Resizing photos

[Steff]

Hello forum.

I would like to get your advice on how to enlarge a photo via software. I have some photos that I need to expand to make them the size of a panoramic photo, but right now they are just normal sized photos. I am using them for the main headers on my site. I have tried to do it, but they look fuzzy, so I know i am just not doing it correctly and not using the right software.

I assume Adobe Photoshop can do it - but I may be wrong - and I don't have Adobe. Is there a free software I can download to do this? Should I just buy Adobe? How much is it?

Thanks much!
Steff

[snowmaker]

Software that gives you the option of resampling rather than resizing an image might give you better results, though making an image bigger is almost always a problem. For a free software suggestion, try the program Irfanview (http://irfanview.com).

[linnetwoods]

Or VicMan's Photo Editor (http://www.vicman.net)

[Croc Hunter]

Gimp or Irfanview etc are free but sounds like Photoshop or PaintShop Pro are what you really need. PaintShop Pro is cheaper. Both offer student discounts. You could always link us to your image with a short description of what you want done and someone might have a go at it for you.

Enlarging small images/photos to good quality like they do on CSI Miami and Alias requires very expensive software and alot of time.

[joeldryden]

You will always run into a problem when you resize a raster or pixel based image. Most digital phots are at 72 dpi, or dot per inch. If you attempt to enlarge a photo 200%, or twice it's size you are spreading those 72 dots over twice as much area. Some software will attempt to figure some of this out for you, but you just can't get blood out of a turnip.
Some large format printers like epson and hp have good emulators that will smooth out the pixelation. Most sign printers have these units and can produce your piece on one sheet, but it's spendy.
For the record you can increase the dpi of a file when you reduce it's size. For example
a photo that is 12" wide at 72dpi can be reduced to 6" wide at 144 dpi. This can be done in Photoshop using the Image Size menu item.

[cowboy4life]

What I would like to do is take a digital photo, resize it to like a banner look and put it at the top of a web page on my site. Using FrontPage 2003 doesn't seem to be able to do it and I am a novice beginner to web design. Can someone help?

[snowmaker]

You could try one of the free programs mentioned above, or if you want to spend money, get Paint Shop Pro or Photoshop. A demo/shareware version of PSP used to be available, may still be, and Photoshop may have a similar thing going on too.

[sremick]

Your needs are quite simple and can be met by the "resize" and "crop" tools in just about any image editor/viewer, including those mentioned already.

I use IrfanView and The Gimp a lot. Both are free and The Gimp is cross-platform so it very useful for me since I run FreeBSD on my home desktop. IrfanView is mostly just an image-viewer with some basic common image-editing tools (such as what you need to do). The Gimp is a full-blown image editor, sort of like Photoshop or Paint Shop Pro.

In IrfanView...

Crop: Select a rectangle on the image with the mouse, then choose "Crop selection" from the Edit menu.
Resize: Choose "Resize/Resample" from the Image menu.

In The Gimp:

Crop: Select the crop/resize tool (looks like a scalpel/x-acto knife). Draw a rectangle on the image, then a box for stuff for the crop tool will appear. Click on the [Crop] button.

Resize: Choose "Scale Image" from the Image menu on the image itself.

http://www.irfanview.com/
http://www.gimp.org/

[ryanragona]

In my opinion Photoshop is an essential program to own, but The Gimp is a decent backup if you have no way to obtain PS. It is possible to crop the photo to a different size and format but, as was mentioned above, you really should avoid enlarging it as it will distort the image.