Please help! Low res photos

[jelusn]

Hi everyone! I am trying to edit some of my photos to make them big enough to have framed and put on my wall. But they are low resolution and I am not trained enough to know how to change them. Can someone please please help?? Thank you!!

 

[cherylynne1]

A few questions:

What kind of camera do you have?
What post processing system are you using? (If any)
What format were the pictures taken in?
Is this the original file, or do you have access to the original file?

 

[jelusn]

I have an older Nikon D40. I have Polar Photo Editor, but no Photo Shop. They are JPEGs and unfortunately I do not have access to the originals.

 

[tirediron]

The most important question is: How large do you want to print them?

 

[jelusn]

I would love them to be anywhere from 11x14 to 16x20

 

[KmH]

The photo you posted is neither of the print aspect ratios you mentioned - 11x14 (1.27) & 16x20 (1.25, or 5:4).
The aspect ratio is the ratio of the long side to the short side.
The long side of a 14x11 is 1.27x longer than the short side.

Your photo has an aspect ratio of 1.5 (10x15 or 12x18, and 16x24).
Indeed, most DSLR camears produce photos that have a 1.5 (3:2) aspect ratio.
To make either of the size prints you mention would require cropping the posted photo, further reducing the image resolution.

For printing there are 2 resolutions we have to consider, the image resilution (pixel dimensions) and the print resolution (pixels per inch, or ppi)

The photo you posted is 12.514 x 8.33 @ 72 ppi.
With that information we can calculate the image resolution:
Inches x PPI = pixels
12.514 inches x 72 ppi = 901 pixels (the inches cancel)

Most print labs have a minimum print resolution of about 100 ppi
At 100 ppi the long side of your photo would be 9.01 inches tall and the short side would be (8.33 inches x 72 ppi = 599.76) 6 inches wide.

You could try increasing the image resolution with appropriate software.
I know nothing about Polarr Photo Editor, but I see it's a free editing application.

It is hoped an up-rez'd photo be only slightly up-rez'd, and JPEG is a lossy (only has an 8-bit color depth), compressed image file type that doesn't cope well with major editing manipulation.
Print in the size you are wanting print best if they have a minimum print resolution of about 250 ppi.
The photo you posted would have to be up-rez'd (with resample turned on) to be 3.5x bigger.

Without up-rez your photo, @ 250 ppi, would be a 3.6 x 2.4 inch print.

Crop from 1.5 (3:2) to 7:5 & 5:4 aspect ratio illustration:

Aspect ratios and print sizes;

 

[jelusn]

Goodness me. I hate to say that I have no idea even where to begin with all this info! (Thank you very much, by the way!!) Would you recommend getting a better photo editor or perhaps going into a print shop that knows how to help? Unfortunately, I am very new to all of this. Thank you for your help!

 

[Designer]

Goodness me. I hate to say that I have no idea even where to begin with all this info! (Thank you very much, by the way!!) Would you recommend getting a better photo editor or perhaps going into a print shop that knows how to help? Unfortunately, I am very new to all of this. Thank you for your help!

You just need somebody to fix it, so yes, take your file to a good photo printer who knows what he is doing, and see what he can do.

 

[KmH]

I would suggest that there may not be a 'fix' that will result in quality wall size prints in the size range you want.
You may have to settle for much smaller prints if print quality is one of your goals.
If you're willing to accept less than quality prints ............

Lots of amateur photographers don't know much about the basics of having prints made.
Indeed many retail photographers today that charge for their services don't either.

All 35 mm film had an aspect ratio of 3:2 and most of the image sensors in DSLR cameras are the same shape 3:2 format. So the differing aspect ratios of some of the readily available print sizes has long made the need to crop, and losing resolution, a consideration when having prints made.