WARNING: Photo gallery contain too many photos of Annie. Aug 25th, 2008 Photographed by: H.Yiu ©2008 yello77.com 41 Photo in Gallery.

As Hoyu awoke from his summertime slumber that Sunday afternoon, the first thing came out of his stinky mouth was, “Pizza!” But not just any pizza, that guy wanted the best in Brooklyn— Grimaldi’s. Hmmm. We decided that we’ll explore downtown Brooklyn afterwards; something Hoyu wanted to do for a long time but somehow our weekend errands always got in the way. But first, I told him nicely to go brush his teeth.

It was 3:00pm when got to the restaurant. As Hoyu and I waited on the notorious Grimaldi line that practically snaked around the corner, an old Italian man kept pacing in and out of the pizzeria. Using quick and quiet gestures, he beckoned the eager patrons to please enter the restaurant. Liken this scene to that infamous wedding sequence from The Godfather. Amid the waiting, Hoyu pulled out his camera and started shooting. I hope you all enjoy the animation that Hoyu created of me wolfing down an entire pizza, seemingly, by myself.

It case you’re wondering, it was really good pizza. Maybe it was extra good because we waited 45 minutes to be seated plus, an additional half an hour for our order to come. Or. Maybe. We. Were. Just. Hungry.

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Blog Solutions:
Design and personalize your signature blog.

As a professional graphic designer, I am at the forefront of information design, communication, and identity. I’ve been designing websites since the pre-Google and Yahoo era. However, I’ve only started authoring my own websites in the past few years— that is, writing my own codes to avoid hiring a programmer.

As a designer, I’m rarely completely satisfied with my work. After months of putting together/tearing apart blogs, I finally reached a point where graphics, functionality, aesthetics, and most importantly, personality, all fit together in perfect harmony.

Thanks to implementing countless template modifications to my weblog, I am now quite proficient in designing and redesigning existing weblog layouts/templates such as Wordpress and Blogger. I really enjoy that sense of satisfaction and accomplishment whenever my designs seamlessly integrate into a fully operational weblog.

In my interest to continue building my weblog design portfolio, I’m offering custom weblog design services for a very reasonable price.

I would offer free design services if I could. However, I’ve got my eye on a new lens and now, I need a way to add it to my camera equipment collection. You know how I can be. I need my toys.

So, if you have any ideas for a blog or have an existing blog in need of a face lift, please contact me at hoyu.yiu@yello77.com. I’d love the opportunity to help you get it together.

I’m already very bored since the completion my last blog project and…I can’t wait to start another one.
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When you purchase a brand new digital camera, it usually comes with a pre-installed, removable memory storage card. For most people, these memory cards are usually thought of as film for the camera. It’s basically where the photo goes when you click the shutter button and is the alternative to using classic film usually sold in packages of either 24-36 exposures. A memory card is essentially the hard drive to store your photos. Unlike a roll of film, however, the “number of exposures” you get for digital images are determined by the capacity of your memory card and the megapixels of your camera. Megapixels and image file size directly correlates — the higher the megapixels, the larger the file size of each photo.

So, how many photos can I take with my digital camera?
To answer this question, determine the number of megapixels of your digital camera and the storage capacity of your memory card. With both variables known, look at the chart below to figure out the estimated number of exposures that can fit onto your memory card. (Actual number may vary slightly. Give or take a few.)

As you can see, as the cameras’ megapixel number increase, the number of photos for a given memory card decreases compare to that of a camera with a lower megapixel.

Now that you have a pretty good idea about the number of exposures your camera and your memory cards can offer you, lets look at another variable from your camera that can also adjust that number.

Nowadays, all digital camera offers an option that allow you to select the image quality based on a setting; small (S), medium (M) or Large (L). These settings are sometimed written as the actual pixel dimension such as 800 x 600 (S), 1600 x 1200 (M) or 2400 x 1800 (L). You will also notice by selecting the smaller setting rather than the larger setting, the number of exposures from the same memory card doubles, or even triples. Many people will pose the question, why would I want less photos per memory card when I can shoot more in the same card? By changing the setting, I can magically “increase” the storage space in my memory card for more photos.

Unfortunately, it did not actually expand the storage space of your memory card, not in size anyway. Rather, by reducing the megapixels (MP) that you want for your photos, this action will give you more space. For example, if your camera offers 8MP at its highest setting and you have a 256MB memory card, according to the chart, the combination will yield roughly 69 exposures. Selecting the medium setting in your camera might reduce it 50%, or approximately 4MP. Technically speaking, that means you’ve turned your 8MP camera, into a 4MP one and allowing you to get about 118 exposures from your 256MB memory card. And so on and so forth. If you use an even smaller setting, you will certainly fit more photos. The drawback is, you are not efficiently utilizing the highest megapixel capability of your camera.

Having more or less megapixels per photo isn’t that big of an issue if you have no intention of ever getting your photos to print. As I explained in my earlier post about megapixels, a higher megapixel photo usually gives you more choices of what size prints you can select from. A lower megapixel photograph does not allow you that freedom. The quality of the photo, such as sharpness and detail, may be compromised.

Think of your memory card as a stack of 8.5 x 11 photo paper. You have the options of printing:

100 – 8.5 x 11 (8MP) high quality photo prints

200 – 8.5 x 11 (4MP) low quality photo prints (Reducing the print quality by 50% and keeping the same paper size)

200 – 8.5 x 5.5 (4MP) high quality photo prints (Cutting the print size in half, but retaining the highest quality)

400 – 8.5 x 5.5 (2MP) low quality photo prints

In the end, it all comes down to the question of what your ultimate use are for the photos. It is a choice between taking more photos, or taking fewer, but higher quality photos. In addition to the megapixels that determine the quantity of pictures you can take for a given memory card, other variables such as file format (JPG, TIFF, RAW) and image color depth (8 bit, 12 bit, and 16 bit) will also affect that exposure amount. Which, of course, will need a post of its own for that discussion.

I hope this was helpful. Any feedback or questions will be greatly appreciated.

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In case no one noticed… yiuphotography.com has officially been online since Monday this week. Unfortunately, I didn’t have time to make any announcements until today. So here it is, bring on that pair of scissors, and cut that ‘grand opening’ ribbon.

The website consists of two image slide shows titled portriatfolio and snapfolio. Yup, I made those words up. Not going to find that in any dictionary. Who knows, maybe one day, it will gain popularity among photographers out there. There’s also a few other links with some short descriptions about the website, myself and my work. It’s a really simple site with the main purpose of showcasing more professional photos. Basically, it is my online calling card. I should stop babbling. Go check it out and tell me what you think. Any feedback will be welcomed.

A simple explanation to this question would be: The more megapixels (MP) your camera offers, the more detail the image will have and the sharper it will become; especially if the image is given the proper exposure and focus at the highest MP setting.

Mega Pixel:
Digital photos are made up of tiny dots called pixels. Each of these pixels carry a small amount of information that defines a color. So to create a digital photo, we put hundreds and thousands of these dots together to create a recognizable image. To define megapixels, it is the number of pixels in the millions and is calculated as the number of pixels across an image multiplied by the number of pixels running down an image. An example: 3000 pixels (W) x 2000 pixels (H)=6,000,000 pixels
(See diagram on left). This will translate as a 6-megapixel photograph.

Resolution:
Now that we understand what a megapixel is, how does that factor into the quality of a photo?
The term we use to measure quality of a digital image is called resolution. There are two types of resolution that we commonly refer to, print resolution and screen resolution. Resolution is measured in Dots-Per-Inch (DPI). Which is the same as saying, pixels per inch. That is how many pixels you can fit into an inch of space. Logically speaking, the more pixels you can squeeze into an inch, the more information you can capture within that 1-inch area.

Screen Resolution:
For regular photo viewing online or on your desktop, there isn’t much of a quality difference whether you are displaying an image that is 3 MP or 10 MP. Computer monitors are normally designed to display at 72 to 100 DPI. That’s the physical number of pixels your screen is able to display per inch. It won’t display any more information even if your photo is at 10 MP. For most monitors with the highest resolution display setting at 1920 x 1200 (equivalent of a 24-inch monitor), a 3 MP image will sufficiently fill up the entire screen displayed at 100% (See diagram on left).

Print Resolution:
Megapixels plays a big role when it comes to print resolution. Standard print resolution is set much higher than the screen resolution. For a standard quality photo print, a minimum 200 DPI is required. The ideal resolution will be 300 DPI. This means that the maximum size of your high-quality photo prints are limited by the megapixels. For example, with a lower megapixel camera, say at 2.16 MP, the largest photo size you can yield will be a 4 x 6 photo, printed at 300 DPI for highest quality. If you choose to print a larger size than 4 x 6, such as a 5 x 7, you’ll start to see a degradation in the sharpness/clarity in the photo. This is due to the fact that your DPIs are being rationed out to fill up those extra inches. Less dots-per-inch basically means, less information per inch. Less information per inch translates into “less sharpness” for you photo.

See the example below for how the difference in DPI can effect the quality of a printed photo.

Megapixel quantity isn’t the primary factor that effects photo quality. The lens you use and the sensitivity of the imaging sensor in your camera will also determine how well your photo will be captured. When a photo has more megapixels it usually gives you more prints sizes to choose from, while still retaining quality. That’s why you can never have too many megapixels. You can always size down a photo and still get a sharp photo. However, you will not get the same results when you size up from a smaller photo. One of the drawbacks to having more megapixels than you need is you are stuck with a larger image file size. A higher megapixel camera usually means you need a larger memory card or hard drive to store your photos. However, in my opinion, I think it is a good trade off. You can always buy an additional hard drive to accommodate your image files. Though you can never buy more quality for photos that you’ve already taken with a lower megapixel camera; especially for those once-in-a-life time photo moments.

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