Detail enlargement
In photo technology, enlargement refers to the exposure of only part of the original image. An enlargement of a section uses an existing recording to pull out part of the exposed area and to enlarge it on paper, film or a digital data carrier.
Enlarging a section is, on the one hand, a possibility to underline the message of a photographic image by choosing a special image format that deviates from the standard , i.e. a conscious design element . On the other hand, an unsatisfactory recording can be upgraded by enlarging the section, for example if the actual subject is too small due to obstacles during the recording, technical limitations of the camera or lens or when taking snapshots , or if disturbing image details need to be removed.
In photography with classic film material , detail enlargements usually have to be made by hand and are therefore relatively expensive. Often, however, you can make do with an inexpensive way of simply ordering an enlargement in the next larger standard format and then cutting the paper image to the desired dimensions yourself.
In digital photography , the procedure is simple. Either you cut the template to the desired format with an image processing or you use the possibilities of some online ordering systems that provide similar functions.
There are centric cut-out enlargements (with even trimming of the wheels all around) and off-center cut-out enlargements, the surfaces of which are usually selected by hand. In the case of digital photo data, practically all image processing programs allow you to enlarge sections on the PC.
Regardless of whether they are made from film or digital templates, such excerpts are subject to technical limits due to the resolution of the film material or digital image sensor and the lenses. The image scale increases by enlarging a section and the general sharpness decreases, since the source material (film or pixel data) is used with a larger scale in the section enlargement.
The “electronic” zoom functions of digital cameras ( digital zoom ) are also enlarged sections, as they only upscale and convert the sensor's pixels to the new scale. This reduces the sharpness of an image, despite the larger display, in contrast to the use of an optical zoom, no additional details are displayed.