Printing photos from a phone


Brendon_t

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So I know that as a"millennial"  I'm supposed to be a techie but I'm not so I sent up the bat signal to the photo) computer needs.

I would like to take this photo below, and clean it up/ scale it up to large enough to print on high quality paper and look good in a frame. 

The photo was taken on a Google pixel so one of the best camera phones currently out.

Can anyone give me a website or steps I should take to I suppose enhance the photo enough to print say 8x10, print and ship it?

 

IMG_20170805_075402.jpg

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Frequently when you transfer a photo between mediums, or even devices, contrast and colors can get skewed.  Even look at how it appears on your phone vs how it displays on the forum. 

I don't have any links for you, but you might want to try making a variety of copies in different contrasts and color saturations, print them all on a smaller scale, but on the same material your finished product will be on, and pick your favorite.  The right combination of effects will really make the photo pop without making any part of it overpowered.  

The photo viewer native to windows (what you get when you double click a photo) has some very basic filters and adjustments built in.  That should be more than enough to find what you want. 

Back when I was doing a lot of B&W darkroom work (with film, before digital really), we would have to adjust our print exposure time and wave things over the print paper to adjust the contrast.  Even when it looks great in small format, when you blow it up, it can get ugly. 

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40 minutes ago, Marmotjr said:

Frequently when you transfer a photo between mediums, or even devices, contrast and colors can get skewed.  Even look at how it appears on your phone vs how it displays on the forum. 

I don't have any links for you, but you might want to try making a variety of copies in different contrasts and color saturations, print them all on a smaller scale, but on the same material your finished product will be on, and pick your favorite.  The right combination of effects will really make the photo pop without making any part of it overpowered.  

The photo viewer native to windows (what you get when you double click a photo) has some very basic filters and adjustments built in.  That should be more than enough to find what you want. 

Back when I was doing a lot of B&W darkroom work (with film, before digital really), we would have to adjust our print exposure time and wave things over the print paper to adjust the contrast.  Even when it looks great in small format, when you blow it up, it can get ugly. 

I appreciate the time to type that out. Unfortunately much was lost on me. Saturation, contrast, white balance... All Greek to me.  After thinking it over more I may have to just screw around with it. I don't know what levels of what should be changed to make it look better,bigger.

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I don't either, to be honest, I just know that the right combination of the values can make a good photo a great one .   Just open the photo in a basic editor (after making a backup copy of the original!), and play around.  If you start to like something, note down what you think you changed, and save it as another copy.  Then you can go back to where you left off before you mucked it up. 

As I mentioned, the default windows photo viewer has an edit button, in it is a bunch of sliders, play with them till you get what you want.   It won't take much. 

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Copy the image or duplicate it. Load snap seed on your phone. Play with all the settings discussed. It will be the fastest way to learn. Highlights, shadows, exposure, brilliance, saturation all can be tweaked for free in a Lightroom type environment. Playing is the fastest way to learn. This is after and before. The raw shot was shot flat. Editing just prioritized certain spectrums. 

IMG_4861.JPG

IMG_5061.JPG

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I'm probably less of an IT person than anyone here, but can't you plug your phone into your computer and upload/download your pics to your computer and save them there. Then copy it to a disc and take it to Walgreens? I have these hundreds of pics on my phone and if that's not the case, I'm up a creek. 

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You might even want to save a copy to another form of media, thumb drive, laptop what ever, just in case you really screw up will you are messing with the different settings.  Don't ask me how I know this can be a good idea,  just look under stupid human tricks, I am sure I will come up. :wacko:

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19 minutes ago, drzaius said:

For the best results, have the camera save the photo as a .raw file & then use LightRoom or some other editing program for post processing. Much more color depth & dynamic detail is contained in a raw file than a jpg.

True, but the question was asked about a photo already shot with a phone. Lightroom costs a bit so is not ideal for a one-off. That is why I suggest Googles SnapSeed. YMMV

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Just now, C Shaffer said:

True, but the question was asked about a photo already shot with a phone. Lightroom costs a bit so is not ideal for a one-off. That is why I suggest Googles SnapSeed. YMMV

True, but I thought I'd suggest it for future reference. Lots of people don't realize that many newer high end phones have that capability. And yes, there are good free programs but LightRoom is what I use & am familiar with.

It's really astonishing how good camera phones have gotten.

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6 hours ago, Marmotjr said:

 

Back when I was doing a lot of B&W darkroom work (with film, before digital really), we would have to adjust our print exposure time and wave things over the print paper to adjust the contrast.  Even when it looks great in small format, when you blow it up, it can get ugly. 

During my last three years in High School-'66-'68, my bedroom was a combination darkroom, and telescope mirror making workshop.  I made money to keep my hobbies going selling 8x10's for a buck fifty a piece, almost every day at school, and to the local newspaper.  It was a rare print that I didn't do something to by cupping my hand around the lens on the B22, and burning in parts a little more than others, by only letting light through the hole in my hand to parts of the print where it needed extra exposure.  I bought film in 100 foot rolls.

I printed so many B&W's that I no longer needed to time the exposure during printing.  I just developed a feel for it, and rarely trashed a print.  Our yearbook the year I was a Senior won first place nationally for photography.  My photography went downhill after that, when I switched to color, and never got around to setting the darkroom up again.

It's a wonder I have any brain cells left, going to sleep every night then breathing developer, and fixer.

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God, I miss the smell of fixer. 

Never really got into color work, and with the advent of digital, it's tough to go back to film.  I just can't justify spending the cash for the primo film (and it does make a difference), when I can take 3,000 shots on one cheap card and delete the bad ones, and touch up the rest, instead of getting maybe one keeper per roll.  I should probably take a photo shop class. 

  I had a whole little kit of 'magic wands' for burning and dodging.  As I moved into apartments on my own, I would only look at ones that the bathrooms had no windows, and a separate switch for the fan/light combo.  I'd swap out the light in the fan for a darkroom light, and turn the bathtub into a developing tank, and the counter top for my enlarger.  Needless to say, quite a few dates that made it that far, weren't usually impressed, although some were. 

I've always wanted to make my own mirror.

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For printing the photo from your phone, I highly recommend the Fujifilm Kiosk app. Kiosks are found in places like Walmart, or maybe Costco. The actual print is much nice than I can produce on my home priner, and they usually have large formats (up to 36" in the smaller dimension) printers available.

The resolution of the sensor in you camera will be the limiting factor for clear enlargement. The newer ones have pretty good sensors, though.

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