Best way to blow up a small photo?

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Sam213

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Hi,

I have a small photo - dimensions are around 621 by 477 pixels, and size is around 59Kb.

I need to blow up this image up to about 1,380 by 950 pixels - for printing in a magazine.

What's the best way to do this without reducing the quality/sharpness of the image?

I'd really appreciate any advice you can give!
Thanks in advance :)
 
Sam213 said:
Hi,

I have a small photo - dimensions are around 621 by 477 pixels, and size is around 59Kb.

I need to blow up this image up to about 1,380 by 950 pixels - for printing in a magazine.

What's the best way to do this without reducing the quality/sharpness of the image?

I'd really appreciate any advice you can give!
Thanks in advance :)
Click to expand...

I think you'll struggle there is software out there that will create new pixels bases on the colours already there and expand the size of the image but it also makes it softer, the size of the file suggest there maybe already compression to the file to begin with :( what happened to the original file?
 
Thanks for the quick reply.

This photo was not originally taken by me, and while I have permission to use it, I don't have access to the original unfortunately.

One thing that's not clear to me is how people produce very large posters. People must produce posters of all sorts of images, which must involve some sort of blow up process rather than just starting always with good quality big photos? Otherwise this would be limiting?
 
Sam213 said:
Thanks for the quick reply.

This photo was not originally taken by me, and while I have permission to use it, I don't have access to the original unfortunately.

One thing that's not clear to me is how people produce very large posters. People must produce posters of all sorts of images, which must involve some sort of blow up process rather than just starting always with good quality big photos? Otherwise this would be limiting?
Click to expand...

how close do you stand to a bill board?

typically a poster or even billboard will be at a much lower resolution than a magazine.

eg a magazine might be at 300 dpi so a picture from my 5d mk2 would be around 47cm by 31 cm

Billboards can be as low as 12-15dpi, the same picture would then be around 12 meters by 8!
 
Sam if you want to post the pic (or email me it) I'll have a go with the software I have access to here (better than photoshop or perfect resize) but a lot depends on the image itself, if the qualitys bad enlarging it won't make it better.
 
Thanks Shaun for the explanation.

And Wayne, thank you, I really appreciate it. Is it alright if I send you a PM with a link to the image?
 
We could have a re-sizing contest!!

Might be do-able from the file-size stated, unless it's already very pixellated (blocky). Do you have Photoshop? If so do image size ... in 2 steps rather than all in one. If the 1st step already looks horrid, revert to orig, apply some Gaussian blur (say 0.3 px) then upsize again ... trial & error ...
 
Ben: It's rather a long-winded story, but the person who took the original photograph is now deceased.

Rog: I tried messing around in photoshop with the image size/blur, but had no luck. I'm a newbie though, so it's likely someone more proficient with the software will have better results.

Thanks again for everyone's replies, much appreciated.
 
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Copyright doesn't necessarily end when the originator dies. There's usually a fairly lengthy period before it lapses. Be careful!
 
Thanks for the concern, Jim - I have obtained permission to print the photograph.

Rog: forgot to mention that if you'd like to enter the "competition" I'm happy to send you a PM with a link to the image ;)
 
Can you post it here, Sam213? That way more people will see it and can post both results and how they approached it.
 
droj said:
Do you have Photoshop? If so do image size ... in 2 steps rather than all in one.
Click to expand...

Depends on the version of Photoshop ;) They fixed that in about CS4. Prior to that multi steps were good - now usually not necessary.

I think the file size is more of a problem that the pixel size in this case. Take a look at Topaz DeJpeg which is pretty good at removing jpeg artefacts. Maybe run that before resize and then try it the other way round (resize then dejpeg). 30 day trial on Topaz's site. Or just put up a Dropbox link and we can all have a play ;)
 
Sam213 said:
Rog: forgot to mention that if you'd like to enter the "competition" I'm happy to send you a PM with a link to the image ;)
Click to expand...

Yes I'd have a go - & could return the result by email if I thought it was any good?
 
With the black border, that looks distinctly like a YouTube capture to me.
 
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