# Up-sizng old low-res images



## monkey44 (Nov 3, 2016)

Got a friend who wants to create an album for her family, grand-kids and all that. She has some low-res images from older cell phones.

She want to blow these up and print for a photo-album. 

Is there a way to make these higher resolution so she can print without losing detail. She also has some actual photos, and same issue - she wants larger prints (no negatives) -- 

Will these scan and then allow a larger print?

I'm pretty tech-dumb, so am not sure how to advise here. I took a couple of the low-res images into Photoshop, but don't do much with size - helps with details etc, but then lose that when enlarging the image.

Any advice appreciated - thanks ...


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## Mt Spokane Photography (Nov 3, 2016)

When you blow the images up, the missing data will be interpolated from surrounding pixels, and may look better, or maybe worse.

Basically, you cannot make the images much larger and still look as sharp.

By older cell phone, do you mean .5 MP, or 1 MP ? I think you can do 3 X 5 in with no problem, but probably not 5 X 7 or 8 X 10, it depends on how much detail is in the image. The Mars Rovers had 2 MP cameras, and captured lots of detail.

Perhaps post a file, if the owner allows and let someone work on it.


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## rpt (Nov 3, 2016)

Take a look at https://www.on1.com/products/resize10/. There is a free trial too.

I found this online link too but I have not tried it.
http://www.imageenlarger.com


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## danski0224 (Nov 3, 2016)

monkey44 said:


> Got a friend who wants to create an album for her family, grand-kids and all that. She has some low-res images from older cell phones.
> 
> She want to blow these up and print for a photo-album.
> 
> ...




A program called QImage is supposed to do a very good job with print sharpening and "up-rezzing"- but everything has limits. There is a free trial.

One relatively easy way to get an old printed photograph into the digital realm is to take a picture of it with a digital camera. If you search "copy stand", you will find images of the gear that makes it easier. This may also work well if you can make a good print of the smaller digital files. Old (mostly) B&W prints with the honeycomb or fish-scale print surface are a pain though. Natural lighting and no flash is easier to work with than using a flash.


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## unfocused (Nov 4, 2016)

For actual prints, slides or negatives, I would send them to one of the many places that offer this service. I've had good luck with ScanDigital.com and Digmypics.com.

For upscaling, it's kind of hit or miss, but OnOne's Perfect Resize is one of the better programs (it was originally genuine fractals, if I recall correctly) I'm sure they offer a free trial. Try resizing in Photoshop first, thought, to see what it does.


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## Mt Spokane Photography (Nov 4, 2016)

ON1 Resizer (Once called Genuine Fractals) can do a good job upsizing, it has a free 60 day trial, so you could get your job done in that time.

It operates as a photoshop plugin or standalone. 

Since my old copy of Genuine Fractals no longer runs on later Photoshop programs, I downloaded ON1 Resize, and it worked very well at enlarging a photo.

A hour viewing the training videos should get you going.


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## monkey44 (Nov 4, 2016)

Thanks for all the advice - will forward to friend and let her pay with this. Appreciate all the comments. One of these will surely work - it's not a production, just for a family album, so the perfect image is not required. Some are too small for anything, but we'll get it where she needs it ... we hope. see ya


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## tolusina (Nov 7, 2016)

Collage them?


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