Subscribe to Updates

    Get the latest creative news from FooBar about art, design and business.

    What's Hot

    Canon EOS R5: Full Review

    March 7, 2023

    Hashtags for Nature Photographers: Grow Your Instagram

    February 25, 2023

    How to create amazing abstract photos using water.

    February 20, 2023
    Facebook Twitter Instagram
    Learn Photography SkillsLearn Photography Skills
    Subscribe
    • Home
    • Blog
    • Inspiration
    • Reviews
    • Courses
    • Tutorials
      1. Camera Tutorials
      2. Editing Tutorials
      3. Lighting Tutorials
      4. View All

      10 great pieces of advice for R5 users.

      January 16, 2023

      What are ND filters?

      January 7, 2023

      Night photography tips from an expert

      January 3, 2023

      7 things new camera owners should try first!

      December 25, 2022

      What is the RAW file format?

      January 11, 2023

      What is 16-bit color depth?

      January 5, 2023

      How to disable “Press & Hold to right click” for your Wacom tablet – On Windows 11 

      July 11, 2022

      What are image file formats?

      March 10, 2022

      When should you change the “ISO” in your camera?

      December 5, 2022

      How to use a flash to freeze fast movement.

      April 17, 2019

      Create a stunning product photo using freeze frame photography!

      April 11, 2019

      How to get started with flash photography

      April 1, 2019

      Abstract Nature Photography: Creative Tips & Techniques

      February 16, 2023

      What is a 360 photo sphere?

      January 28, 2023

      5 landscape tips to set your photos on fire!

      January 27, 2023

      3 underrated techniques for moody nature photos.

      January 25, 2023
    • Forums
    Learn Photography SkillsLearn Photography Skills
    Home»Uncategorized»What are megapixels?
    Uncategorized

    What are megapixels?

    ShawnBy ShawnSeptember 26, 20222 Comments6 Mins Read
    Share Facebook Twitter Pinterest LinkedIn Tumblr Reddit Telegram Email
    Share
    Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Email

    Cover photo by Amal S on Unsplash

    If you’ve been looking at cameras to buy a key advertised specification is the number of megapixels the camera has. Megapixels is literally two words stuck together, “mega” and “pixels”. What do mega and pixels have to do with camera sensors? Well, the word “mega” is Greek for “large” or “great”. This Greek word “mega” is used in the metric system to denote “1 million”. If you have a mega amount of something such as a megaton, or megawatt, those values equate to 1 million tons and 1 million watts. So a megapixel works the same way, it literally means 1 million pixels.

    Pixel is the other part of the word megapixel, so what is that exactly? The pixel is a fundamental concept in computing. It is a way of displaying images that is used in almost all digital imaging devices. The pixel is necessary in order to convert an image from being analog to being digital. This conversion process is called “quantization”.

    A common misconception of pixels is that they have a size. While a pixel may appear very small on your phone screen or monitor, by definition pixels have no specific size. Generally, pixels are small because our eyes don’t like to see pixels, smaller pixels tend to help images look more real to us when seen on screens. In an image file such as jpeg or what have you, pixels are pretty much nothing but a color value or brightness level with no dimension. Inside of a camera or a computer monitor, each pixel is given its value by the image file. By combining lots of pixels together, each with their own color value, an image you can recognize can be formed from those values on a computer screen or inside of the camera.

    Since pixels have no size if you want a larger image of something you need MORE pixels. Increasing the size of the pixels doesn’t technically increase the spatial resolution. However, some displays do use very large pixels such as jumbo screens in stadiums or those used for electronic billboards on the side of the highway. These very large screens are viewed from so far away that a larger pixel is used. This makes building those kinds of screens much easier, and since the viewers are far away its hard to tell that the pixels in the screen are actually really big.

    Pixels in personal computing devices are generally very small and numerous, sometimes too small to see with the naked eye. This is because personal computers such as desktops and phones are viewed relatively closeup. At these distances our eyes are capable of seeing very fine details which is why the pixels in your phone screen have to be really small.

    A common example would be a computer monitor or television that has a resolution of 1,920 by 1,080. This resolution number means the monitor/TV displays a grid of pixels that is 1,920 pixels wide, and 1,080 pixels tall.

    If you’re familiar with how to get the area of a rectangle, finding the number of pixels works exactly the same way. Simply multiple the two sides together and that gives you the number of pixels contained within our rectangle of pixels.

    In the case of 1,920 by 1,080 screen, multiplying the two numbers together gives 2,073,600. That is two million, seventy three thousand, and 600 hundred pixels in total. Going back to our other word part “mega” you would write the resolution of the monitor out as 2 megapixels.

    Most modern phone screens have a resolution around 2-4 megapixels.

    A list of some common screen sizes and their megapixel value is shown below:

    ResolutionMegapixels
    1080p (1920 x 1080 FHD)2.07 Megapixels
    1440p (2560 × 1440 WQHD) 3.69 Megapixels
    2160p (3840 × 2160 4K UHD) 8.30 Megapixels
    4320p (7680 × 4320 8k UHD)33.20 Megapixels
    15360 x 8640 (16k)132.71 Megapixels

    There aren’t a lot of screens supporting 16k resolution out there, but such setups do exist. The highest officially supported standard by the TV industry is 8k UHD or 8k DCI (for theaters) and that tends to be the maximum for video cameras as well. Only a handful of cameras can film in 8k. Higher resolutions are possible but not realistic at this point in time. For most viewing purposes such as TV’s and theater screens, 8k is more than enough pixels to produce a realistic image where the actual pixels are invisible to the eye. In fact, the majority of digital movie screens are still only at 1080p resolution, and most films still target 1080p as their distribution resolution. Yep, much of the time when movies are advertised as 4k those have been up-sampled to that resolution, not actually produced in that resolution.

    Pixels are pretty simple once you understand what they are. Depending on what your goals are, if you’re making movies for example, a 4k camera should be good for you.

    Print resolution is another matter entirely and is much more resolution intensive. For a variety of reasons, it turns out that movies don’t really need all that much resolution as much as movie makers want to pretend they need it. Prints do actually need large resolution figures because 300dpi is generally seen as the standard resolution for prints and has been the standard for many years. 300dpi stands for “dots per inch”. Which means that in one square inch of the final print there should be 300 x 300 pixels of resolution.

    Below is a chart showing some common print resolutions and their associated megapixels requirement.

    Print SizeMegapixels
    4″ x 6″2.20 Megapixels
    5″ x 7″3.20 Megapixels
    8″ x 10″7.20 Megapixels
    16″ x 20″28.80 Megapixels
    24″ x 36″77.80 Megapixels

    Maintaining 300 dpi resolution at print sizes above this probably isn’t necessary in most cases as the viewing distances tend to be greater with really big prints. This means you can easily come down to 200×200 dpi or simply upscale a 200 dpi image to 300 dpi before printing it out.

    As you can see the resolution required for large prints shoots upward rapidly. But 99% of the ways that normal people view photos will fall under the resolution for 8k monitors which is 33.20 megapixels. Only in some rare instances such as printing for art galleries or clients who want extremely large prints for display would any photographer need more than 33.2 megapixels.

    What a wild ride through the megapixel gauntlet. We learned about Greek, we learned about the metric system, we learned that pixels are dimensionless color values, and we learned about video and print resolution, wow, now you have some great information to make a better buying decision on your next camera.

    Shawn
    • Website

    Shawn is the Editor and Co-Founder of Learn Photography Skills. In addition to Learn Photography Skills you can find Shawn's work at: www.kenesseystudios.com

    Related Posts

    Camera Tutorials

    What is a shutter button?

    November 22, 2022
    Reviews

    2022 Camera Gift Guide

    November 19, 2022
    Camera Tech

    OIS vs IBIS, which is better?

    November 9, 2022
    View 2 Comments

    2 Comments

    1. Rajesh Kumar on October 5, 2022 3:25 pm

      very good information. Well explained in simple language ..what megapixel is. Two words….I never new it.
      Thanks to the writer and well informative chart given.
      Thanks Sir.

      Reply
    2. Rajesh Kumar on October 5, 2022 3:25 pm

      very good information. Well explained in simple language ..what megapixel is. Two words….I never new it.
      Thanks to the writer and well informative chart given.
      Thanks Sir.

      Reply

    Leave A Reply Cancel Reply

    Subscribe to Updates

    Get the latest updates from Learn Photography Skills on all things photography, including creative techniques & equipment.

    Top Posts

    What is the difference between Canon RF and EF mount?

    January 4, 20211K Views

    Why don’t photographers just use one super zoom lens?

    November 30, 2022550 Views

    DSLR vs Mirrorless cameras.

    February 5, 2023360 Views
    Stay In Touch
    • Facebook
    • Twitter
    • Instagram
    • Pinterest
    All Time Most Popular

    What is the difference between Canon RF and EF mount?

    January 4, 20211K Views

    Why don’t photographers just use one super zoom lens?

    November 30, 2022550 Views

    DSLR vs Mirrorless cameras.

    February 5, 2023360 Views
    Our Picks

    How to fix “pictures not sharp” issue with lens.

    November 21, 2021

    Why don’t photographers just use one super zoom lens?

    November 30, 2022

    How to control depth of field.

    January 22, 2019

    See Every New Post!

    Sign up to receive an update when new posts are available to read on LPS.com!

    Facebook Twitter Instagram Pinterest
    • Photography Courses
    • Forums
    • About Us
    • Advertise
    • Contact Us
    © 2023 Learn Photography Skills

    Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.