Newbie needs HELP with enlarged photo for autograph

I recently took a picture of Tom Kite and my boyfriend. Unfortunately I was kind of far away. So I cropped the picture and when it enlarged of course it is blurry. I have tried the sharpen filter and the unsharpen mask filter but nothing is working. I am now wondering whether the quality of the photo can even be any better. My dilemma is that Tom is going to sign it on Monday as a surprise and I am just trying to get the best photo I can. Since I am very new with the digital camera and Photoshop I am even wondering if a photo shop would try to make it better. Any suggestions????

My guess, you need to set the resolution feature in your camera to the best it has. Maybe you could print out the picture small then scan it at a higher resolution and try enlarging it after that.

Post the cropped original and I'll see what I can do.

Lisa Miller said:

I recently took a picture of Tom Kite and my boyfriend.
Unfortunately I was kind of far away. So I cropped the picture and
when it enlarged of course it is blurry. I have tried the sharpen
filter and the unsharpen mask filter but nothing is working. I am
now wondering whether the quality of the photo can even be any
better. My dilemma is that Tom is going to sign it on Monday as a
surprise and I am just trying to get the best photo I can. Since I
am very new with the digital camera and Photoshop I am even
wondering if a photo shop would try to make it better. Any
suggestions????

Click to expand...

Lisa Miller said:

I recently took a picture of Tom Kite and my boyfriend.
Unfortunately I was kind of far away. So I cropped the picture and
when it enlarged of course it is blurry. I have tried the sharpen
filter and the unsharpen mask filter but nothing is working. I am
now wondering whether the quality of the photo can even be any
better. My dilemma is that Tom is going to sign it on Monday as a
surprise and I am just trying to get the best photo I can. Since I
am very new with the digital camera and Photoshop I am even
wondering if a photo shop would try to make it better. Any
suggestions????

Click to expand...

--Because you are on a deadline and neither Serra nor Claus have answered , I suggest you go to IMAGE> IMAGE SIZE and boost the resolution to 250. Then try the Unsharpen Mask. You need pixels!! Sometimes it helps to boost the contrast a bit too. Assuming of course you have PS or some other program!!
Bill R

Bill Richardson said:

Lisa Miller said:

I recently took a picture of Tom Kite and my boyfriend.
Unfortunately I was kind of far away. So I cropped the picture and
when it enlarged of course it is blurry. I have tried the sharpen
filter and the unsharpen mask filter but nothing is working. I am
now wondering whether the quality of the photo can even be any
better. My dilemma is that Tom is going to sign it on Monday as a
surprise and I am just trying to get the best photo I can. Since I
am very new with the digital camera and Photoshop I am even
wondering if a photo shop would try to make it better. Any
suggestions????

Click to expand...

--Because you are on a deadline and neither Serra nor Claus have
answered , I suggest you go to IMAGE> IMAGE SIZE and boost the
resolution to 250. Then try the Unsharpen Mask. You need pixels!!
Sometimes it helps to boost the contrast a bit too. Assuming of
course you have PS or some other program!!
Bill R

Click to expand...

--PS: make sure the resample Image box is checked in the Image size window
Bill R

Hi Lisa

Bill is right in saying that sharpening operations will be more effective when you increase the pixel count. However, this technique has its limits. Remember that the pixels aren't there to begin with. You're only asking the software to invent new ones and they will not reveal any details that just aren't there.

If you need to, for example, double the size of the original, you will get better results printing it at the highest possible quality and scanning it at a higher resolution - as someone said in a previous reply.

This is how I would do it:

1. Resize image in Photoshop to 100% at (at least) 240dpi
2. Print on high-quality paper at the best possible setting of your printer

3. Scan at your scanner's highest possible optical resolution (I hope you have one!)
4. Edit in Photoshop (unsharp mask, levels, ...)

I hope this helps. Good luck!

Pete

Bill Richardson said:

Bill Richardson said:

Lisa Miller said:

I recently took a picture of Tom Kite and my boyfriend.
Unfortunately I was kind of far away. So I cropped the picture and
when it enlarged of course it is blurry. I have tried the sharpen
filter and the unsharpen mask filter but nothing is working. I am
now wondering whether the quality of the photo can even be any
better. My dilemma is that Tom is going to sign it on Monday as a
surprise and I am just trying to get the best photo I can. Since I
am very new with the digital camera and Photoshop I am even
wondering if a photo shop would try to make it better. Any
suggestions????

Click to expand...

--Because you are on a deadline and neither Serra nor Claus have
answered , I suggest you go to IMAGE> IMAGE SIZE and boost the
resolution to 250. Then try the Unsharpen Mask. You need pixels!!
Sometimes it helps to boost the contrast a bit too. Assuming of
course you have PS or some other program!!
Bill R

Click to expand...

--PS: make sure the resample Image box is checked in the Image size
window
Bill R

Click to expand...

Lisa, you need more resolution/pixels. The best way to upsize the image is with either genuine fractiles (costs$$$$$) or with Stair Interpolation (which is a free action download):
http://www.fredmiranda.com/SI/index.html

Download that free action and load it in to your PS actions menu then open PS and go to action> load action , search and load.

Use your original image, before you tried to fix it, to run the SI action on. After you have up sized the image run unsharp mask on the image.

Cricket

either genuine fractiles (costs$$$$$) or with Stair

Cricketb said:

Interpolation (which is a free action download):
http://www.fredmiranda.com/SI/index.html

Click to expand...

Hmmmm, it isn't free any more. I didn't check the price, but Fred recommends either Qimage to up size (if you already own that program) or
Irfanview:
http://www.irfanview.com/english.htm

Up sizing in plain PS will give you soft results.

Cricket

Thank you for your offer to help. Sorry I am getting back to the forum so late.....my ISP has been mostly down since yesterday. I was unable to post the photo but sent it to the email address you had in your profile. Thanks again!

aruzinsky said:

Lisa Miller said:

I recently took a picture of Tom Kite and my boyfriend.
Unfortunately I was kind of far away. So I cropped the picture and
when it enlarged of course it is blurry. I have tried the sharpen
filter and the unsharpen mask filter but nothing is working. I am
now wondering whether the quality of the photo can even be any
better. My dilemma is that Tom is going to sign it on Monday as a
surprise and I am just trying to get the best photo I can. Since I
am very new with the digital camera and Photoshop I am even
wondering if a photo shop would try to make it better. Any
suggestions????

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

Thank you for all of the suggestions....I am going to try them and hopefully get better results than what I already have.

Lisa Miller said:

I recently took a picture of Tom Kite and my boyfriend.
Unfortunately I was kind of far away. So I cropped the picture and
when it enlarged of course it is blurry. I have tried the sharpen
filter and the unsharpen mask filter but nothing is working. I am
now wondering whether the quality of the photo can even be any
better. My dilemma is that Tom is going to sign it on Monday as a
surprise and I am just trying to get the best photo I can. Since I
am very new with the digital camera and Photoshop I am even
wondering if a photo shop would try to make it better. Any
suggestions????

Click to expand...

what program and printer are you working with?

Lisa Marie said:

Lisa Miller said:

I recently took a picture of Tom Kite and my boyfriend.
Unfortunately I was kind of far away. So I cropped the picture and
when it enlarged of course it is blurry. I have tried the sharpen
filter and the unsharpen mask filter but nothing is working. I am
now wondering whether the quality of the photo can even be any
better. My dilemma is that Tom is going to sign it on Monday as a
surprise and I am just trying to get the best photo I can. Since I
am very new with the digital camera and Photoshop I am even
wondering if a photo shop would try to make it better. Any
suggestions????

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

I have Photoshop Limited Edition and a new HP Photosmart 1215 printer.

Barry Ward said:

Lisa Marie said:

Lisa Miller said:

I recently took a picture of Tom Kite and my boyfriend.
Unfortunately I was kind of far away. So I cropped the picture and
when it enlarged of course it is blurry. I have tried the sharpen
filter and the unsharpen mask filter but nothing is working. I am
now wondering whether the quality of the photo can even be any
better. My dilemma is that Tom is going to sign it on Monday as a
surprise and I am just trying to get the best photo I can. Since I
am very new with the digital camera and Photoshop I am even
wondering if a photo shop would try to make it better. Any
suggestions????

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

Ok, you have all the tools you need.

The easiest thing to do is going to be incrementally resize the pic until you have enough pixels to print at somewhere between 150 and 200 dpi. In LE you can just go to adjust-resize photo. Deselect the box that says constrain file size, and select resample image-bicubic interpolation. Resize at 110% and keep resizing until you start losing too much quality. For a quick fix, you might try sharpen edges after you resize.

Another thing you might try is to call around and find a lab with a fuji frontier printer that will do same day prints from a CD. For some reason, my interpolated pics seem to print better on a frontier than on my Epson. (This could be my imagination, but the noise and the jpeg artifacts seem less visible).

If you have time, look up "stair interpolation" on this forum, and you will get more detailed advice on resizing. For resizing, the workflow should be the same between PS and PS-LE.

Lisa Marie said:

Barry Ward said:

Lisa Marie said:

Lisa Miller said:

I recently took a picture of Tom Kite and my boyfriend.
Unfortunately I was kind of far away. So I cropped the picture and
when it enlarged of course it is blurry. I have tried the sharpen
filter and the unsharpen mask filter but nothing is working. I am
now wondering whether the quality of the photo can even be any
better. My dilemma is that Tom is going to sign it on Monday as a
surprise and I am just trying to get the best photo I can. Since I
am very new with the digital camera and Photoshop I am even
wondering if a photo shop would try to make it better. Any
suggestions????

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

Lisa,

Below is a cropping of the original that you e-mailed me and an 8X enlargement. Unfortunately JPEG artifacts prevented good results, but, at least, you now have sharp edges. All I did was remove some noise and apply an experimental enlargement method. You may want to do some manual touch ups and increase the color saturation before printing.

Lisa Marie said:

aruzinsky said:

Lisa Miller said:

I recently took a picture of Tom Kite and my boyfriend.
Unfortunately I was kind of far away. So I cropped the picture and
when it enlarged of course it is blurry. I have tried the sharpen
filter and the unsharpen mask filter but nothing is working. I am
now wondering whether the quality of the photo can even be any
better. My dilemma is that Tom is going to sign it on Monday as a
surprise and I am just trying to get the best photo I can. Since I
am very new with the digital camera and Photoshop I am even
wondering if a photo shop would try to make it better. Any
suggestions????

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

Click to expand...