Low-Resolution Graduation Photos

When low resolution reaches a graduation 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 graduation photos kept in albums, frames and boxes were all exposed to it.

The restoration reads the low-resolution graduation photo as a repair job: it removes the low resolution and rebuilds what was underneath from the surrounding grain, keeping the tassel, the diploma and the school crest as photographed. Faces of the graduate in cap and gown, often with a parent standing just behind that were lost to the low resolution are plausible reconstructions, so compare them with other pictures.

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