Software to enlarge tiny pictures

[Jim Schrader]

Is there any software that can enlarge tiny pictures my mom has a bunch of these tiny pictures that she took back in the 30-40’s the printed versions had 2 pictures to a printed paper measuring 2-1/2” x 2” with each picture measuring 1-1/2”x 1” the pictures seem to be pretty clear when magnified but would like to enlarge them slightly without pixelation or blurring. I have attached a sample

[Steve Klare]

Hi Jim,

I think if you put these on a standard scanner, you could get pretty decent enlargements off of them. You might need to increase the resolution to improve the clarity of the results. The scanner I have is defaulted at 300 DPI, but has an optional 1200 DPI setting. (this is an old scanner too: a more modern one might do even better.)

What the increased resolution costs you is longer scan times and larger file sizes, but what it gains you is the ability to pull up finer detail from the picture (-either bad or good detail, too.)

This picture is very interesting: if the right and left side was closer to being identical, I'd swear it was some sort of Stereo 3D. Is there a viewer they are supposed to go with?

My wife and I have pictures from our parents and grandparents going back about 100 years. What's sad about them is everybody that knew details (names, locations, occasions) isn't here to fill in the blanks and the pictures are often only interesting at best.
(-all image, no story...)

[Douglas Meltzer]

Jim,

Great pictures! I agree with Steve about the scan resolution. You should test it out yourself, but for small pictures I wouldn't start any lower than 600 DPI and then move up incrementally to find the best balance for both scan rate and file size.

[Jim Schrader]

Thanks I’ll have to try this my scanner has 1200 dpi but is Greyed out not sure how to obtain that setting 600 is the max .

[Brian Fretwell]

I believe that scanners that aslo scan negatives normally have higher dpi ratings though sometimes these are not the native resolution but software interpolated ones. Mine is like that.

[Alan Paterson]

Failing the scanning route, if the prints are actually sharp, why not reshoot them on a good DSLR with a macro lens. Then you'll have a large version at 300 dpi. A 24 megapixel camera will easily give you 13" x 19" prints - and bigger with interpolation in Photoshop.

[Eivind Mork]

You can artificially improve the sharpness of an upscaled image with software like Upscayl: https://upscayl.org/

[Jim Schrader]

Thanks I thought my scanner had 1200 but 600 is the max Al I wish I had a nice DSLR camera my daughter has one but not sure what its pixels are and she's in Canada Eivind I'll have to download upscayl my main pc is only 32bit and need 64 which my laptop has. Just like the movie film its the equipment that's costly.

[Joerg Polzfusz]

Do you have a local library or a photoshop or drugstore/supermarket with a „photo section“? They sometimes have a scanner, too, that might have a better resolution.

When you have got a smartphone, you can try a special scan app (e.g. Google PhotoScan). They usually take five photos (1=whole image and then all four corners). They then automatically combine them to remove all reflections etc..

[Jim Schrader]

yes Joerg there is a drug store that has the equipment good idea, thanks I'll try that.

[Steve Klare]

Interesting:

This discussion sent me down the hall to this major commercial Canon Copier/Fax/Printer/Scanner...Thing which we use here.
I went through the scan settings:

-600 DPI maximum...

(This machine had to cost as much as a decent used car: I expected more!)