Is it possible to increase resolution of a photo?

[alphafemale]

I'm wanting to make up a calendar using pics of our vacation as a gift for my BF but the site I'm using is saying that the images are low resolution and might print poorly. :(

[HopeHoops]

1. You can do that with dithering to minimize the obvious pixelation, but it still sucks.

If you have the ORIGINAL images from the camera, you might get lucky and find they are 300 dpi. But, unless the camera was SET to that quality level, you're more likely to have 72 dpi and if it is from a camera phone, you might as well photocopy it 50 times and then send it by FAX.

Still, most photo manipulation software will let you bump up the resolution and let you apply not just dithering but other techniques. I've found "soften" followed by "sharpen" often improves the image. It still looks a little funky, but it is generally better than a "my pixel is bigger than your pixel" image.

[alphafemale]

4. Yeah. That's what i kind of figured.

Only 3 of the images are "acceptable" and those aren't even the best pics. I guess I should get a better phone to avoid this kind of disappointment going forward.

[HopeHoops]

6. What sort of software do you have and what are the specs on the pictures, current and required?

As for the current images, if you right click on the image (in Explorer) and hit "Properties" in the context menu that pops up, you should be able to locate the information. In Vista you'll have "General", "Security", and "Details" tabs. Under "Details, the last section is called "Image" and it tells you damn near everything about it.

[alphafemale]

10. I fairly recently had somebody "help me out"

And they installed Ubuntu and broke all my Windows. I guess it's all right but I'm on a learning curve to know what's possible here.

[HopeHoops]

12. No big deal. Look for private e-mail from me.

[Bucky]

2. The smartest thing you can do is download Paint.NET

It's free and doesn't take too long to figure out. Yes, you can increase the resolution of a picture, but it takes some tinkering. You can increase the contrast and then fiddle with the brightness till it looks "kinda okay." Or you can download Paint.NET and use the Effects > Photo > Sharpen function.

If it's just one picture, you can email it to me and I can toy with it, if you like. But don't send me any naughty pictures! Lemme know & I'll PM my email to ya

[alphafemale]

7. That's sweet. But I think he's going to have to be happy with having the images as a screen saver.

This was my favorite from the trip.



Nothing spectacular. I just really like the composition.

Plus we'd just kayaked the length of that bridge against some fairly wicked current.

But at 81K's there's no way that's ever going to look good as an 8 by 11.

[BlueJazz]

3. If the pixels are too far apart..(Low Res.)...there's nor much to be done BUT...

...you can make the picture smaller....maybe have a black/white border on the picture page.
There are programs that can fix your problem but are fairly expensive.

[alphafemale]

8. Good idea. This particular site was fairly limited in options though.

they just had a really sweet deal on calendars

[KG]

5. you could also just change picture for effects. turn into black and white, reverse colors etc

to hide the fact it's not hi res.

[alphafemale]

9. like a watercolor effect or something?

good idea

[Aristus]

11. You can in Hollywood spy thrillers.

No matter how poor the resolution of a key photo that blows the plot wide open, all the hero has to do is ask the computer programming geek: "Can you clean that up a little?"

The compnerd does his thing, whatever that is, and the pic magically becomes clean, sharp, clear, and reveals the identity of the surprise twist villain.

The magic of Hollywood...

:P

[Orrex]

13. In 24, Jack once took a shot with his camera phone

And from that image (snapped through an air vent) Chloe was able to pull a serial number (or the like) off of a circuit board in some goon's pocket while standing 25 feet away.

Don't tell me it can't be done! Jack's 500 terapixel cam-phone can do anything!

[hunter]

14. It is possible if a "photorealistic painting" effect is acceptable.

For some pictures it works, others not.

In GIMP I'd use "smart enlarge" which will resynthesize detail by a sort of connect-the-dots and paint-by-number frequency analysis algorithm, the shortcomings of which you might hide behind a watercolor or other artistic effect.

Photoshop has similar tools.

[mopinko]

15. this works in photoshop. don't know what you are using

but perhaps you can do something similar-

open the image, go to image size, uncheck the box that says 'resample something something', and set the resolution at 300. this will probably tell you that the image is 1" or so. now go to canvas size, set that size for your print size target. now, select the image area, like with the rectangle marquee. go to transform, in the edit menu, and with the shift key held down, grab a corner handle and pull to fill you page. do the same with the opposite handle.
usually this will result in a printable pic.

if you aren't afraid of histograms, i can give you a couple other tips.