Just wondering if, in the absence of negatives, can I scan original photos into my computer (or have a photo shop do it) and obtain a similar quality image. I have a Epson NX515 scanner/printer.

Thank you in advance.

You can get good results scanning on a home scanner. Set your scanner to a high dpi and give it a try.

To try this out, I scanned a very clear, no grain image into the computer. The original photo is 3 X 5. I scanned it at 1200DPI (I could go a lot higher) and it came out 5759 × 3815 pixels which shows as 3.179 inches X 4.799 inches.

I could probably take 72 DPI 640X480 photos, print them, and scan them in also.

I posted it here to see what you think:

Test image

I didn't bother changing it (size) to make a poster, I just wanted to get the image loaded.

Would it make a difference to scan at higher DPI?

My plan is to put six on a poster (16 X 20), so each image would be 6 X 8 inches. I'd have to crop it and enlarge a bit, but would still have about 500 DPI with the pixels about 10,869 X 7200.

Thanks again!

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Boeinguy,

There is some great information about image size here. Basically, it helps to stop thinking about dpi and inches. Think pixels. A poster needs to be 3200 pixels by 4000 pixels.