# Is there anything I can do to enhance a bad photo?



## rosapearl (Aug 6, 2011)

First time posting so bear with me. I use a Canon Rebel EOS 300D digital camera so I am used to high quality photos. At my Dad's funeral I asked my cousin to take photos (I thought she still had her Canon Rebel). She borrowed her mother's Canon Powershot S3 IS. All the photos are of poor quality. Even the ones in bright sunlight. Photo details shows the photos were shot at 640 x 480 pixels - 180 dpi. Apparently the camera was set at a very low resolution. I printed out 4x6 photos which are passable, but I had wanted to make a memory photobook with some of the shots enlarged to 5x7 and 8x10. Is there anyway to enhance the photos in a photo shop to make them look better and enable to enlarge them? 

I first downloaded to wrong place - user gallery. Sorry about that. When I tried to add a couple photos here, the little box showed they downloaded, I don't see them here. Like I said, I am new here.

Anyway - is there any hope to improve these?


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## Tomasko (Aug 6, 2011)

Read this
http://www.thephotoforum.com/forum/...forum-functions-pictoral-guide-using-tpf.html 
And then post them here... 

Anyway, there's no way to upscale the photos and keep their image quality at the same time. This is no CSI NY, where you can compute missing detail, upscale as you will, etc... Some tweaking to their quality could be probably done, but it has its limits. You can't expect miracles by any means.


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## rosapearl (Aug 6, 2011)

What is CSI NY?


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## KmH (Aug 6, 2011)

The photos are likely in the JPEG file type.

JPEG is a lossy, compressed file type that is intended to be a finished, ready to print photo. Most of the color data the camera's image sensor originally captured was discarded. Consequently a JPEG cannot be edited very much, if at all.

 To make matters worse, the photos were made at a reduced resolution (640 x 480 pixels) which discarded even more image data.

A professional image editor might be able to enhance the photos somewhat, but there are limits to what can be done. The stuff you see being done to photos on TV shows like CSI, is not real life.


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## 480sparky (Aug 6, 2011)

rosapearl said:


> What is CSI NY?



Crime Scene Investigation : New York.  Where the most heinous crimes get solved in 37 minutes of air time using mythical methods of extracting data that never existed in the first place.  For example, an aerial shot taken with a 10-year old cell phone through 50-year old plexiglass from a jetliner cruising above the city at 45,000 feet is enlarged to reveal the Doctor's name as well as the drug on a prescription bottle laying face down in an alley under 3 tons of trash.  Oh, and they can detect 4 distinct sets of fingerprints from the cap of the bottle as well using the same image.  They can also extract the GPS log from the bottle, as well as the last 6 numbers called from the cell phone of the person who last touched to bottle.


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## rosapearl (Aug 6, 2011)

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Okay, here are the photos.  Thanks for the replies.  How else would you download a photo from your camera besides JPEG? I am not interested in the RAW format (Way over my head - Told you I didn't know much).

Also, I cannot find a setting on my camera to take a photo with 300 dpi, mine is on 180 dpi at the best setting below RAW


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## rosapearl (Aug 6, 2011)

RE:  CSI NY - I dont have a TV...LOL, no wonder I didn't know.


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## Peano (Aug 6, 2011)

rosapearl said:


> Also, I cannot find a setting on my camera to take a photo with 300 dpi, mine is on 180 dpi at the best setting below RAW



DPI is a print setting. It has no relevance in camera settings. The only thing that counts there is pixel dimensions -- in this case 640 x 480.

The image quality of these is very poor, with lots of noise in the shadow details of the inside shots. I'm afraid you're not going to be able to get decent prints from these, certainly not 8x10.


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## rosapearl (Aug 6, 2011)

I know next to nil about photography, but I do enjoy taking photos...and I like good quality photos.  When I saw the photos my heart sunk.  Just wanted to run it by someone who knew more than I did just in case something could be done.  Resizing the photos (by adding pixels) in a photo shop won't help will it?  I will just have to make the best of what I have.  I cannot imagine someone having their camera set at such a low resolution.  

PET PEEVE:  People who use their cellphones to take photos.  If a photo is worth taking then use a GOOD camera.


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## 480sparky (Aug 6, 2011)

You can certainly resize the images,...... make 'em as big as you want.  But any program that you use can't magically recreate the lost detail.  It's gone.  You may increase the images enough to gain one print size, but after that it'll go straight downhill.


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## Tomasko (Aug 7, 2011)

rosapearl said:


> I know next to nil about photography, but I do enjoy taking photos...and I like good quality photos.  When I saw the photos my heart sunk.  Just wanted to run it by someone who knew more than I did just in case something could be done.  Resizing the photos (by adding pixels) in a photo shop won't help will it?  I will just have to make the best of what I have.  I cannot imagine someone having their camera set at such a low resolution.
> 
> PET PEEVE:  People who use their cellphones to take photos.  If a photo is worth taking then use a GOOD camera.


Peano has already showed you what it will look like when resized.... There's no way to get higher image quality with these photos I'm afraid... Sorry.


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## oldmacman (Aug 7, 2011)

I'd say it depends on what tools you have at your disposal and what compromises you are willing to make. Here is a 100% crop from a 300dpi 5x7 that I created using your original 640x480 image. Steps:
- created a new 5x7" document set to 300dpi
- pasted and scaled your images
- applied heavy noise reduction which gives the images it's softness
- selective blurred the background to help reduce edge noise

In a 5x7 print, this section would be a relatively small area and you would likely be happy with the results in comparison to where you started. I'd be happy to give you the whole image if it meets your expectations.


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## rosapearl (Aug 7, 2011)

Hey, that does look better.   Ready to do the next 180?  LOL!!  I do have a pretty good photo shop, it's not Adobe Photo Shop as I never could make heads nor tails out of it.  I think I will experiment with them and then print them out for comparison.  I know how to create a new size photo.  I know how to soften the background, do noise reduction, but would you explain what you mean about " *pasted and scaled your images"  *And, yes, I'd like to see the whole image.  I really, really appreciate you taking time to post and show me this.  My hopes are risen.   While I know the photos will never be top-notch at least they will be usable.  Thank you, thank you, thank you. 

PS to all - take photos, photos, photos all of whom you love because once they leave this earth that's all you will have to remember them by.


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## oldmacman (Aug 7, 2011)

rosapearl said:


> Hey, that does look better.   Ready to do the next 180?  LOL!!  I do have a pretty good photo shop, it's not Adobe Photo Shop as I never could make heads nor tails out of it.  I think I will experiment with them and then print them out for comparison.  I know how to create a new size photo.  I know how to soften the background, do noise reduction, but would you explain what you mean about " *pasted and scaled your images"  *And, yes, I'd like to see the whole image.  I really, really appreciate you taking time to post and show me this.  My hopes are risen.   While I know the photos will never be top-notch at least they will be usable.  Thank you, thank you, thank you.



Pasted and scaled: I was starting a new blank document from scratch, so after the document was created I had copied the original small file and then pasted into the new, blank document. The original image only fills up a small portion of the 5x7, 300 dpi image, so it needed to be scaled (increased in size) to fill the borders. This is when you start to introduce more aliasing and moire that needs to be fix before printing. Scaling refers to making the image bigger but keeping the same aspect ratio of the sides.


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## joealcantar (Aug 7, 2011)

You can try this software , it is a plug in or a stand alone.
Genuine Fractals is now Perfect Resize 7 - onOne Software
-
Shoot well, Joe


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## rosapearl (Aug 7, 2011)

Thanks so much oldmacman.  Can't wait to print it out.  I appreciate the time you spent helping me.


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## rosapearl (Aug 7, 2011)

Thanks Joe, I will download this and try it out.  Appreciate it! 

Rosa


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