How to enlarge your photos

Bird on a Peppertree branch

Cropping a photograph is a great way to refine the composition and bring attention to your subject, but the tradeoff is a smaller file size. If you’re sharing photos online, this isn’t a big deal. However, if you plan to print your photo, having enough pixels for a quality print is important. If you’ve had to crop substantially, you may need to enlarge your photos before printing them.

Here is an example:

Extreme crop of bird in tree photo

I captured this photo at Lindo Lake using my Canon R6 and 70-200mm lens with the 1.4x extender. In order to really bring attention to the bird in the photo, I had to crop in….a lot. I went from 5472 x 3648 pixels to 2022 x2022 which puts a limitation on how large I can print this photo.

To enlarge your photos, my favorite tool is Topaz Gigapixel AI. It uses AI technology to intelligently scale photos up to 600%.

Enlarge Your Photos with Topaz Gigapixel AI

Enlarging your photos with Topaz Gigapixel AI is extremely simple. Open the application, load up your image, and in most cases, the default settings do the job.

PRO TIP: Make sure you’re zoomed in to at least 100% to evaluate the results.

Here are a few of the options to refine the final output:

  • Resize Mode – I typically use Scale and only enlarge as much as necessary to get my desired print size
  • AI ModelStandard usually works best, but there are other models depending on the type of image you’re enlarging
  • Settings – I always start with the Auto setting turned on, and depending on the results, can increase or decrease the applied noise suppression and blur removal settings.
  • Additional Settings – Turn on Face Refinement if you have a human in the photo, and try using the Reduce Color Bleed setting to see which results you prefer.
Before and after Topaz Gigapixel AI 2x Enlarge your photo
Before-After with 2x Enlargement
Before and after Topaz Gigapixel AI 4x Enlarge your photo
Before-After with 4x Enlargement

The level of quality and detail that is retained, even when scaling the photo enlargement to 4x is pretty amazing.

The Results

Juvenile Night Heron on a Peppertree Branch | Enlarge your photo with Topaz Gigapixel AI

Enlarge Your Photos with Topaz Gigapixel AI

Topaz Gigapixel AI is an awesome tool to add to your photography toolbox! It will open up options for larger prints for images from older, low-megapixel cameras, or for those times when you were forced to heavily crop a photo.

Save 15% on Topaz Gigapixel AI – Enter ANGANDRIEUX at checkout

Questions?

As always, if you have questions about Topaz Gigapixel AI or any of the Topaz apps, leave a comment below or contact me directly. I’d love to hear from you!

Disclosure: One of the ways I support this website is by partnering with awesome companies, whose products I use and love. These partnerships allow me to earn a small commission when you make a purchase through one of my affiliate links, but there is no additional cost for you. Thank you for your support!

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