Can You Make a Low Resolution File a High Resolution File?
Low Resolution or Screen Resolution files or 72 dpi is all the same thing. I was sent the photo above to "improve" by my editor. It should be noted that I did not shoot the photo; I believe it was shot by another worker, not a photographer, on an older cell phone. I get a lot of people asking me how can I improve this photo and make it printable. I even get people that say I have a low res photo by a girl with a really nice camera but it is low res what do I do?
First of all, I just love when people tell me...her camera was really nice, but the photos are low res so I should be fine right? NOOOOOOOOO, a nice camera does not a photographer make! A camera is a tool, it doesn't make an idiot into a professional photographer overnight. Sorry didn't mean to call someone an idiot, but if you know me you'll get over it.
Fancy cameras or larger cameras can actually be set to shoot photos in a screen res mode or lower resolution jpeg files. However, unless you are exclusively shooting for the web, why would anyone do this, because all of your images would be low res. Remember, there is no way to go from low res to high res, but you can always go from high res to low res. Remember this. I have actually seen fly-by-night hobby photographers actually shoot in this mode.....remember that when you hire one, you probably would be really upset to learn that your wedding was shot entirely in a low res mode....another reason to hire a pro!
I recently had a lady send me a cell phone photo of her husband and said he died of a heart attack but it was her favorite photo. My heart broke for her, so I wanted to help her out so I took a look at her photo. The photo, which I won't put up because I don't want to insult anyone, was shot on a flip phone and was not only out of focus but really grainy or noisy. Old flip phones are some of the earliest camera phones, not high res at all or good quality. I softened the noise, corrected the color as much as possible, but that was as good as it could get. The photo was around 600x600 too low for making a good print! The lady was not pleased that I couldn't make it perfect and didn't pay me...note to self get money up front for this every time! I did tell her up front that it would never be what she wanted it to be. I still stand behind this! I can't make something out of nothing, no matter how bad she really wanted a great photo of her husband, she will never get it out of the photo she sent me. If it had been shot on a newer phone such as my iPhone 6plus it wouldn't have been a problem. The resolution on cell phones is improving every year just like digital cameras have. So the answer is yes you can get a high res photo on a new phone, just look at the resolution if it is in the 1000x1000 range your good. Okay so maybe you will never get bill board size, but you can print something for the house no problem.
Here is a quick tip to remember as well. If you want to keep a photo at the highest possible resolution from a phone email it from the phone do not text it. Texting compresses the size even more, and if it is already small don't make it smaller.
So the answer to your question; "Can I make this tiny photo high quality and print an 8x10 and make it look great?" No you can't. But you can keep it on your Facebook or phone and view it whenever you want to make you happy. Remember Low to High = No, High to Low = Yes.
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