Pixel Power
Greetings! 
I started pondering the puzzle of the power packed, petite pixel, so small, so
misunderstood. I turned to the ever wise, ever true internet for information & expertise, as any red blooded American would. Wikipedia did not disappoint. It had a lengthy but rather overwhelming definition. This is only a small portion of what they had to say.
I will attempt to translate...
"In digital imaging, a pixel (or picture element)[1] is the smallest addressable screen element
in raster graphics; it is the smallest unit of picture that can be controlled. Each pixel has its
own address. The address of a pixel corresponds to its coordinates. Pixels are normally arranged
in a two-dimensional grid, and are often represented using dots or squares. Each pixel is a
sample of an original image; more samples typically provide more accurate representations
of the original. The intensity of each pixel is variable. In color image systems, a color is typically represented by three or four component intensities such as red, green, and blue or cyan, magenta, yellow and black." Each pixel is a teeny-tiny piece of the whole picture---a dot of color &
intensity from only 3 or 4 colors.
"A megapixel (MP or Mpx) is one million pixels, and is a term used not only for the number of pixels in an image, but also to express the number of image sensor elements of digital cameras or the number of display elements of digital displays." Easy enough.
"The concept of a "picture element" dates to the earliest days of television, for example as "Bildpunkt" (the German word for pixel, literally picture point) in the 1888 German patent of Paul Nipkow. According to various etymologies, the earliest publication of the term picture element itself was in Wireless World magazine in 1927,[6] though it had been used earlier in various U.S. patents filed as early as 1911."
Who knew the idea was so old---dating back to the late 19th century!
"The word pixel is based on a contraction of pix ("pictures") and el (for "element"); similar formations with el for "element" include the words voxel[3] and texel.[3] Digital cameras use photosensitive electronics, either [[charge-coupled device]] (CCD) or [[CMOS|complementary
metal–oxide–semiconductor]] (CMOS) [[image sensor]]s, consisting of a large number of single
sensor elements, each of which records a measured intensity level. In most digital cameras, the
sensor array is covered with a patterned color filter mosaic having red, green, and blue regions
in the [[Bayer filter]] arrangement, so that each sensor element can record the intensity of a single
primary color of light." Does anyone realize that green is definitely NOT a primary color? Check your color wheel: red, blue & yellow. So, is our world mostly green, blue & red? hmmmm
"A pixel is generally thought of as the smallest single component of a digital image. However, the definition is highly context-sensitive. For example, there can be "printed pixels" in a page, or
pixels carried by electronic signals, or represented by digital values, or pixels on a display device, or
pixels in a digital camera sensor." Herein lies the problem. There is no standard pixel size.
So, your $200 point & shoot 10 megapixel camera will never match up to a Nikon
DSLR with the same resolution.
PHOTO TIP: Learn about the real value of the megapixels of a camera before you buy it.
If all this stuff really interests you, check this guy out---he goes on for an hour on YouTube:
Pixel and Me also check out: wiseGEEK.com and webopedia.com for more succinct answers.
BLESSINGS!
Joshua1:9
See more pixels
I started pondering the puzzle of the power packed, petite pixel, so small, so
misunderstood. I turned to the ever wise, ever true internet for information & expertise, as any red blooded American would. Wikipedia did not disappoint. It had a lengthy but rather overwhelming definition. This is only a small portion of what they had to say.
I will attempt to translate...
"In digital imaging, a pixel (or picture element)[1] is the smallest addressable screen element
in raster graphics; it is the smallest unit of picture that can be controlled. Each pixel has its
own address. The address of a pixel corresponds to its coordinates. Pixels are normally arranged
in a two-dimensional grid, and are often represented using dots or squares. Each pixel is a
sample of an original image; more samples typically provide more accurate representations
of the original. The intensity of each pixel is variable. In color image systems, a color is typically represented by three or four component intensities such as red, green, and blue or cyan, magenta, yellow and black." Each pixel is a teeny-tiny piece of the whole picture---a dot of color &
intensity from only 3 or 4 colors.
"A megapixel (MP or Mpx) is one million pixels, and is a term used not only for the number of pixels in an image, but also to express the number of image sensor elements of digital cameras or the number of display elements of digital displays." Easy enough.
"The concept of a "picture element" dates to the earliest days of television, for example as "Bildpunkt" (the German word for pixel, literally picture point) in the 1888 German patent of Paul Nipkow. According to various etymologies, the earliest publication of the term picture element itself was in Wireless World magazine in 1927,[6] though it had been used earlier in various U.S. patents filed as early as 1911."
Who knew the idea was so old---dating back to the late 19th century!
"The word pixel is based on a contraction of pix ("pictures") and el (for "element"); similar formations with el for "element" include the words voxel[3] and texel.[3] Digital cameras use photosensitive electronics, either [[charge-coupled device]] (CCD) or [[CMOS|complementary
metal–oxide–semiconductor]] (CMOS) [[image sensor]]s, consisting of a large number of single
sensor elements, each of which records a measured intensity level. In most digital cameras, the
sensor array is covered with a patterned color filter mosaic having red, green, and blue regions
in the [[Bayer filter]] arrangement, so that each sensor element can record the intensity of a single
primary color of light." Does anyone realize that green is definitely NOT a primary color? Check your color wheel: red, blue & yellow. So, is our world mostly green, blue & red? hmmmm
"A pixel is generally thought of as the smallest single component of a digital image. However, the definition is highly context-sensitive. For example, there can be "printed pixels" in a page, or
pixels carried by electronic signals, or represented by digital values, or pixels on a display device, or
pixels in a digital camera sensor." Herein lies the problem. There is no standard pixel size.
So, your $200 point & shoot 10 megapixel camera will never match up to a Nikon
DSLR with the same resolution.
PHOTO TIP: Learn about the real value of the megapixels of a camera before you buy it.
If all this stuff really interests you, check this guy out---he goes on for an hour on YouTube:
Pixel and Me also check out: wiseGEEK.com and webopedia.com for more succinct answers.
BLESSINGS!
Joshua1:9
See more pixels
Posted by Pamela at 2/10/2011 11:52 AM 
Categories: Photography tips, How to take better pictures, Instructional
Tags: pixels megapixel CCd CMOS digital camera Wikipedia webopedia webGeek color image sensor
Categories: Photography tips, How to take better pictures, Instructional
Tags: pixels megapixel CCd CMOS digital camera Wikipedia webopedia webGeek color image sensor
I am glad that your blog is constantly evolving.
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