What camera made this image? (MP vs image size)

Ice and Fog #1. Joder Arabian Ranch, 2011 (Canon S95)

Why, it was just a little 10mp Canon point-and-shoot I can carry in my shirt pocket! My point? No need for a fancy multi-gagillion megapixel camera if all you are going to do is post to the web–even your iPhone can handle that kind of resolution.

The megapixel vs image size equation can be complex (“It all depends…”), but here is a very general, quick and dirty guide to get you in the mall parking lot…er, uh, ballpark:

2MP on up – Great for the web

10-12MP – You should be able to get great 8x10s and pretty good 13x19s

16MP – Great up to 11x14s and excellent to 13×19

21MP – No problem with 13x19s and excellent 16x20s

36MPs – Hey, you have one of these cameras and you have to ask…???

There are some assumptions here…This assumes 300dpi prints, a well-exposed capture, appropriately sharp but no oversharpening, minimal cropping, an appropriate photo paper, and some sort of normal viewing distance. (Here is a great article by Thom Hogan about this megapixels versus print size issue: How Big Can I Print?)

Oh, and I also post this image because the forecast says that sometime tomorrow the Ranch will look a lot like this–or, with luck, with an even more impressive white blanket–rather than the drab brown it has been all fall. Finally!

So I leave you with the most oft-repeated farmer/rancher phrase these days: “Dad nabbit, Jim Bob, we need some moss-chur in them thar fields!”