What is a High Definition photo?

DrGed

DrGed

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A few months ago I was talking to some friends who were in the process of setting up their own business and the associated website. They said they wanted High Definition of their product for the website but they didn't seem to know exactly what that meant.

I was also unclear, to be honest, so I wondered if anyone on here can point me in the direction of a definition that isn't so technical that it's hard to understand.

Thanks,

Ged
 
If they don't know what they mean by that phrase then how will they or anybody else know whether or not they've got it?

That said, I'll make two guesses....

1. It means High Definition as in HD TV or an HD computer screen, which would suggest pixel dimensions of 1280x720 or 1920x1080, or thereabouts.

2. It means that every nook, cranny and detail is clearly defined, which means lighting it to emphasise details through highlights, shadows and punchy contrast, shooting sharp, tweaking it sharper and maybe adding a little extra "clarity" for good measure.

EDIT : I guess it could also mean a gargantuan photo, with huge pixel dimensions, constructed by merging multiple high resolution images together to produce one "super" image. I have no idea what value that would serve on a website though.

Or actually, they mean high resolution rather than high definition, but again I wonder what purpose that will serve for a website. Do they want people to be able to zoom in closer to any part of an image and look at details at a microscopic (exaggeration) level? What will that do for bandwidth and load times?

They really ought to define what they mean and not just pick buzzwords out of the air.
 
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It's just buzz words as Tim said. We're now in that moment where everything you buy is 'High Definition' - this isn't related just to AV items, we're talking glasses, ink, car windscreens etc etc, anything with 'HD' added is a marketing accelerant. Look at Opteka's filters for cameras, they state 'HD' which is complete crap to be honest!

I would just assume that your friends meant a crystal clear image with no degradation etc :)
 
DrGed said:
...they wanted High Definition...they didn't seem to know exactly what that meant...
Click to expand...

Therein lies the problem. If they have no idea, how do they know when it's been achieved?

I suspect they were after something that didn't have jagged edges, blurriness or obvious evidence of compression.
 
Just give them an HD Turbo photo, that will really be something.
 
Many apologies, my memory has let me down again, I think they did say High Resolution.

I thought that dpi is an attribute of a printer and ppi an attribute of a screen, and that all this means that for a given device resolution bigger images will be able to be printed at larger sizes without losing clarity.

Ultimately, what I need to know is this. The jpeg files that my camera takes are 3888 by 2592 pixels. Can I legitimately claim that they are high resolution images?

Sorry for my lapse in memory : I think it's an age thing.
 
For the purposes of web use (and most uses actually) I would say that a full sized 10MP file, uncropped, would constitute a "high resolution" image.

The opposite to that would be a "web" image of probably no more than 800 pixels on the longest side.

DPI (not to be confused with PPI) is incidental unless you want to print. For the web it is 100% irrelevant. Pixel dimensions are all that matter.
 
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I was given a coffee-table photography book, "The Weekend Photographer" I thinl it's called. Nice enough, some good photos and a nice philosophy. There's a chapter where the author goes on abotu "High Definition Range" photography... *facepalm*
 
What's the problem with HDR Photography? Sorry, I think I just missed the point :D

Regarding the High Resolution photos for the web, unless it's a full size background image or you want to show the visitor the full res image there is no need to use Full res Images. It also will slow down the loading time of the website itself.
 
The D in HDR stands for dynamic and not definition.
 
i remember something about a lot of commercial publishers wanted images with a file size no less than 50 megabytes maybe thats what there talking about

somebody will more likely come along and explain more about that
 
ernesto said:
Just give them an HD Turbo photo, that will really be something.
Click to expand...

It needs to be HD Turbo - Pro (a few years at work someone had some chewing gum branded as professional!).

DrGed said:
The jpeg files that my camera takes are 3888 by 2592 pixels. Can I legitimately claim that they are high resolution images?
Click to expand...

It's all relative to whatever else is available but no method of viewing an image on a website can make use of a file that large.

High definition and viewing on a website are mutually exclusive.


Steve.
 
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Surely the question missing is what does their website developer say he/she needs for inclusion in the site design........................because one thing for sure if the images load slowly no one will hang around long enough to even look at what they are selling on the site ;)

As Steve says above ~ "High definition and viewing on a website are mutually exclusive."
 
Flightphoto said:
It's just buzz words as Tim said. We're now in that moment where everything you buy is 'High Definition' - this isn't related just to AV items, we're talking glasses, ink, car windscreens etc etc, anything with 'HD' added is a marketing accelerant. Look at Opteka's filters for cameras, they state 'HD' which is complete crap to be honest!

I would just assume that your friends meant a crystal clear image with no degradation etc :)
Click to expand...

This ^^

[rant]

It's becoming one of those pet hates of mine, along with "USB Dongle" for anything that plugs into a USB and the letters "ECO" on the back of cars which have exactly the same engine onboard as their predessor of 20+ years ago (Vauxhall 1.8 for example).

Stupid, dumb extrovert salesman types, coming up with utter nonsense + buzzwords.

With digital camera's it was all about the megapixels, now it's got to be "HD".

Two area's this happens most, Technology/IT/Computers and car dealerships.....
"Come see our XYZ range, with zero road tax!!!" (easy to say when nobody's paid "road tax" since 1937).


[/rant]
 
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That's what I would have thought, they meant high res.

Which simply means the full sized version of the file, not downsized for web use or whatever.
 
just a quick note however unless the website has a zoom function there is no real reason (at the moment) to supply a file any larger than 1920x1200 (2.3 megapixels) mainly due to mainstream computer monitor resolutions

next step will be double that or 4 times the resolution so 8 megapixels
 
Thanks, albeit belatedly, for all the replies.

I now have greater confidence in my images and less confidence in buzzwords!
 
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