I'm currently researching my family tree and would like to have some photographs of my Grandparents to put on the Genesreunited website.

The only ones I have are on a group shot from a 1940's wedding so each individual face is very small, probably not much more than 8mm x 8mm.

If I scan the photo and crop the face the quality will be awful. Is there are software available to improve this. On the TV you often see stories where the police enhance a very pixelated photograph, is this really possible or just "artistic licence"

its not possible to do the police tv thing, if you scan a pic and the face is only say 10 pixels square thats it unfortunately.

However you may be ble to improve the lighting, shading and colour balance and stuff like that though

Try Serif Photoplus. Check it out on Amazon, or here http://www.serif.com/photoplus/.

Alternatively, look at Photoshop Elements, also via Amazon.

Does your scanner have any editing software?

If you scan a "real" photo that is decent quality, enlarging it might not be as bad as if you resize a digital one. If you have got a high res scanner it would be worth a try.

Having said that, 8mmx8mm is pretty small to start with!

8x8mm is about 190x190 pixels on a 600DPI scanner, and many modern ones can manage 1200DPI so you could get an avatar sized pic without rescaling.

[Edited on 9/1/09 by MikeRJ]

I'm pretty handy with photoshop, If you can get a good quality scan and email the pic to me I'll have a go if you like.

Best way is to have it copied with a Macro lens, the normally available ones only do 1:1 but there are some specialist technical firms that have 1:3 or use a scanner back on a bellows.