Enlarging images without losing quality?

I have a 6mp nikon DSLR… It puts out images at 3008x2000… But id like to print larger and redbubble (where i'm selling) says they need to be larger…

how can i enlarge them in photoshop without quality loss? Also about how much larger can i make that without much loss in quality?

another thing i read online you can make them into a vector and resize them without any loss of quality… I dowloaded a free vector program called vector magic and that didn't work at all it made it to a vector but took All the detail out of my photo and made it look like a painting… It didn't change when i resized and made it a jpg again.

tips and advice please.

Take your photos in RAW format. You can enlarge photo without losing quality.

By carefull enlarging in small steps in photoshop you can perhaps gain 20%. Any bigger and you can kiss quality goodbye.

If you need bigger resolution then you need a newer camera.

I don't think its possible

There are a lot of ins and outs to enlargements from digital images. Generally speaking you can't enlarge the ppi of an image (the number of pixels per inch) beyond what it can natively capture without using an algorithm that makes educated guesses at what color each inserted pixel should be as it inserts the new pixels to grow the dimensions. Down can work, up is bad. You have an older Nikon that just isn't up to the technology of the day, nor even close. Another thing to realize is that if you are taking the images in JPEG format, that is a lossy compression based format. What that means is the quality will degrade each and every time you save the file as you work in any image editor. If you are trying to get salable quality, you should be using the RAW files which will all come in one size for each DSLR brand / model / sensor. Best fix is a new(er) DSLR body with a bigger sensor, not Photoshop. Professional print standards by the way are 300 PPI, which means that the largest print from your 3008 x 2000 format file will be about 10.02" x 6.67", not a large wall hanging size. Sorry, but the facts are always gonna be the facts.

You don't say what dimension redbubble chafed at. In reality, you can print as large as you want, the reason being that large photos are viewed from large distances. You will lose resolution if you look at it close up. At a distance, however, human visual acuity is the controlling factor. You must start out with a high quality image in any event.

Try mpix.com. I've had them print 10mp images to 20x30 inches without a complaint. And they could have gone higher. Don't enlarge them in Photoshop or change any of the dimensions. Just upload the high resolution jpeg after you've post-processed other parameters. Forget about all the dpi nonsense. A knowledgeable printer will take care of all that.

It's not possible, sorry.

You can't enlarge images without losing quality, not in Photoshop or any other software.

If you enlarge it a little you might get away with it - but to a trained eye the quality will still suffer.

The vector route is a red herring. Vectors are rescable, but the very act of converting a raster image made of pixels into a vector using some kind of vector tracing software will destroy the quality.

However, you could actually get away with printing them quite large, because large images are not usually inspected closely. Say you printed it at 120dpi, that would give you at least a 25" x 16" - might not be the best quality, but it will do. Don't try to rescale them in Photoshop - find a printer who knows what they are doing, and give them the maximum file size you have.

You need a program that allows rastering. Nothing to do with your collection of Bob Marley records - it's a method of resizing an image. Google "raster image" (and vectoring), and it should explain the process to you. Once you understand the explanation, google for raster (or vector) imaging software. Have a look for any names you recognise from the list presented to you.

You have these kinds of problems and this low level of equipment, yet you are all ready to start a "business" and seek clients for I'm guessing… Money?

head / desk