Pixel Peeping or Why am I so Anal about How Many Pixels I Have?

Katya-Gaydukova-in-Fear-by-Benjamin-Kanarek
Katya Gaydukova in Fear © Benjamin Kanarek

You know, I’ve been observing my images and thinking about the stuff I have shot with my Canon 10D, Canon 20D, Canon 1Ds Mkll and my PentaxK10D’s and K20D’s. I have also shot with pretty much every Medium Format Camera and digital back available.

I JUST DON’T SEE ANY SIGNIFICANT DIFFERENCE BETWEEN ANY OF THEM WHEN PRINTED TO A LARGER THAN STANDARD MAGAZINE FORMAT!!! That being around A3. Perhaps color nuance and some photo grain differences when I shot at 400 or 800 iso.

I have been published with all of the above camera’s. All of the magazine’s I have been published in are very high grade Trendy Press book quality magazines. The output for printing in a high end glossy table top magazine of all of the above camera’s was more than adequate for my needs.

My point is this. In terms of resolving power and for most support that most of us would imagine being published in, pretty much all of the newer DSLR cameras out today could be used for professional application, if you know their limitations.

In fact my last shoot I did with the Pentax K20D was over kill considering the size of the support i.e. about 8×10 inches. In fact, I had to reduce the image size to get down to 300 dpi for Pre Press. I would have been quite comfortable with a 8-10 mega pixel DSLR. The only grain I see when published with a 10 mega pixel camera in double page landscape format is the screen grain of the printing press of around 133 dpi.

Why do I bring all of this up… Pixel Peeping is a total waste of time.

Go out and enjoy your toy and use it to express who and what you are.

That’s All Folks…

About Benjamin Kanarek
Fashion and Beauty Photographer. Some of the magazines I have shot for include: VOGUE (China, Portugal, Brazil, Italia, Paris and South America & Mexico editions), RG VOGUE Brazil, Harper’s BAZAAR (China, en Español & Latin America, Hong Kong, Italy editions), L’Officiel Paris, ELLE (Spain, Portugal and Greece editions), Madame Figaro (France), Cosmopolitan (France and Italy editions), Glamour (France), Votre Beauté, Jardin des Modes, Dépêche Mode, New York Daily News, Fashion District News, New York Times Magazine, W (British edition), WWD, Fashion Magazine (Canada), Flare (Canada), Oyster, Tank, WestEast…