How many Megapixels is enough?

Have you ever wondered how many megapixels is enough?  Well the answer is….. it depends!  There are a few things to consider.  The photograph’s intended end result is one of the most important factors to consider.  If you are wanting to create your own computer desktops, virtually any camera including cellphone cameras will generate the 3.6MP required to fill even the largest computer monitor.  Printed photographs however up the ante a bit.   Generally speaking, a 4×6 photo only requires about 2.1MP, where as an 8×10 needs about 7.2 megapixels!  That’s a significant difference, and you may wonder, why the big change in the file size?  Printed photos require greater pixel density for the same percieved image quality as what you see on your average 19″ computer monitor.  Since most cameras are 10MP or greater, there’s no problem right?

There is another factor to consider – how your photo is composed when you take it.  Most photos end up being cropped to some degree before being printed.  The size that the subject of the photo, takes up in the photo…  is an important aspect to consider – confused?  Lets look at it another way.  Lets say you’ve just taken a photo of your kids, or your pet dog in the park.  When you go to print the photograph, you realise that there’s some random stranger, or something else distracting in your photo, or perhaps you think should have zoomed in more – no problem you’ll just crop out the distraction right?  Here’s where you can lose a lot of image quality or photo size.  If you crop out 30% of the photo, you also lose 30% of the megapixels in the file, that 10MP master image just became a 7MP cropped image.  You can quickly see how important it is to properly compose your photos.

So remember, you want to shoot wide enough to allow for some cropping, but not too wide or you’ll lose too much image quality when you edit that final image.

Happy Snapping!

Ðannψ

Privacy In Photography

Much of our communication in today’s technologically driven world happens electronically and or online.  Whether it’s email, text messaging, social media, simply web browsing, electronic or online communication has become very convenient.  As Photographic Eye, we use electronic communication for everything from proofing galleries and web promotion, to photography sales.  With all this online activity it’s no surprise that privacy is a growing concern.

Recently, a client raised a concern regarding photographs, and the privacy act.  Respecting the privacy of our clients is very important us and as such we assured them that their images would be kept offline. This did however prompt me to take a closer look at privacy laws, and how they pertain to photographers and photography.  The federal government’s PIPEDA Act is the primary piece of privacy legislation in Canada, and individual provinces have their own legislation in addition to the PIPEDA Act.  The Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act, is Manitoba’s provincial legislation regarding privacy.   Now I am NOT a Lawyer by any stretch of imagination, so reading all this stuff was a daunting challenge to be sure – the legalese is thick.  What I did manage to glean from this is that photography doesn’t appear to be directly addressed in either of these acts, so I continued my search.  In doing so I found a couple documents out of Ontario that did shed some reasonable light on the subject.  The first was from an Ontario photography site, www.ambientlight.ca, where Randy Bodendorf contributed a well written article regarding photography law in Ontario.  The second article I found insightful is written by John D.R. Craig via McGill University.  While these two documents are by no means an exhaustive study, they do in my opinion address the essence of the whole privacy issue as I perceive it.

In my opinion, I think it kind of comes down to two “thoughts”… intent, and “reasonable expectation of privacy”.   First, no matter how a picture is taken, if defamation or harm is intended, it’s bad news.  The second thought is the one more relevant to most photographers – “reasonable expectation of privacy”.  While this is still very vague, I feel its easier to comprehend.  For example. if we do a portrait session for a client, we could argue that there is a reasonable expectation of privacy.  If on the other hand we are hired to document a public event such as a photobooth, a concert or recital held at a public hall, there would be very little expectation of privacy, it is after all a public performance event.

For us, and I’m sure most other professional photographers, our intent is to capture and preserve those precious moments, milestones, and memorable events.  It’s a service we wish to provide.  While we occasionally wish to use some of these photos to promote our business, we certainly don’t photograph people for the purpose of exploitation!

As always, we welcome your comments…

Ðannψ

Creativity…

Social media tools such as Facebook, Pinterest, Flicker, Deviant Art, 500px, and the internet in general are making it ever easier to get your photography “out there”. With the internet bombarding us with all these incredible shots, the thought of creating something original can be daunting. It’s easy to be ‘intimidated’ by everything you see out there. At the same time, however, the internet can also be a source of untapped inspiration. When Shelly & I are out shooting photographs, we always seem to find a way to capture that same moment from different angles. For myself, the internet is a stockpile of inspirational ideas, an endless list of photographic challenges. It’s like a giant photography club, sharing its’ insights for all who would take part.
You’ve heard it said many times that it’s not the camera that takes the picture, it’s the person, or the “eye” behind the camera. As a photographer, I look around me and see so many photographers, they’re everywhere, or at least they seem to be. Digital cameras and even cell phones have made it possible for everyone to engage their inner photographer. With so many eyes, so many creative people, you’d think that we must be on the verge of having captured it all.

But have we really?… What do you think?

Danny