Help please. Old scanned photos

[Maggie52]

Hi

Can anyone advise me as the best way to slightly enlarge some old scanned photos?

We lost our mum last week and the family would like a display of photos of mum going back to when she was young. The idea is to print out some of these old photos which have been scanned and place them on a large board in the place where the wake is being held.

Of course some of the old photos are quite small in size ie approx 4x4. I would if possible like to enlarge these slightly before printing, I'll probably send them to dscl for printing as my home printer is not all that.

What would be the best way of enlarging these? I realise that the quality will not be too good but can only work with what we have.

Many thanks

 

[Alastair]

My condolences Margaret.

It depends on the individual print, but high resolution scans can yield very effective enlargement. A 1200dpi scan of a 4x4 print gives a theoretical 16x16 print when printed at 300dpi. But, it's very much down to the individual print as to whether it will yield that much detail from the scan. It's impossible to give an accurate answer without physically seeing the print. It also depends how good your scanner is. There's also a degree of what's "good enough", enlargements of even small prints can look ok from normal viewing distances even without trying to wring as much detail as possible from the scan.

If you give a location, there might be someone with a decent scanner who's done this before and is close enough to help.

 

[4wd]

Agree, even a basic home scanner would get you a file which could be blown up 2 or 3 times larger and a little photoshop work on minor damage etc is worth trying in fact often the results are remarkably good, and the image is safe for decades to come.
In the past we used to be startled how much more you could see looking at small prints with a magnifying glass - similar thing in a way.

 

[Maggie52]

Thank you Alastair for your kind words.

Thank you both for your your advice and suggestions, I'm not expecting great quality but from what you have both said, I think they will be adequate for what we want. We have a hp printer, scanner, copier so I will check to see if I can set it to scan at 1200dpi. I will then print a photo at 300dpi to see how it looks and if it's ok I will probably get them printed via DSCL. I don't really use my printer for printing photos to be honest, I usually use DSCL or my good friend who has an A3 printer will print the odd one for me

I feel more reassured that they will be OK for what we want, I don't think anyone will be looking at them that closely with a critical eye, at least I hope not

Thank you both once again

Margaret

 

[Alastair]

I don't think anyone will be looking at them that closely with a critical eye

Photographers are generally insensitive types that will fault an image on a technical level to the nth degree, being somewhere at the deep-end of the OCD/autistic spectrum and should probably not be allowed in in polite company unaccompanied.

Normal people are generally very forgiving of technical faults in an image and look for the emotional connection. You'll be fine doing what you describe

 

[Maggie52]

Photographers are generally insensitive types that will fault an image on a technical level to the nth degree, being somewhere at the deep-end of the OCD/autistic spectrum and should probably not be allowed in in polite company unaccompanied.

Normal people are generally very forgiving of technical faults in an image and look for the emotional connection. You'll be fine doing what you describe

Lol I love your very graphic description of the OCD photographer I think I've come across this species once or twice at the camera club. Hopefully there will be none present at the funeral.
On another note, you've cheered me up no end...thank you.

 

[Nod]

Maggie, it's worth a little experiment using your home equipment. Most all-in-one scanner/printers will let you do enlargements of things and, as people have already said, very few people will see any defects that will probably leap out at you (and those defects will very likely be just as visible in commercially produced prints as well as your home made ones!) I did something very similar for my Mum's wake, using a combination of old prints and a few slides and negatives. I just scanned them, did a resize in PSE and printed them at the required size. Did the job perfectly well and also brought back many memories of happier times.

Hope all goes as planned and keep your chin up - life goes on!

 

[Maggie52]

Maggie, it's worth a little experiment using your home equipment. Most all-in-one scanner/printers will let you do enlargements of things and, as people have already said, very few people will see any defects that will probably leap out at you (and those defects will very likely be just as visible in commercially produced prints as well as your home made ones!) I did something very similar for my Mum's wake, using a combination of old prints and a few slides and negatives. I just scanned them, did a resize in PSE and printed them at the required size. Did the job perfectly well and also brought back many memories of happier times.

Hope all goes as planned and keep your chin up - life goes on!

Thank you Nod I'm going to give it a go at home, if they look ok I might just do them all. Yes, viewing them, some I've not see in years certainly brings back memories. She's my mother in law but every inch a Mum to me she will be greatly missed.
As you say life goes on regardless. Many thanks.

 

[Byker28i]

Surprised no one has suggested take a photo of the photos. You get a much better resolution and result than using a scanner. You need to control the lighting, watch for glare, and shoot from directly above.

 

[Maggie52]

Surprised no one has suggested take a photo of the photos. You get a much better resolution and result than using a scanner. You need to control the lighting, watch for glare, and shoot from directly above.

I never thought about doing that Thanks for the suggestion.