Most drives these days are quite large.  It is still possible to fill them up.  This is the reason you want to put them on another media.  You could store them on a second drive also.  USB drives have come down in price and are really huge.  You can get one Terabyte drive at this writing.

Another problem is that storms, fire or other catastrophic events can happen.  You need to keep copies off site.  Either you can use a bank safety deposit box or you now can use online storage.  You can never tell when or if something will happen.

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