Blowing up phone pictures

[Boomerang]

Have taken some cracking pictures on holiday and would like to blow a couple up .
Taken with a Sam sung a3 phone .
How's best to get a good quality ard copy picture off the phone ,and how big could I go to keep the quality . Want to frame them and put up .thanks

 

[jimred]

Lots of ways. Cheapest if you've got a removable SD card on phone just ensure image is saved on it then take to a print/copy shop (usually a self service machine in major supermarkets) and print out. Otherwise save image (.jpg file) on PC and send to online print shop. (Truprint etc.)
Size depends on quality of camera on phone. Normally no problem with A4 maybe 15x10 in. but anything bigger is pushing it.

 

[Farfrae]

Depends on the resolution they were taken at. This is expressed in pixels (dots). I think it is a 13 megapixel camera on the newer A3 which equates to just over 4000 x 3000 pixels. Ideally photos should be printed at 300 dpi so an image of this resolution would print satisfactorily up to around 13 or 14 inches measured on the longest side. If you want to print larger you have to either reduce the dpi (printer resolution) or upscale the photographs in software (but you can't get something for nothing - so there will be some quality trade off). However as bigger photos are viewed from father away the reduction in quality is not always noticable.

To be honest the quality will be more dependent on the 'noise' in the photo which will be dependent on how good the lighting was they were taken in.

Ideally you need to transfer from your phone to a computer, let someone tweak them in software then upload for printing. As an ex pro photographer I do know a little about it! If you can get one off your phone and send it to me I'll take a look and give you my thoughts. If that would be useful I can PM my email address and if that would help you can send to me via email or a service like www.wetransfer.com

Hope that helps

Edit: The best online lab (IMHO) for quality/cost for most (i.e. consumer use) people is www.dscolourlabs.co.uk

However people are often disappointed that their photos are dark (with any on line lab). This is because most domestic monitors are not properly calibrated for photographs and are generally too bright (being left at their default for gaming etc.); hence the photos come back dark.

 

[Boomerang]

Depends on the resolution they were taken at. This is expressed in pixels (dots). I think it is a 13 megapixel camera on the newer A3 which equates to just over 4000 x 3000 pixels. Ideally photos should be printed at 300 dpi so an image of this resolution would print satisfactorily up to around 13 or 14 inches measured on the longest side. If you want to print larger you have to either reduce the dpi (printer resolution) or upscale the photographs in software (but you can't get something for nothing - so there will be some quality trade off). However as bigger photos are viewed from father away the reduction in quality is not always noticable.

To be honest the quality will be more dependent on the 'noise' in the photo which will be dependent on how good the lighting was they were taken in.

Ideally you need to transfer from your phone to a computer, let someone tweak them in software then upload for printing. As an ex pro photographer I do know a little about it! If you can get one off your phone and send it to me I'll take a look and give you my thoughts. If that would be useful I can PM my email address and if that would help you can send to me via email or a service like www.wetransfer.com

Hope that helps

Edit: The best online lab (IMHO) for quality/cost for most (i.e. consumer use) people is www.dscolourlabs.co.uk

However people are often disappointed that their photos are dark (with any on line lab). This is because most domestic monitors are not properly calibrated for photographs and are generally too bright (being left at their default for gaming etc.); hence the photos come back dark.

Thank you very much please pm your email I'll send you photo .

 

[Farfrae]

Thank you very much please pm your email I'll send you photo .

PM sent

 

[J B]

Surprised that nobody has suggested downloading it to the PC from their google account.

Simply log into your googlr account on your PC and then go to https://photos.google.com/ and download the photos that you want.

 

[Skilrte]

Surprised that nobody has suggested downloading it to the PC from their google account.

Good idea,but who would do that?

 

[Scribus]

Depends on the resolution they were taken at. This is expressed in pixels (dots). I think it is a 13 megapixel camera on the newer A3 which equates to just over 4000 x 3000 pixels. Ideally photos should be printed at 300 dpi so an image of this resolution would print satisfactorily up to around 13 or 14 inches measured on the longest side. If you want to print larger you have to either reduce the dpi (printer resolution) or upscale the photographs in software (but you can't get something for nothing - so there will be some quality trade off). However as bigger photos are viewed from father away the reduction in quality is not always noticable.

To be honest the quality will be more dependent on the 'noise' in the photo which will be dependent on how good the lighting was they were taken in.

Ideally you need to transfer from your phone to a computer, let someone tweak them in software then upload for printing. As an ex pro photographer I do know a little about it! If you can get one off your phone and send it to me I'll take a look and give you my thoughts. If that would be useful I can PM my email address and if that would help you can send to me via email or a service like www.wetransfer.com

Hope that helps

Edit: The best online lab (IMHO) for quality/cost for most (i.e. consumer use) people is www.dscolourlabs.co.uk

However people are often disappointed that their photos are dark (with any on line lab). This is because most domestic monitors are not properly calibrated for photographs and are generally too bright (being left at their default for gaming etc.); hence the photos come back dark.

As yet another who has worked as a photographer (and I still do a bit) I'd agree with much of what you say, however, I would add that the quality of a a photo will depend on the lens, even more than the camera. Taking a shot through the tiny hole on the back of the camera is never going to compete with the light gathering qualities of an SLR lens, and light is what photography is all about. Pixel count on the sensor is only one consideration, the quantity of photons arriving at the sensor is by far the larger determinant of photo quality, however you define it. You can't beat a large lens shining onto a large sensor, the best technical shots I produced were on a Mamiya medium format camera with a pixel count somewhat less than many smartphones today but the sensor was huge in comparison, and that's what counts.

Anyway, back to the OP's question. There is a good selection of photo editing software out there, I use Photo Pad on the laptop but cling to an old version of Photoshop for the PC as there are one or two features on it that I've not found elsewhere -

Photo Editor Software to Easily Edit Digital Images. Free Download. #1 Rated Editing Program.

Download PhotoPad photo editing software for Windows/Mac to easily edit digital photos. Award-winning photo editor to resize, crop, touch up or add effects to any image.

www.nchsoftware.com

 

[Cowabunga]

Have taken some cracking pictures on holiday and would like to blow a couple up .
Taken with a Sam sung a3 phone .
How's best to get a good quality ard copy picture off the phone ,and how big could I go to keep the quality . Want to frame them and put up .thanks

I'm sure Android has similar facilities to Apple. In my [apple] case, if I want to print direct from my phone I just use the 'share' tab and then 'print' and it sends the photo directly and wirelessly to my printer, which automatically chooses whatever photo paper it contains. Just now I have A4 copy paper in one tray and 4x5 photo paper in the other. It chooses the 4x6 but I could change that to the A4 if I chose and after substituting it for the appropriate photo paper.
Since I also copy all photos on all devices automatically to Google Photos as well, which is on most Android phones, I can choose the photo from there [on all my devices] in exactly the same way. Exactly. Google Photos app on Android phones may present slightly differently but I bet it works perfectly.

In essence you do not need to resize your pictures because the Photos app and printer does it for you automatically.

If you do not have a wireless printer, get one. They are dirt cheap. Ideally though you should get a mid-range wireless 'Photo Printer', like my Canon Pixma MG7750 which has six tanks for economy and very high quality printing. Latest version is this, at £130 including VAT or less. This is an even better bet for what could be an almost identical machine at £100 from Argos

Otherwise I think you can take your phone to a printing machine at a chemist or supermarket and 'share' to it wirelessly.

To avoid losing any pictures, make sure that your Android phone backs up automatically to the Google Photos cloud. You may also take a belts and braces approach and also back up to something like Dropbox, although above a certain amount of storage you may need to increase it and pay a very small monthly fee for the extra space.

 

[deleted user 837354]

For the cost of having them done, I would simply use an online photo shop to have the printed. The quality of the paper and print they use is way in excess of what most people will ever have in the home. Something ridiculous like 5p a print when they are on offer.

 

[Cowabunga]

For the cost of having them done, I would simply use an online photo shop to have the printed. The quality of the paper and print they use is way in excess of what most people will ever have in the home. Something ridiculous like 5p a print when they are on offer.

Yes that is also an option. Ink isn't cheap and neither is good quality photo paper, but it isn't uncompetitive either and gives instant copies in whatever size paper up to A4 you have in stock. Anything that needs printing in bulk or larger than A4, the on-line printing option is invaluable. I don't use it much because my upload broadband speed is appalling, but I would certainly make photo-books and albums if and when I get faster broadband that made bulk uploads viable.

In case the OP is wondering how to transfer the image required to the online photo-printing service, most have an app you install to your device which allows you to choose the image and instantly upload. You probably pay using Android Pay or Paypal or Apple Pay, whatever.

 

[Scribus]

For the cost of having them done, I would simply use an online photo shop to have the printed. The quality of the paper and print they use is way in excess of what most people will ever have in the home. Something ridiculous like 5p a print when they are on offer.

Agreed. I used to charge €25 for an A3 print off my Epson on professional paper, and even at that I wondered if I covered my costs, certainly not if I had spent time getting the colours right and bright.

 

[Scribus]

I'm sure Android has similar facilities to Apple. In my [apple] case, if I want to print direct from my phone I just use the 'share' tab and then 'print' and it sends the photo directly and wirelessly to my printer, which automatically chooses whatever photo paper it contains. Just now I have A4 copy paper in one tray and 4x5 photo paper in the other. It chooses the 4x6 but I could change that to the A4 if I chose and after substituting it for the appropriate photo paper.
Since I also copy all photos on all devices automatically to Google Photos as well, which is on most Android phones, I can choose the photo from there [on all my devices] in exactly the same way. Exactly. Google Photos app on Android phones may present slightly differently but I bet it works perfectly.

In essence you do not need to resize your pictures because the Photos app and printer does it for you automatically.

If you do not have a wireless printer, get one. They are dirt cheap. Ideally though you should get a mid-range wireless 'Photo Printer', like my Canon Pixma MG7750 which has six tanks for economy and very high quality printing. Latest version is this, at £130 including VAT or less. This is an even better bet for what could be an almost identical machine at £100 from Argos

Otherwise I think you can take your phone to a printing machine at a chemist or supermarket and 'share' to it wirelessly.

To avoid losing any pictures, make sure that your Android phone backs up automatically to the Google Photos cloud. You may also take a belts and braces approach and also back up to something like Dropbox, although above a certain amount of storage you may need to increase it and pay a very small monthly fee for the extra space.

There is photography and there is faffing about with computers, a lot of people confuse the two.

 

[Cowabunga]

There is photography and there is faffing about with computers, a lot of people confuse the two.

I agree. There are an awful lot of photographers that derive as much, or more pleasure from editing on a computer as they do on composing a story through the shooting of the image. The same has always been true, only it used to be the darkroom and chemicals and developing the film rather than a digital photo editor.
Regardless of that, a photo won't be printed without some interaction with the necessary technology. More than likely the images could do with some basic editing before printing too, which can almost certainly be done in a few seconds on the device before sending it. Altering the brightness and lifting shadows moderately are the most common and effective edits that take only a few seconds .

 

[J B]

Good idea,but who would do that?

Erm ... anyone with an android phone of an iPhOnE with a google account that they back their photos up to.

 

[Cowabunga]

Erm ... anyone with an android phone of an iPhOnE with a google account that they back their photos up to.

If you have a mix of devices with different operating systems, then some universal cloud storage such as Google Photos, Dropbox, Evernote or similar, that has apps for all operating systems, is almost essential, and mostly free depending on the amount you use them. I use all three for various things, but not to store photos on each. I don't use Apple Cloud storage for photos because I have far too many and as a result it would be relatively expensive. I do use Google Photos and did once use Amazon Photos but found it to be quirky and slow and disorganised. I use Dropbox for albums I want to share. Could use Evernote, as I have 2Gig/month storage capacity on that but sharing is more problematic.

All of them sync between all devices automatically in the backround. So no matter what device I use, all photos and selected other files are available on them all.

I've been a fan of devices that sync ever since the turn of the century when I had my first Compaq iPaq personal digital assistant. Back then there was no wi-fi, so the iPaq had to sit on a cradle joined by wire to the PC in order to sync with it and back up.

 

[Scribus]

...or you could just download the images to your PC via USB and get something like Photopad which is one of the more straightforward bits of software to use. I've done so professionally and it does a half decent job.

Here's a few download tips -

How to Transfer Photos from Android to Your Windows PC

Getting pictures from your Android phone to your PC isn't as hard as it seems.

www.howtogeek.com

For print quality the standard was always a minimum of 300 dots per inch (DPI) and when photography was moving over to digitl we were all expected to make great calculations in working out file size and DPI's and pixel density etc etc. As a rule of thumb I worked on 1mb file size being ample for most tasks with 2mb for quality prints up to A4, but you can get away with less nowadays and jpegs are good enough for 95% of pro photography today as well.

One important point to remember is that photos with lots of detail need a bigger jpeg file than one with a lot of plain colour. Think of a beach scene, take a photo of a blue sky and the resulting jpeg will be quite small, point the camara at a multitude of bathers on the sand and you'll need a much bigger jpeg, but the camera sorts that out for you.

If the file size is too small you can enlarge it through extrapolation which is pushing the jpeg conversion beyond the original file size, but it can cause problems if you go too far with it.

 

[Cowabunga]

...or you could just download the images to your PC via USB and get something like Photopad which is one of the more straightforward bits of software to use. I've done so professionally and it does a half decent job.

Here's a few download tips -

How to Transfer Photos from Android to Your Windows PC

Getting pictures from your Android phone to your PC isn't as hard as it seems.

www.howtogeek.com

For print quality the standard was always a minimum of 300 dots per inch (DPI) and when photography was moving over to digitl we were all expected to make great calculations in working out file size and DPI's and pixel density etc etc. As a rule of thumb I worked on 1mb file size being ample for most tasks with 2mb for quality prints up to A4, but you can get away with less nowadays and jpegs are good enough for 95% of pro photography today as well.

One important point to remember is that photos with lots of detail need a bigger jpeg file than one with a lot of plain colour. Think of a beach scene, take a photo of a blue sky and the resulting jpeg will be quite small, point the camara at a multitude of bathers on the sand and you'll need a much bigger jpeg, but the camera sorts that out for you.

If the file size is too small you can enlarge it through extrapolation which is pushing the jpeg conversion beyond the original file size, but it can cause problems if you go too far with it.

That is a very convoluted way of doing something that can be made dead simple and automatic. Printing direct from phone is easiest, using wi-fi or Bluetooth. Sending wirelessly to the computer and then from computer to printer is second most simple and sending to a shop printer from the phone or using SD card or USB stick, whichever is most convenient is third. Most household printer/scanners also have ports for SD cards and USB sticks these days also, so the choice of transfer methods is vast.
There is also the very practical option of sending a photo directly from the device to an internet photo printing service of course. Directly from the phone, or wherever else the photo has been transferred to, such as the PC or tablet.

However, the simplest implementation is best if the kit is available. The kit required for photo printing is only a good wireless photo-printer. Most can now even print remotely from anywhere, using its own internet address. This does require the printer to have some paper and ink pre-installed of course.

 

[Scribus]

That is a very convoluted way of doing something that can be made dead simple and automatic. Printing direct from phone is easiest, using wi-fi or Bluetooth. Sending wirelessly to the computer and then from computer to printer is second most simple and sending to a shop printer from the phone or using SD card or USB stick, whichever is most convenient is third. Most household printer/scanners also have ports for SD cards and USB sticks these days also, so the choice of transfer methods is vast.
There is also the very practical option of sending a photo directly from the device to an internet photo printing service of course. Directly from the phone, or wherever else the photo has been transferred to, such as the PC or tablet.

However, the simplest implementation is best if the kit is available. The kit required for photo printing is only a good wireless photo-printer. Most can now even print remotely from anywhere, using its own internet address. This does require the printer to have some paper and ink pre-installed of course.

Ah, but producing a quality print is not simple. Take a look at many of the photos put up on here, note how dull and muddy the colours are, or how indistinct and blurred the detail. If you are happy with such results then fair enough, but I'm not, which is why any photos I release will be put through an editing suite first.

 

[Cowabunga]

Ah, but producing a quality print is not simple. Take a look at many of the photos put up on here, note how dull and muddy the colours are, or how indistinct and blurred the detail. If you are happy with such results then fair enough, but I'm not, which is why any photos I release will be put through an editing suite first.

Cameras have perfectly good editing suites as standard these days so if a picture needs tweaking it can be done before sending, as I previously mentioned. Yes, it can be done on a seperate PC using a multitude of editing program choices and even phones can take raw files in many cases today if someone really wants to go to all that faff.

Bottom line is that there are multiple ways of achieving the same end. I believe in the KISS principle. Whatever suits the individual and makes them happy.