Help with basics

[SpazyMel]

Hey I am just starting out in my photography journey. I am using a Nikon L110 and GIMP 2.6 to edit my photos. At this point I have noticed that when I zoom into my photos while editing them they become pixelated/blurry. Could this be that my photos are in the wrong resolution? Could this be a computer distortion or could it be the photo size is too big or to small on the camera? Does that make sense? Also I got some umbrella lights as a gift. I have been experimenting with them and was wondering what is the proper way to set them up when you have two? I have them so that the "light beams" would cross as in like an "x" pattern. Some of the photos I have taken where people are wearing white seem to be overly bright to the point where the white reflection makes it look like things are glowing.

Please help... feeling lost in the photography world.

 

[480sparky]

If you've got your camera set to a lower resolution, you will start to see pixelation.

What magnification are you using when you start seeing the pixelation? If it's 100% or over, that's perfectly normal. EVERY image will start to pixelate if you enlarge it enough.