Help! Photos too low-res

I had my camera set at the highest resolution, but must have bumped the

button or something...

Large group (not a wedding, but a family gathering)

I do a blur and sharpen technique which will help a little bit, but hope there is

some great method out there among you experienced people.

Thanks!

If this is all the pixels you have, then this is as big as you can blow it up. You can't get something for nothing, with film or digital.

 

Not a bad shot by the way. Just watch the blocked people, with their heads looking over other people's shoulders.

There is some kind of enlargement method with digital pics that goes something like

enlarging it by 10% several times does something to retain clarity. There's more to it than

that, but search for "poster size" or "digital enlargement" in the threads. I know it's been

mentioned on here before and I really should have saved the link- it was good info!

Genuine Fractals may be an answer: http://www.ononesoftware.com/detail.php?prodLine_id=2

 

Or Fred Miranda's Stair Interpolation plugin: http://www.fredmiranda.com/shopping/SIpro

Genuine Fractals is for really huge blow-ups. It's not much better than PS for

sizes to 36", but beyond that there's no better program out there. We took a 9 meg file up to

5 foot wide and it was great at viewing distance ... the printer was so astounded that they

bought the program for themselves.

 

Fred Miranda's "SI Pro" is more likely the answer here. Unlike Genuine Fractals, it inexpensive

and it's super easy to install following his no brainer instructions.

Hi Stephanie,

 

In order to better help you, could you please reply with respect to the following...

 

What resolution was used during capture?

 

What level of compression was set?

 

What camera were you using that changes resolution at the bump of a button? On Canon DSLR's it is a pretty deliberate action.

 

If what you posted is the full size file, you won't get much out of the image.

 

When supersizing our value meals in Photoshop, we use image resize 105% and bicubic smoother with a little sharpening for dessert. It works well taking 6mP images to 16x20.

 

Michael

BTW Stephanie, what size are the files? These are great programs, but there's a limit to what

can be done.

Thanks for all the input. I really appreciate it, and will check out some of the

resources. The image size was 1200x1600, 4x5" at 300dpi. I think 8x10 may

be the largest anyone will want. I hope to be able to squeak that out? And

yes, as soon as I saw the image on my computer, I wanted to move a couple

of those blocked up people up on the stairs. I'm new at this, and the sheer

numbers had my nerves going! Oh - and the camera was a Nikon 5700.

There is a simple button on the side that switches from 'basic' (lowest res) to

'normal' to 'fine' to 'raw'. I know one of my biggest problems is feeling that I'm

taking too much time, and then I make mistakes.

First of all, posting a GIF doesn't help at all. You MUST learn the basics of your software too along with your camera controls. That image does nothing for your question. What camera? What was the resolution? There is not much you can do to save the shoot and produce anything of quality for print unless the resolution/image specs out at at least 3MP.

I think you should be able to print to 8x10 if you up-res to 3 or 4 mp.

"The image size was 1200x1600"

 

Okay. TO get 8x10 we need to get 8 inches on the 1200 pixel side or 10 inches on the 1600 side.

 

At 160 DPI we get 10 inches on the long side.

 

At 150 DPI we get 8 inches on the short side.

 

The lower resolution is 150 DPI. You will have a 150 DPI image to fill an 8x10 sheet of paper. Going 160 DPI will have you with an 7.5(or so) x10.

 

150 DPI is acceptable to some people. Just give the file to your lab as-is and see if you like the results. If not Genuine Fractals would help a little for you.

This is not an issue for any printer. 8x10 is a breeze with that much info.