How to enlarge old photo ?

Donkeygonads

Hi, i found a lovely photo of my parents from 30 years ago . The photo is small but in great condition. I would like to get it enlarged and framed as a gift. What are the best options for getting this done ?

redser7

Try scan it yourself at anything above 300dpi then send it somewhere like photobox.ie as a cheap option. Alternatively you can go to a repro house and have them drum scan and print it, more expensive option.

pixbyjohn

Donkeygonads wrote: »

Hi, i found a lovely photo of my parents from 30 years ago . The photo is small but in great condition. I would like to get it enlarged and framed as a gift. What are the best options for getting this done ?

Most of the Fuji shops, Harvey Norman or Sam Macauley shops will enlarge your photo. Maybe enlarge it by 1.5 times to retain quality. Other thing you can try is to have someone take a photo of your photo and have that printed.

magicbastarder

redser7 wrote: »

Alternatively you can go to a repro house and have them drum scan and print it, more expensive option.

would many of them offer drum scanning on such a small reflective print?
i would reckon that if it's an old print, there's no benefit to scanning on a drum scanner.

redser7

magicbastarder wrote: »

would many of them offer drum scanning on such a small reflective print?
i would reckon that if it's an old print, there's no benefit to scanning on a drum scanner.

I worked at a repro house for a couple of years many moons ago and we'd scan all sorts including one offs like this. But today I guess most people have access to scanners that will do the job fine. Maybe play with some photoshop filters like dust and scratches, unsharp mask etc if the original is a bit rough.

ScumLord

pixbyjohn wrote: »

Most of the Fuji shops, Harvey Norman or Sam Macauley shops will enlarge your photo. Maybe enlarge it by 1.5 times to retain quality. Other thing you can try is to have someone take a photo of your photo and have that printed.

I tried taking a photo of a photo, the only problem can be that old photos sometimes were printed on a very heavy paper that was textured and that texture can come through on the 2nd photo. It can come through on a scan too but the light in the scanner is usually not coming at the photo in an angle that shows up the texture like it does with natural light.

Old small photos can be a bit of a mess because of their size and quality. Most require a lot of photoshopping after the scan to make it look any ways descent.

Reoil

pixbyjohn wrote: »

Other thing you can try is to have someone take a photo of your photo and have that printed.

Never a good idea. Always better to have it scanned.

OldGoat

ScumLord wrote: »

I tried taking a photo of a photo, the only problem can be that old photos sometimes were printed on a very heavy paper that was textured and that texture can come through on the 2nd photo. It can come through on a scan too but the light in the scanner is usually not coming at the photo in an angle that shows up the texture like it does with natural light.

Old small photos can be a bit of a mess because of their size and quality. Most require a lot of photoshopping after the scan to make it look any ways descent.

If the paper is textured there is a bit of a scanning workaround.
Scan the image twice with the second scan being at 180 degrees to the first. Then open as layers in P-shop, rotate and align the layers and reduce the opacity of the top layer.
The method can be finessed much more than that for better improvements, that's just a rough outline of procedure.