Where to get pictures blown up

[03ozwhip]

We have some really old black and white pics and they're maybe 3x3 at the most, we would like to see how big we can go without pixelating and distortion. Does anyone know of a place that can do this?

[ExtraSlow]

What you want is really high quality scanning. Once you have the best possible quality digital file you have a lot of options.

[03ozwhip]

What you want is really high quality scanning. Once you have the best possible quality digital file you have a lot of options.

And where would one get that done?

[firebane]

3x3 is pretty small to start with and really no amount of scanning is going to give a good result when enlarging a photo.

[Sugarphreak]

...

[Thaco]

if you want it to be high quality you're likely going to need more than a high quality scan, you're gonna have to take the high quality scan to someone who is good in photoshop and basically have them recreate the picture off the scan.. you cant add resolution to a printed picture regardless of the scan resolution.

[JRSC00LUDE]

We have some really old black and white pics and they're maybe 3x3 at the most, we would like to see how big we can go without pixelating and distortion. Does anyone know of a place that can do this?

We had a bunch of old school photos from the fifties and sixties enlarged and printed onto glass with vinyl film or something and they look fantastic so you can get it done. Call around to sign shops particularly ones that deal with window film/3M films and the like.

[revelations]

if you want it to be high quality you're likely going to need more than a high quality scan, you're gonna have to take the high quality scan to someone who is good in photoshop and basically have them recreate the picture off the scan.. you cant add resolution to a printed picture regardless of the scan resolution.

Not sure what you mean exactly, but most digital photos can be up converted (adding pixels).

https://www.howtogeek.com/105952/3-simple-ways-to-improve-low-resolution-images-and-typography/

[ExtraSlow]

I had a buddy take out some obvious damage from an old photograph and the resulting digital file was decent enough resolution for moderate sized prints. I'd say a good quality scan and then a tiny bit of editing and you'd be good to go.

[tonytiger55]

I dunno if this helps give a idea.
A few years back in London, I found a beautiful old photo of my parents. It was one of those photobooth photos, passport size. But it was also damaged.

I quickly bought a $40 scanner. Then when I came back to Canada I took the digital photo to Art Box in Northland Mall. He cleaned it up and the biggest he could do before it got distorted was 12x14. Not bad but the consensus is get a really high resolution scan if you can.

[ercchry]

I always thought the way to “blow up” a photo was taking a new pic of it with a good camera on a rig... wouldn’t the same principles of that still apply today?

[colsankey]

Same idea as scanning it really. But you would probably get a better resolution off a decent camera.

[ercchry]

Same idea as scanning it really. But you would probably get a better resolution off a decent camera.

Yeah, putting the lens to work and having a “larger” image before going digital