One thing you'll find about photography is that there is a lot of confusing vocabulary words. Aliasing, which is a common word in the world of digital everything (video games, CGI, photography), is one of those words that everyone has heard, but may not quite understand. And when it comes to digital photography, anti-aliasing is a common feature found on many digital cameras but is rarely explained. Don't worry though because here we'll explain it and it isn't nearly as complicated as it sounds.

The Basics About Pixels

Pixels are really the basic square units that make up a digital image. When you look at your digital images and zoom in a few times, you'll find that the closer you get, the more "blocky" the image appears. This blocky appearance is the result of the individual pixels becoming more pronounced as the digital image is increased in size.

Your camera's resolution is directly related to the number of individual pixels it can capture in a given frame as is often referred to as the mega pixel value. The higher the resolution, the more pixels you get. More pixels will result in smoother lines - think of how a staircase may look blocky up close, but at great distance may look more like a diagonal line. This is how pixels help create shapes in your pictures.

Understanding Aliasing

When you look at your image and see the pixels that make up the edges of round or diagonal lines this is aliasing. When you see this pixels drawn rigidly and in only one color, the lines will look more noticeable and jagged. You may not notice this initially if the pixel is surrounded by other similar colors, but as the colors increase in contrast the pixel will appear more pronounced.

Aliasing is not usually obvious unless an image has been taken at a very low resolution. Luckily, most digital cameras these days take pictures at resolutions that make aliasing difficult to see under normal conditions, however it can be seen as soon as the image is enlarged. All digital photographs have some level of aliasing, no matter how good the camera may be.

So What is Anti-Aliasing?

Anti-aliasing actually removes the affect of aliasing by letting the colors at the edge of the pixels bleed into one another. It may sound counter intuitive, but blurring the edges of each individual pixel will result in sharper images with smoother lines and more natural color differentiation.

If you want to test this out, try decreasing the size of one of your digital pictures. This will cause the lines of objects in the pictures to look smoother as the size of the picture decreases in size. As the picture pixels get smaller, they become less noticed. This reduction in size of your picture, is similar to the effect of anti-aliasing because it slightly blurs each pixel allowing it to better blend into the rest of the image.

Most good digital cameras will come with a built in anti-aliasing feature so your pictures won't have the "blocky" look. Anti-aliasing will help make your pictures look more natural and will help minimize the quality loss of your picture by using a lower resolution camera. Although it is always good idea to shoot at the highest resolution possible, anti-aliasing will help to make sure your images look great.

Although anti-aliasing may not have been important before, once you understand the difference it makes you won't want to take pictures without it. Anti-aliasing really helps to bridge the gap between expensive super high resolution cameras and the price of the average digital camera by eliminating the rough, jagged lines of aliasing. If your camera has an anti-aliasing function, make sure to always have it on and your pictures will certainly thank you.