Megapixels

Let's talk about megapixels. Image resolution is measured in megapixels. A megapixel is a measurement of one million pixels. The average image size in your Facebook feed is 1200x900 pixels, that's just over one megapixel.

A megapixel is a measurement of one million pixels. 1200x900=1,080,000 which is also 1.08 megapixels. This resolution will not have very sharp quality if printed larger than 5"x3".

This is a determining factor when purchasing a DSLR, but what about your everyday cellphone? Have you ever chosen to print your images taken with your cell phone? Have you ever printed images downloaded from a social media site such as Facebook, Google+, or Instagram? Many online print companies such as Shutterfly, and print kiosks at stores such as Target or Walmart, offer shortcuts to import images from these pages.

The more pixels a camera has, the more detail it can capture. Cameras with a lower megapixel count may result in images with a more blurred or pixelated look, especially when enlarged. The newest cell phones currently available are the IPhone 6 which has 8 megapixels and the Samsung Galaxy S5, which has 16 megapixels. Now, the megapixel count of a camera is not the most important feature: the image sensor will by far effect your image quality.

Light enters through the lens, which goes through the light sensor, which converts it to an electronic signal.  Then the processor converts the signal into an image again with adjustments to flaws and noise. Bottom line: light. The more light you can capture, the better the quality of the image. Larger image sensor, more light.

Thanks to Sprout Social, here's an interesting link with a consistently updated Google Doc for social media image resolution sizes:
http://sproutsocial.com/insights/social-media-image-sizes-guide/