Digital photography is very popular these days. If you have recently shifted from film cameras to digital photography, it is essential that you understand the various terms and abbreviations associated with it:

A PIXEL It is the smallest part of a digital image. Pixels are combined with millions of other pixels to form a photo image. The resolution of digital cameras is expressed in terms of pixels.

The total quantity of pixels in a photo image is the RESOLUTION. The quality of the picture becomes sharper and better with the increase in resolution; more pixels mean better the quality.

One million pixels make a MEGAPIXEL. A picture with three or four megapixels will have much better quality than a picture with just one.

DPI (dots per inch) is used to describe the quality of a printer or computer monitor. Laser printers have about 300 dpi resolution, while monitors only have 72. Photo quality inkjet printers have a dpi of at least 1200 dpi. Here again, more the dpi, better the quality.

MEGABYTE represents computer memory. One megabyte equals one million bytes of file storage capacity.

JPEG stands for joint photographic experts group. It represents a format for storing images in digital cameras. JPEG files can be displayed easily on the Internet and e-mailed.

The digital files of all digital cameras need to be stored on a MEMORY CARD. The sizes of these cards depend upon the amount of storage capacity required. For convenience, buy as big of a card as you can afford. This is one computer-related storage space you'll use all of, routinely.

LCD is an acronym for liquid crystal display. Most digital cameras have this feature so that the photographer can check the scene before clicking, then review the picture after taking the photo.

Happy clicking!