“My coffee is on the kitchen counter ready to be brewed. I won’t have time to drink it, so I’ll just pour it in the empty bottle I saw last night. I know my pin is in that bag because I saw it by chance a couple of days ago. Oh, yes, I need to wear black!”
As you move from one space to the next over time, your physical space increases, therefore leaving behind a vast trail of memory and images. It is impossible to remember every detail, but the more receptive you are about certain things the more you can trace something back. As your space continues to change throughout the week, you will still be able to trace images of where things were and not be concerned about the time limiting you from finding them. You are tracing pixels, or fragments of time.
How would you show fragments of time? Have you ever heard of pixilation animation? The images are pieces that work together when combined consecutively to create a motion picture. The more images you have, the less static the animation will be and the better the quality. Try to pause an animation and view the images at a slower pace to see how many were made. You can also see this in a flipbook.
In order to understand how pixels and image resolution work, try to think beyond pixels per inch and more of pixels per mile. Here is what I mean:
There are 19,008,000 pixels aligned next to each other in a mile if I wanted to track every detail at 300 dots per inch. That’s only possible in a perfect world. If I were to attempt to be more realistic and decrease my memory to only tracking 72 dots per inch in a mile, my pixel dimensions will also decrease to 4,561,920 pixels, but the journey length remains the same. A mile is a mile. Adding another mile may decrease the memory and remembrance of pixels, therefore decreasing the quality of your memory. That blur you see of recalling the first day you learned to tie your shoelace is the attempt of enlarging your memory when in fact it is difficult due to a big lapse of time that has passed.You perform one evening on a stage. The physical dimensions of that stage remain the same, but you can only recall the light shining on the soloist’s hair. You are placed at one angle of the stage. It’s also not possible to contain all that memory, or pixels in that space. That is why we invented cameras.
Cameras also are set with memory. For analogue it is the ISO setting. Light and time helps analogue cameras get as much memory as possible. Our eyes need light to see a physical space, same as the lens. Try staring at a physical space as long as possible and say click. Can you be Cam Janson? A digital camera is composed of Mega Pixels (MP). An 8MP can remember up to 8 million pixels in a physical space – not bad. The more we view the more pixels we see, which expand our memory. I wish I knew how many Gigabytes are stored in my brain. More than a computer! The current aim of technology is to advance computers to create the same amount of memory as the human brain, maybe more. Is that possible? Once more data is stored than the brain, computers will be smarter and might take over. Who’s embracing technology now?
Based on these analogies of memories and time, here are the definitions that define image and resolution:
Pixel- A portion of a memory
Pixel Dimensions- The amount of memory, or pixels in a space in time
Resolution- The size and amount of pixels tracked in a space in time
Image Size- The containment of physical space
Each digital camera has its own automated pixel dimensions and image size. Once you know what they are, you can easily determine how much resolution your image will have. For instance, my digital camera takes images at 7MP, meaning I get a maximum of 7 million pixels. Once opened on Photoshop, I see that the camera takes pixel dimensions of 3072 x 2304, which multiplies to 7,078,288 pixels. Those pixels are contained in a space of 10.24 x 7.68 inches. What would the resolution be? Before doing calculations, I can see that there is a lot of information or memory that is squeezed in a small space, almost the size of A4 paper. Therefore, the pixels are small and there are possibly many.
Once I do my calculations, the resolution of my camera is set to 300 dpi, or dots per inch. A dot is another term for pixel. The calculations are correct with the help of Photoshop.
This is a pretty decent print size that can also be expanded due to the larger quantities of smaller pixels. If I were to decrease the resolution to 72 dpi with the amount of pixel memory already visible, the print size, or contained physical space of the image expands to 42.667 x 32 inches. That may sound better, but the pixels are already big and can no longer expand the image print size even more. Also, once printed, the quality will not be as great as a smaller contained image because too little pixels, or memory take an inch of space.
It is always advisable when taking a picture or scanning an image, to check that the setting is always up to 300 dpi. There are bigger resolutions, but this is more standard and takes up less space in a hard drive. Once you have your original image, you can decrease its file size by decreasing its resolution, without changing its image size. So what is 72 dpi good for? More than you think! It is the main resolution for monitors or screens. Below are points for the use of both standard resolutions.
- What is 72 dpi good for?
- Fast prints
- The standard screen resolution and projection for video and web files
- All images uploaded online are 72 dpi for faster loading and sufficient screen resolution
If you open a new file on Photoshop there is a dropdown menu with file templates and the standard dots per inch is already set. For example: Video NTSC 720 x 360 pixels at 72 dpi. That may seem a small image size (10 x 5 inches), but note that pixel dimensions at 72 dpi appear big on a screen.
So can you print an image at a great quality downloaded from the internet? The answer is no. There are websites that allow you to download images to its original file size, but it will always be 72 dpi, because it was uploaded that way. Therefore, find an image with the biggest amount of pixels in order for better prints. You can find these by searching and clicking on the “Large Images” option on the menu and checking its pixel dimensions. Another great website is Flickr by Yahoo. You can download images in various sizes as long as permission is granted by the author. The more pixels available, the better the image quality is.
Image by Ravenrust on flickr.
- What is 300 dpi good for?
- Final prints
- Picture editing (Always edit from your original image)
- Picture enlarging (Since pixels are small, there’s more to stretch)
Once you print an image, you also have to instruct your printer because it is your teammate. Remind it that you are printing an image at 300 dpi by having it print at its best quality and resolution.
She's a total Monet! See? From afar she looks okay, but way up close a total mess!
Clueless 1995
Cher from the film, Cluelessis right about a lot of things, especially when it comes to beauty and detail. Here is a good way to understand what a pixel looks like. Images with 72 dpi look fine far away, but since they are a bigger pixel size, they are easily spotted looking close up, especially if stretched. Images with more resolution and pixels have a better chance of looking great close up and far away. Think of pointillist, George Seurat. He was an impressionist painter who painted dots. How many dots per inch did he use? Please do not make me go to a museum to figure that out! Although his canvas size is big, he made big points, little fitting in an inch. I’m not saying the quality of his painting is bad! I am making a point, get it?
Take a look at Roy Lichtenstein and his concept about Benday dots that appear in printed comics. Look far away and that face looks like it is skin colored.
Printing is composed of the colors, CMYK (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and Black), or RGB (Red, Green, and Blue). Mixing these colors together with as many dots, or bits can compose a decent replica of the actual color that was photographed or seen. Take a closer look with a magnifying glass and you will see the colors at work.
Sometimes, if an image size is too big, like a meter by a meter that would take way too long to print at 300 dpi. Sometimes the resolution would have to be decreased. There should be no worries if this image is a background for a school play. The audience is looking at a particular distance. Thank you, impressionist painters for reminding us that detail is sometimes not necessary!
