Trees and grass become blobs of colour rather than individual elements. The second result is the quality of the pixels, making the lines and detail of your photo become jagged and less distinct. This affect may not be noticeable when viewed on a screen but is very evident when printed.įor colour images, compression means that many of the subtle nuances of colour are lost, making your photo appear flat and lifeless. For instance a black and white image containing the same number of pixels as a colour image will require about 25% of the data.
By reducing the number of colours contained within an image, there is much less data to be kept.
There are two basic things which become compromised colour and the quality of the pixels. Its not rocket science to guess what sort of affect this will have on the quality of your photo. An image that requires 5 or 10Mb of storage space can keep the same number of pixels and yet when compressed, needs only 1 or 2Mb of storage space on your computer or camera. With compression techniques, the number of pixels may remain the same, however the quality of the pixel date can become extremely compromised. This is a method of reducing the data within the image in order to reduce the file size. Photo compression is a technique used by cameras, phones & social media. Jpeg is a form of compression used to store image data. Its better to be safe then sorry! You can always delete undesirable images or transfer photos onto your pc. However, if you may wish to create high quality poster prints, Canvas prints or photo framing from your photography then its a good idea to set the resolution as high as possible. Factory default settings tend to conserve storage space so that you can take the maximum number of images. Most cameras will let you set your images to a higher quality. When you purchase a new camera or phone that you intend to use for photography, it is always a good idea to check the resolution settings.
Things to check before using a new device: If this is not possible, we will always do our best to print from what you have available. It is always advantageous to attempt to contact the person who took the photo and ask if you may have the original file to print from. Its difficult to conceive of the storage space they need to provide for their users with small files - just imagine what it would be like if they kept all of their files large! Consequently, files copied from social media sites tend not to print well. Just think that Facebook, Pinterest or Instagram all have to provide server space for these photos to reside. Try to imagine the millions of people uploading and viewing photos posted on social media. The other advantage of reduced image sizes, is storage. Sharing images becomes much easier as users using social media can be confident that any images they wish to share will easily find their way to the intended recipient. This is desirable for people utilising social media as it keeps the viewing of images within a reasonable download time, which means viewers do not have to wait for ages and ages whilst an images makes its way to their computer or phone.
Social media sites generally reduce the size of your image when you upload it. If you plan to post your images on social image sites such as Instagram or Facebook, then a large number of pixels is not required. Cameras often arrive with a selection of pixel settings from high resolution down to low resolution. One of the first items to check when taking photos is the settings on your camera. However, their standard, non-panoramic images are sometimes not as packed with pixels. Photo quality is partially based on pixels and can vary enormously between different cameras and phones.įor instance, iPhones generally take very high quality panoramic images, with an amazing number of pixels per inch.