Can you increase the image quality of a low-resolution photo?
Picture a familiar scene from the movies: a detective asks a tech-savvy police staffer to “enhance” a blurry image on a computer, until it becomes clear enough to make out a key piece of the puzzle.
But can you really make an image higher resolution in real life? Actually, the answer is yes — though it sometimes takes more than a few clicks.
The only way to resize a smaller photo into a larger, high-resolution image without highlighting poor image quality, is to take a new photograph or re-scan your image at a higher resolution.
You can increase the resolution of a digital image file, but you will lose image quality by doing so. Why? Because the number of pixels on your photo is generally fixed by your camera. While you can increase image size (and even add pixels) using editing software, you’ll often find the image becomes grainier.
However, there are some measures you can take in Adobe Photoshop to help you increase resolution while upholding visual quality.