In a case I'm working on I found a thumbnail image which may or may not be an image of a suspect. What's the best way to enlarge it while retaining clarity so that the people can be identified?
I've blown it up somewhat using Photoshop and tweaked the sharpness, etc but the image won't take much enlargment without becoming blurry.
Anybody got a Photoshop "formula" for enlarging pics?
I have heard (but have not tried myself) that if you increase the size in small increments (say 10% or less) at a time the resulting image will be of better quality.
There is a couple of things to try.
This may sound stupid, but zoom in on the image so that it is full screen, then stand about 20 feet away from the monitor.
As mentioned above, taking it up in small increments of 5 - 10% at a time, but at each step, run a sharpen on the image.
If it's a color image, you could separate the image into it's individual color planes and perform the above step in 5% steps, and then when it's large enough, merge the three color planes back together.
I have a software tool that I wrote myself for enhancing overcompressed JPG files. It basically repairs them and removes artifacts and blockiness. It also repairs enlarged images, but I've never fully tested it from enlarging a thumbnail. I'd have to dig it out and check. I don't know if the mathematical formula used has a photoshop equivalent formula however.
Someone told me about Photozoom pro for that kind of work.
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I gave it a go on a couple of test pictures, but honestly I wasn't amazed by the result. However, I did not try all the enhancing options it has.
It is shareware so you can always give it a go and tell us how it worked…
Here you are ready. First check your resolution if you are @ 72 the you can try upping it to 300 if you are high res then you need to output the image and re scan it at a high res maybe 600 or so. Your last ditch effert is to output it from digital to analog by means of a AGFA PCR II. if you need to do this I can help either way