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Photo enlarging software

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MikeFromMesa

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While trying OnOne's Perfect Suite software I experimented with it's resizing component. It uses what used to be General Fractals computational software to allow enlargement of images beyond 100% without as much concurrent softening as would normally occur in Photoshop. The results are not bad.

I resized a standard 5D3 image from 1870 x 1461 to 3200 x 2500 and then compared that image at 100% with the original image enlarged in Photoshop to the same size (about 175%). The OnOne enlarged photo was noticeably better.

All of this leads me to my question. Does anyone know of any really good photo enlarging software (other than OnOne's Perfect Resize) that would offer the ability to get decent images at the equivalent of 150 or 200%? I don't want to print the images, just to use the ability in my normal processing to generate good computer displays of my photos in those cases when I am doing some serious cropping. I'm looking only for home use, nothing commercial (or I assume I would know what the software is). A Google search did not turn up much.

Thanks.
 
Awhile back I did a few images for my nephew. He had some images that he wanted to print using a commercial shop. He framed them at 18 x 24 and sold them at a local coffee shop.

They were "Waterfall" images from his old UZI camera, 2.1 mp.

At that time I used "Genuine Fractals" which is now "Perfect Resize".

The major difficulty was with the size of the resulting files, extremely large and very time intensive to process, but the results were very impressive. The print shop my nephew used refused to believe that they were from a 2.1 mp camera.

The last one I ran thru this software, was from a 3.2mp camera. I think the original picture prior to resize was 4294kb and after Perfect resize was some thing like 340,442kb. This was printed on metalic paper, done by a shop in Maryland. It is just super, almost 3D. It now hangs on my Living Room wall.

I have found out that a lot of the major commercial print shops offer this enlarging service using some brand of interpolation software. You might check.

Sorry I could not be of more help.
Paul
 
MikeFromMesa said:
I resized a standard 5D3 image from 1870 x 1461 to 3200 x 2500 and then compared that image at 100% with the original image enlarged in Photoshop to the same size (about 175%). The OnOne enlarged photo was noticeably better.
Click to expand...
Post up the 1870 x 1461 or link me to it and I'll upsize it with Alien Skin Blow Up for you to compare.

--
-tim
 
Here are the steps I have taken.

1) Used CS5 to create a 100% crop of a duck on a local lake. This image became the input to the remaining steps.

2) Resized the crop to approx 200% with CS5 using Image -> Image Size (1582 -> 3000 pixels)

3) Used Perfect Resize to create an approx 200% image from the 100% cropped image (1582 -> 3000 pixels),

4) Resized the crop to approx 400% with CS5 using Image -> Image Size (1582 -> 6302 pixels),

5) Used Perfect Resize to create an approx 400% image from the 100% cropped image (1582 -> 6302 pixels).

I added text to the photos so that I could distinguish them once they were added to my gallery. They are not very different, but when examined in some detail on a computer screen it is easy to see that the Perfect Resize enlargement is somewhat better than the Photoshop enlargement.

There seem to be quite a few resizing apps available (PhotoZoom, AlienSkin, Sagelight has built-in functionality to enlarge) but I don't know which, if any, is the best. I am not concerned with printing these images, only with cropping and enlarging when what I want in a photo is too small. I don't expect miracles, but would like a good enlarging tool. Thanks for any help you can give me.

Here are the images.

Photoshop 100% crop





Photoshop approx 200% enlargement





Perfect Resize approx 200% enlargement





Photoshop approx 400% enlargement





Perfect Resize approx 400% enlargement



 
Sagelight is a lot more than resizing, but its resizing module is pretty nice.

http://www.sagelighteditor.com/
"Lanzcos 2, Lanzcos 3, and Lanczos 5, 64-bit per-channel resizing added

64-bit per-channel Lanczos Resizing

Lanczos resizing is now in Sagelight. Lanczos 2,3 and 5 are supported.

Lanczos 2 is the default, as this is the best general overall method.

Lanczos 3 is provided since it can sometimes give a nice, sharp resize, both in reducing and enlarging the image. Lanczos 2 is the default, as it avoids artifacts sometimes created by Lanczos 3.

Lanczos 5 is provided for enlarging images. Out of all of the resizing provided in Sagelight (Bilinear, Bicubic, Spline, Lanczos 2, and Lanczos 3), Lanczos 5 tends to work the best. When enlarging your images, Lanczos 5 does a great job in keeping sharp detail, even when you are making your image much larger than the original.

64-bit per-channel, floating-point resize

The Lanczos resize in Sagelight is done in 64-bit per-channel and in floating point (192 bits total). This ensures the best resolution possible with the lowest loss on the conversion possible.

In testing, 32-bits per-channel was fine, but there seemed to be a small edge for 64-bits, so the logic was put in to keep it 64-bits throughout the entire process.

Thank you
Russell
 
What I notice in the first place is that you didn't state what algorithm you are using for the enlargement. That's quite important for the resulting quality.

To start with, I don't think the quality is that much different. The PS images are a bit softer, but I suppose the dedicated enlargers do have some sharpening algorithm built in. If you want to get top-notch enlargement in PS, you should try stairstepping the enlargement (2x200% instead of 1x400% enlargement) using the bicubic smoother algorithm, and do some sharpening afterwards (I suggest 1 px high-pass layer in hard-light mode). You could build this into an action to make your life easier.

I'll have a go at it later, when I'm off work. :)
 
You could try ImageMagik, that has an algorithm called Mitchell for enlargement. Seems to work better than Lanczos, which performs better for reduction.
 
joey_B said:
What I notice in the first place is that you didn't state what algorithm you are using for the enlargement. That's quite important for the resulting quality.
Click to expand...
Perfect Resize does not offer any choices for enlarging algorithm. For Photoshop I chose the Bicubic Smoother which Photoshop says is best for enlargement.
joey_B said:
To start with, I don't think the quality is that much different. The PS images are a bit softer, but I suppose the dedicated enlargers do have some sharpening algorithm built in.
Click to expand...
No. I never meant to indicate that one was much better than the other. I said it was noticeably better and, given that you saw the difference also, that would appear to be true.
joey_B said:
If you want to get top-notch enlargement in PS, you should try stairstepping the enlargement (2x200% instead of 1x400% enlargement) using the bicubic smoother algorithm, and do some sharpening afterwards (I suggest 1 px high-pass layer in hard-light mode). You could build this into an action to make your life easier.
Click to expand...
I can see the difference between Perfect Resize and Photoshop at 200% since Photoshop is, as you say, a little softer. I did not sharpen precisely because I wanted to compare outputs from both processes as they appeared after generation. I did not want to throw in subjective changes like sharpening. And I produced TIFF files from both processes so additional changes (such as the addition of text to show which image was which) would not further degrade the images.
joey_B said:
I'll have a go at it later, when I'm off work
Click to expand...
I would appreciate anything you can do when you have the time.
 
Russell Evans said:
Sagelight is a lot more than resizing, but its resizing module is pretty nice.
Click to expand...
I have Sagelight and did enlargement using it, but found that the result was not very good compared to some of the others. I also have enlargements using other software but did not try to upload all of them.

I like Sagelight a lot but I don't think their enlargement process is as good as Photoshop and I don't think Photoshop is as good as some of the dedicated enlargement software I have tried. I guess I should not be surprised since dedicated enlargement software should be better at enlargement than general editing software like Sagelight.
 
I haven't read through all the replys so sorry if this is a dupe but Qimage does a nice job of up and down sizing images as well as being a nice printing program. I have used it for years. It is not free though.
Murry
--
http://www.grigsbys.smugmug.com/
 
MikeFromMesa said:
I did not want to throw in subjective changes like sharpening. And I produced TIFF files from both processes so additional changes (such as the addition of text to show which image was which) would not further degrade the images.
Click to expand...
You have to take the process into account, as it does do some sharpening that you are not aware of, but does make the picture look more different. If the goal of your comparison is to know what causes the difference, well, there you go! :)

But, reading your first post, I get the impression that you don't specifically like the softer PS output, and you are looking for a tool that will give you something more of the PR output. I want to show you how you can get similar results by just using photoshop. Saves you some investment.

I do not use the word 'quality' here, because the evaluation of resizing output is VERY subjective. As long as there is little technical artefacting, the image is acceptable in my opinion. And I consider edge haloing an artefact... surely one that works for the picture by causing better percieved sharpness, but still an artefact.

Maybe we should also talk a bit about WHY you want to upsize this image. What viewing purpose do you have, from what distance the picture will be viewed ,etc.
 
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