hflare Loc: Florida

I understand that the pixel size has a baring on how clear the photograph will be when taken....

I also understand that the pixel size of a photograph will
allow a print of that digital photograph to be at it's best
when a larger print is required..

My question is: If I want to make the sharpest image
from the largest pixel size my camera will take but only
print that print in a small print size..

For example, If I want to make a photograph no larger than
a four by five inch size....

What difference would it make if I shot it at a large pixel size?


Should I shoot the size with the pixel size set for the four by five inch print? Or should I shoot the picture with the largest pixel setting and re-size the file to a smaller picture in an editing program?

Which would give to me, the best quality in a four by five inch size?



Thank you for any advice in advance,..

DRON Loc: CHICAGO

always shoot at your max size. it may make no difference in a small print, but it could make a difference with a larger print, or if you wanted to crop the photo and only print a portion of it.

a photo is a unique place and time that will never be again. digital memory is cheap. use your camera to its max quality.

ScottK Loc: Trophy Club, TX

Agreed. Shoot in raw.

graphicny Loc: Central New York

The nice thing about digital, is you can try it and see for your self. Play around with it and see what you get, no film wasted.

Take the same shot at the different size settings you have available. That way you can see how different it will look at the different settings, at Big and small. Maybe it will make a difference for you, and maybe not. Everyone has a different reason to use a camera, try it and you will know what works for you.

architect Loc: Chattanooga

The only reason to shoot at a smaller size, in my opinion, is if you have a small capacity card and need to take a great many photos. You can always make a large file smaller, say for posting on the Internet, but if you make a small file larger you lose quality because you are relying on the computer to interpolate the extra pixels created.

Gary Truchelut Loc: Coldspring, TX

If you know ahead of time you will only need to print small 4X5 inch prints, whatever the reason, then you can use the smaller number of pixel size on the camera settings. However, if you think that someday you may need to print a larger print from these files take the larger image size to begin with. I always shoot in RAW which gives me the ability to do more with the image at a later date if I so desire. It's like someone else said, digital storage is cheap and there is really no reason to shoot small size images.

alaskanfrog Loc: Alaska

The main thing about digital photography and pixels is how the camera uses the CCD in your camera. A CCD is a "Charged Couple Device. All digital cameras use a CCD for imaging and capture, including still cameras and video camcorders. However, Higher End cameras come with a larger CCD to capture much larger images. While most point and shoot use a 1/3rd CCD, a high end camera might have a 2/3rd, 3/4, or a 1" CCD, allowing for a much larger photo to be shot. Professional and higher end Camcorders have as many as 3 CCDs for images and are assigned to the primary colors of RGB, or "Red, Blue, Green, with one color for each chip." Still Cameras and palm sized camcorders only use a single CCD to capture all 3 colors of the RGB spectrum for imaging. The more pixels a CCD has, the better ability it has to capture larger pictures. A camera's "Megapixels" will allow you to determine how big your photos will be and still be clear when printed. Even the point and shoot with the 1/3 CCD is still capable of capturing high resolution images, but the quality is much higher with a larger CCD camera. It's a lot more complex than this, but this is about the Gist of your question I believe.

Shooting in "RAW" allows for more information to be captured in a photo by using more pixels. However you can shoot in "Small" format in "RAW" and still only get small photos. Most digital cameras, if not all, have at least 3 settings for image size to choose from before you shoot. the settings are L,M,S(large, medium or small). Many cameras have different variations of those settings that determine how the camera will shoot and capture images and the settings will determine how the sensor captures images when photographing. Some digital cameras also have XS, for extra small photos, although I don't know why anyone would want to shoot only thumbnail sized photos.

Even the smallest memory size card in a camera is capable of capturing large format images, but you would run out of space immediately and would only be able to shoot no more than 15-20 photos. My camera only had a 512MB card when I bought it and I was so limited when I started shooting. It was only after exploring and learning about the different image size settings that I learned about how it affects the memory size of a card. Well needless to say I upgraded my card, first with a 1GB card, then a 2GB and now I use 4GB cards almost exclusively. I could buy an 8GB card, but I don't see the point. I'm able to capture literally hundreds of High Resolution, Large Format Photos without any problems. I replace my card every time it's full so that I can save my cards as backup storage for my photos.

Short story long, set your camera to its highest resolution and largest image size as possible, so that your photos are likewise, high resolution and large. I don't know what kind of camera you have, but it will be located in your settings menu. Good luck... Happy Snapping:)

pdwoodswood Loc: Lewisville, NC

Bigger Is Better! use max. pixel and forget the lower sizes unless you have a memory storage problem somewhere. my $.02

Elle Loc: Long Island, NY

Never shoot on a small or less than fine setting. SD cards aren't that expensive and chances are that unless you are taking videos, you will not fill even a 2 gig card on an average day, the minimum size I'll use...the camera will tell you how many images you can expect to get based on the setting used. As mentioned..you can always bring the size down but you can't go up. If you happen to get that one out of one hundred shot, you'll kick yourself if you can't print it bigger than a snapshot.

I do not save my photos on the SD card as a backup. I reformat the card and reuse once the pictures have been transferred to my computer and/or external storage drive. SD cards are small and easily misplaced and pulling up old pictures on the fly not easily accomplished. My "library" on a 2 Terrabyte drive is easily accessible... so far so good.

jepoplin Loc: Steamboat Springs, CO

I agree here... you never know for what you may need or want the photo for in the future.

nikondaddy Loc: Mayfield,Kentucky

If you shooting 4x6 prints any thing from 2million to 6 six will do wonders but the Dslr with it,s larger sensor will be superionr to megapixel smaller cameras boosting 14 mega pixels. The low asa speed will give you more noiseless photos one without grain but at 4x6 you can get aweays with a lot of things. Most digital cameras made in the past 5 years can produyce a decent 8xl0 and the newer ones 11x14,s that look mirror sharp.

beacher Loc: Butler, PA

Hey, alaskanfrog, all digital cameras DO NOT use CCD sensors. Quite a few if not most use CMOS sensors. Canon uses mostly CMOS, as does Nikon, Sony uses both, Olympus uses ccd/live MOS, leica uses both etc. Just saying...

Paw Paw Bill Loc: d

Let me try to clear a few misconceptions presented here and possibly help you with your question. This will take a little space, but, please be patient.

A raw picture is not larger than a jpg from the same camera. The FILE is larger because much more data about the image is contained in the raw file. The pixel count and photo size is the same.

A 10 meg 1/3 inch sensor has just as many pixels as a 10 meg 1 inch sensor. The portion of the sensor assigned to a single pixel is nine times larger on the bigger camera than the smaller one. This means more sensitivity to low light, resulting in lower number of "noise" artifacts. Better lenses normally are used with the larger camera, so better contrast and sharpness follow. Under the correct light levels (very high), it can be difficult to tell the difference in the images created by the two cameras. Since light is variable, the bigger sensor on the better camera with the better lense usually wins.

If you want to get into serious post editing or expect to have some "good" shots that you want to do special things with, then shoot raw. If you are only "takin' pitchers' or you want do display shooting skill and not editing, then shoot "fine" jpg. However, ALWAYS shoot with the largest size you can. You may not know what you have until you view it later. You don't want to realize that the snapshot may have had "big foot" looking out from behind a tree behind the subject and you don't have the resolution to blow it up to see it. Seriously, any photo may be the one you want to enlarge and hang on the wall. Make it possible with high pixel count. You can always shrink it on the computer, but you can't "stretch" it to large size and get lost data back into it.

This is getting long, I'll post more in a different segment.

Paw Paw Bill Loc: d

You mentioned "pixel size". The correct phrase is "pixel count" Pixels on the sensor are always the same size. You can, however direct the software to output the image using less than that number of pixels. This results in lower quality and resolution as the camera takes data from 2 to 4 sensor pixels and stores them in the image as a single pixel. Smaller files result that contain too little data to be enlarged. This is fine for small prints, but what if you get the "money shot" but can't use it? Again, you can alway change the pixel count later if you don't have expectations about the image after you've viewed it on the computer. If you want to corral yourself into 4 x 6 FOREVER then its your choice, but don't come back crying in 20 years when you can't enlarge an old image file that are your only copies of your deceased wife, mother, child, etc.

Not trying to be morbid, just being realistic about what I know about life. I personnally regret a lot of my past efforts to get pictures of places and things to prove my "photo skills" while not taking photos of my children with these vacation scenes behind THEM. That was film days, now I can do both. Only problem is my kids are not kids and even many of my grandchildren are college graduates. Most live in different states and all live a long way off.

That last bit was to show that 4 x 6 is fine for now, but attitudes change. MAKE LARGE FILES then make small prints, but KEEP THE FILES.

Paw Paw Bill Loc: d

After reading my own post, I found something that could be taken wrong. When I said that the pixels on a sensor are always the same, I meant that all the pixels on any one particular sensor are all the same size. Any one particular camera could and often does have a different sized pixel than the pixels on some other camera's sensor.

The point I was wanting to get to is that your sensor will always hand the camera software the same number of pixels every time you take a shot. The software in the camera can save the full set of pixels with all data from each one and call it raw. It can take each pixel and manipulate the data to generate a full set of pixels, but less data for a "fine" jpg. Finally it can combine some number of side by side or grouped pixels to produce a smaller sized image with less pixel count than the sensor actually sees (this loses a lot of data)

My wife says that when I get to explaining anything to someone...I go on too long and in too much detail....so I sort'a cut it down here....but it still seems long....hope it helped someone.