Small Photo: Can a 1"x1" image be enlarged?

[Cumbrian]

I have a Photo i would like to try and restore,but this photo is only one inch square.can i enlarge this in Photoshop CS2 to give me something bigger to work with,i hope i am in the right forum with this.Thank You.Cumbrian

[DannyRaphael]

Originally Posted by Cumbrian

I have a Photo i would like to try and restore,but this photo is only one inch square.can i enlarge this in Photoshop CS2 to give me something bigger to work with,i hope i am in the right forum with this.Thank You.Cumbrian

Welcome to RetouchPRO, CB. This is the right forum.

Although 1"x1" is very small, the degree of enlargement possible will depend on the resolution... In Photoshop, apply an Image > Image Size command. What is the "Resolution" value, i.e., 300 pixels/inch, 28 pixels/cm, etc.?

In a perfect world, what would be your preferred enlargement size?

[Cumbrian]

Danny thanks for replying.I have been into Photoshop,the photo is slightly bigger than i thought.it is 1.707ins x 10707ins/256pixels x 256pixels.Reselution 150 pixels/inch.i would like to get it up tp 3or4inch's.hope this helps.Thank You.Cumbrian

[mistermonday]

Your image is 256 pixels x 256 pixels. Photo print quality is generally considered to be about 300 pixels per inch for an inkjet printer, so your optimum print size will be about 1 x 1 inches. You can re-size up the image in PS but because you only have 256 x 256 pixels, the quality will degrade and any imperfections will be amplified.
You can produce much better results if you can get a higher resolution scan. Ideally the scan resolution should be 300 pixels time the number of inches that you wish to print the image at divided by the number of inches your original print size currently is. So if you are looking for a 4 x 4 inch print, your scan resolution should be 4 x 300 divided by 1 = 1200 ppi.
Regards, Murray

[Kraellin]

cumbrian,

welcome to RP.

aside from re-scanning at a higher resolution (which is a good idea), you can try re-sizing in photoshop. you can also change the resolution within photoshop. the method i've seen for this here on RP, is to do this in increments, 10% at a time. so, you re-size by 10% then re-size that another 10% and again and so on until you get it where you want it. sometimes you can get away without the incremental steps, but on a small image like this, i think i'd just go that way (barring being able to re-scan at a higher resolution)

craig

[Littlecoo]

G'day Cumbrian, here are a couple of sites that may be of interest to you...
Scanning resolution calculator and resizing software The latter is quite informative.

[creeduk]

More recent tests since CS2 have shown the 10% at a time no more effective than just resizing straight to the desired size and choosing bicubic smoother. Mitch of the lights right studio who wrote some great scale up and down actions in the past has tested this and his findings as well as many other pro's show no advantage any longer to the 10% increment method.

[Cumbrian]

Thanks everyone for replying.I tried going in 10% steps i also done 3ins square.there was no difference in the finished image.its a bit of a mess this image i think i might post it on here,see if someone can do anything with it.Thanks Again.Cumbrian