Is there any way to increase dpi in post-processing?

[Raindog]

Hello people

My wife has been running carnival workshops for people in sheltered housing and care homes during the summer months of lockdown. This was a lifeline for many who otherwise had no contact with the outside world.

She paid a photographer to help document the project, and the idea was to turn it into a book so participants could have something physical to remember the project by. Unfortunately the photographer made an error and all her files are only 72 dpi, which is too low resolution for printing. This has been pretty devastating, as so much work has gone into the project, and the participants are expecting a lovely book, which they have all contributed to as well (illustrations, poems etc).

My question is whether anyone knows of a clever program that might be able to increase the quality of these images so they can be used in print format. I am told that both RAW & JPEG files are available.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

Will

 

[seuadr]

gigapixel maybe?

 

[Raindog]

gigapixel maybe?

Yes, thanks. We're going to give that a go.

 

[Steveatesh]

Just a thought but did the photographer provide files they themselves had processed and exported? If so why can’t they just be re exported but with 300dpi as the setting?

 

[seuadr]

curious about how this all turned out?

 

[garuda]

Just a thought but did the photographer provide files they themselves had processed and exported? If so why can’t they just be re exported but with 300dpi as the setting?

Rain dog, Steve has a great suggestion, and if I may, would like to elaborate a bit to convince you to explore Steve's idea. Imagining your disappointment I urge you to press the photographer for copies of the originals.

I can't imagine the camera recording at 72. And photographers for hire generally save or archive their work. If you can find the photographer, pursue Steve's suggestion.

If no luck, I second the GigaPixel AI suggestion. Email them first and explain situation to see their s/w will work. It's a cheap fix for such an important project. Good luck. (Credit goes to Steve).

 

[Vorkell]

So for those wondering, I tried it in a Falcon photo I had done awhile back that I thought was really cool. I cut out just the eye and it's a 100% crop from the original photo, and blown up. I'll post the full size (Sorry for the spam!) so that it can be seen clearly what happened. It was a 400% increase, though from an older version of Gigapixel AI from Topaz Labs. The Gigapixel one I ran through Denoise AI after in order to clean it up, but I'd say it's definitely possible to upscale images these days!

• ILCE-7RM3
• FE 200-600mm F5.6-6.3 G OSS
• 600.0 mm
• ƒ/6.3
• 1/250 sec
• ISO 320

• ILCE-7RM3
• FE 200-600mm F5.6-6.3 G OSS
• 600.0 mm
• ƒ/6.3
• 1/250 sec
• ISO 320

 

[Killzen]

If you have the original files you can save them back out to any dpi you wish (within reason). Dpi is a method to match a file to a printer, so you can take a 20MB file and parse it out to 72 dpi or 300 dpi. Ask the photographer for the RAW files or have him give you high quality JPGs
DPI sets the dimensions for printing, the original image is set by the pixels...

All About Digital Photos - What is DPI?