Low-Resolution Baby Photos

When low resolution reaches a baby photo, the result is blocky pixels, mushy skin and faces the size of a fingernail that fall apart when enlarged. The cause is nearly always a tiny contact print, a wallet photo, a heavy crop or a scan made at 72 dpi years ago, and baby photos kept in albums, frames and boxes were all exposed to it.

The restoration reads the low-resolution baby photo as a repair job: it removes the low resolution and rebuilds what was underneath from the surrounding grain, keeping the christening gown, the fine hair and the blanket pattern as photographed. Faces of a newborn or toddler, sometimes with a parent's hands holding them up that were lost to the low resolution are plausible reconstructions, so compare them with other pictures.

For low-resolution baby photos the order is low resolution first, faces second, upscale last, each step taking the previous result. Standard suits a baby photo for a screen; Pro or Max gives a low-resolution print more detail for reprinting.