Quick ? for you photography gurus...

[sticknstring]

I recently photopgraphed an event with a point & shoot and had the cam set on tv mode 640 instead of the pc 1024. Pictures came out terrible. Viewable on the computer and when I pop the card in the tv, they seem alright as well. Got a bunch of 4x6's developed and they're extremely grainy. What can I do, if anything to get some reasonable photos out of the deal? I know I won't be able to get any 8x10's but it would be nice to have some decent pics for an album. Maybe crop the pics before developing - I haven't a clue. Help if you can! Thanks in advance!

[sticknstring]

No response must mean there's not a whole lot I can do eh? I figured it was long shot but being they came out somewhat clear on the tv, I thought if I alter them in some way, they might come out better on print. Lesson learned!

[JohnK]

If it's just that the image are to small, 640x480 is a pretty low resolution, only about 0.3 megapixel, there probably isn't much that can be done - you can't create detail that isn't there. But even that low should be enough for a Ok 4x6" print. If the problem is noise (grain) in the picture you might be able to clean it up with some noise reduction software. Cropping is more likely to make it worse since you would have even less information to work with for the prints.

TVs are pretty low resolution, even if it is a big screen, so a small photo can still look decent there but not in print. If you could post a sample it might be more clear exactly what the problem is.

[sticknstring]

I figured out what I did. One screen had high 2288 and normal 1600 listed as options. The next screen had pc screen 1024 & tv screen 640 listed. In my alertness at 2am, I first clicked the 2288 but then was confused at the next screen and decided on 640 which overrode the 2288. So yes, I now have low-res photos - not much I can do. Thanks for the reply!

Would they be much clearer at 3x5? Do places even print at that size anymore?

[Steve Foss]

Stick, dropping from a really grainy/pixellated 4x6 to a 3x5 won't buy you enough gain to reduce the graininess much.

Sorry. Just one of those things.

If you know someone with one of the later versions of photoshop, they can increase the size for you (it's called interpolation: adding pixels by duplicating neighboring pixels), but there are limits to how much you can add to the photograph before you enter the land of diminishing returns.

[sticknstring]

Quote:

Sorry. Just one of those things.

Yeah, I felt like I was going to throw-up once I realized what I did. Wanting to throw the camera through the drywall was immediately followed after that.

Guess I'll have to be content with what I have! Thanks Steve.