I’m a graphic artist and the biggest problem is size. You can always go down but not up. If you take a photo into gimp or photo shop and re-size it you can generally do 1/3rd the size with out using a blur. Two times size you want to use a blur. I prefer a Gaussian circular blur of 1/100th of the over all pixels. You do this because of the pix-elated photo and a the blur takes away the edge of the pixels. If you don’t care on quality, you can always do a sharpen. This is bad though. 90% of what you do in any photo editing programs is considered a destructive edit. You have to take away, move or even add pixels to make what ever it is happen. Sharpen is the worst. Sharpen takes the pixels and merges it with one to the side. Blur does the opposite, it doubles the pixels and the smears them. Blur is the best non destructive tool ever. That is a fact. Don’t do that! Only use the prior to fix photo size if quality doesn’t matter.
The best way to enlarge a photo its to take a photo of it. Strange, I know. The best way to do this is to set up a good dim light that will point strait down and a camera right next to it. Have the photo printed on a non glossy photo paper. The reason is light will glare. We already have to dim the light to try and stop that. The next reason is most all non glossy paper will absorb ink and do a natural blue. News paper is the best way to show see this natural blur. You cant see the printed pixels due to the blur. No photo program can remake this natural blur. Take the photo strait down at the photo at the size you want. There are close to 8 different types of blur that are all natural. Six of them are light blurs one is digital blur and natural ink spread, this make the effect close to the real photo.
Another way is to scan it in to the computer. Problems happen always and are expected. Say you print at 100 pixels per inch and you scan in at 400 pixels per inch. The printed pixels come with the scan and are seen at that size.. print on a natural blur paper. Non glossy is best due to natural blur or if the photo is a photography then scan at max size. Always scan at two time the pixel per pinch. If its 100 scan 200 reprint and scan again at 400.
The best way to enlarge a photo its to take a photo of it. Strange, I know. The best way to do this is to set up a good dim light that will point strait down and a camera right next to it. Have the photo printed on a non glossy photo paper. The reason is light will glare. We already have to dim the light to try and stop that. The next reason is most all non glossy paper will absorb ink and do a natural blue. News paper is the best way to show see this natural blur. You cant see the printed pixels due to the blur. No photo program can remake this natural blur. Take the photo strait down at the photo at the size you want. There are close to 8 different types of blur that are all natural. Six of them are light blurs one is digital blur and natural ink spread, this make the effect close to the real photo.
Another way is to scan it in to the computer. Problems happen always and are expected. Say you print at 100 pixels per inch and you scan in at 400 pixels per inch. The printed pixels come with the scan and are seen at that size.. print on a natural blur paper. Non glossy is best due to natural blur or if the photo is a photography then scan at max size. Always scan at two time the pixel per pinch. If its 100 scan 200 reprint and scan again at 400.
Size in quality matters. Standard press will print at 600 pixels per inch. So if scanning for press go with 1200 or more. You can take a photo that is 2000 pixels per inch that is 4 x 4 inches down to 1000 pixels per inch at 8 x 8 inches. Always half and multiply. The best way to do this is to have the link functions active. Most image programs will have this. If the proper rules are not fallowed distortion will happen. Its best to let the computer do the math.
Understanding megapixels. I take photos at high quality. 10 megapixels is nice and my standard. A megapixels is the amount of pixels in comparison to a 4:3 inch photo. One mega pixel is close to 400 pixels per inch. Multiply that by the mega pixel so a 10 mega pixel image will be close to 4000 pixels per inch. That’s a big photo and can be taken down in pixels and enlarged in size and no loss of quality will happen. Keep this in mined when taking photos. You never know if it will go to press so always take the photo as if it were intended for press.