"pixelated" look when I enlarge my photos?

[brandywine9699]

I took several pictures and when I tried to enlarge them in photoshop for post processing, they are pixelated - not sure if this is the right word. Could it be my camera settings? I did an internet search but couldn't find the help I was looking for. I am going to give her a disk with the pics on it but am afraid she will be dissappointed if she wants to enalrge any of them. Can I fix this? They were takin with my Rebel XS. Thank you!

[LeeR]

Your camera is capable of taking 10.1 Mp images which should be plenty sharp to make good sized enlargements. When your camera is set to take large photos they should measure Approx. 3.8MB (3888 x 2592 pixels). If this is not what you have then you have set your camera to one of the smaller sizes which would explain the pixelated effect. Hopefully she will let you shoot again with the larger setting. If so, see if you can't find better light. The sunlight on her face us much to harsh here, You would have been better off in the shady area of the above image.

[BryanC]

Something I noticed right away...watch your focus. If you look at the top rail that she is leaning against, the focus seems to fall where the 4 bolts are at the joint of the boards. She looks a little out of the depth of field and a little blurry. I agree with the lighting comment, also. Between that and the eye makeup, you're getting that almost 'black hole' effect where eyes should be.

[wulf]

I wonder if you are confusing making the picture bigger by resizing and making the picture by zooming in? When you get the picture off the camera, what are its dimensions in pixels? For example, my D40 is set to give me images that are 3008px wide and 2000px tall.

Wulf

[brandywine9699]

wulf I'm not sure what they ar coming out of the camera, how do I find out?

Bryan C - now I see what you mean! I did not notice that before. thank you!

LeeR - I agree about the sunlight. I'm sure she will let me try it again.

[Sterling]

I took several pictures and when I tried to enlarge them in photoshop for post processing...

Maybe explain more about you are doing here. Enlarging a photo isn't a normal step in post processing. Or do you just mean viewing it while zoomed in, like wulf suggested?

Of course, as was mentioned above, the focus is quite a bit off. So any enlarging will just magnify that.

[Samanax]

Which image quality setting are you using? Are you shooting in RAW or one of the JPEG quality options?

[teaking]

It may be nosey... but thats never stopped me before haha

Why are you enlarging the pictures? Im curious as sterling said it isnt usually a standard thing in PP.

And how are you enlarging them?

[dcclark]

I'm afraid that you're probably falling into the mistake of "scaling up" an image to make it bigger. Photos do NOT have any inherent size, except for their pixel dimensions. No photo is inherentl 4x6, or 8x10, etc. Photos have an aspect ratio, which is the ratio of the short side's pixel length, to the long side's pixel length. Common examples are 2:3 (which means you could print the photo at 4x6, 6x9, 8x12, etc. -- the SAME photo could print at ANY of those sizes, unmodified), 4:5 (which would print 8x10, among others), etc.

So, if you're "scaling up" or "enlarging" the photos, you're probably using something called interpolation, which means that your photo editor is actually inventing new data to add to the image. You don't need to do this at all. Just crop the photo into the proper aspect ratio (most programs let you choose a ratio for cropping).

[OsmosisStudios]

Looks like the focus is off more than anything else.