need upsizing recommendation

jchin · February 2, 2007

A colleague of mine has a bunch of photos that is only 604x453 pixels (most of them anyway). He'd like to be able to print 8x10s from them (5x7 minimum). What size should we upsize them to? And any recommendations on how and what settings to use?

Should we upsize by percentage or to a specific pixel size?

I have Photoshop CS2, ACDSee Pro, and Irfanview. The simplest method would be the best. Thank you.

Trasmc · February 2, 2007

Here are some good thoughts from Layers Magazine. Scroll to the bottom of this link to see the section on increasing size.

Art Scott · February 2, 2007

Genuine Fractals Print Pro 4.1.....might want to try the 30 day trial, it lets you upsize and save 20prints (the last time I used it....an I gotta get the upgrade to take me from 3 to 4.1..)........does all the upsizing in one easy step. either by percentage or by actual measurements and if you look at the final preview and want to make changes then do that just don't save it until you like what you have...no stair stepping as with Photoshop and most other upsizing programs...........

Good luck with your project.

jchin · February 2, 2007

My friend has about 300-400 photos which were originally from flim and made into a CD by Kodak at processing time. Doing them one at a time would be too time consuming. Any automated way (hopefully something easy)?

Art Scott · February 2, 2007

Since I have never needed to upsize a large batch, all of mine is done 1 at a tie due to the fact that they are all quite different, I have not looked to see if
gf4.1 Print Pro wo;; in fact doe batches...but a quick look at the OnOne site should tell you also they will answer questions promptly.

DavidTO · February 2, 2007

Apparently the secret to upsizing (I've been told) is to do it in 10% steps. You could write an action to do just that, upsize 10% the desired number of times. I would use Image Processor to initiate the action and save the file, it will make a new folder for the new file, and is non-destructive to the original.

jchin · February 2, 2007

DavidTO wrote:

Apparently the secret to upsizing (I've been told) is to do it in 10% steps. You could write an action to do just that, upsize 10% the desired number of times. I would use Image Processor to initiate the action and save the file, it will make a new folder for the new file, and is non-destructive to the original.

So do you mean I should do this?

original -> upsize 10% -> directory1
directory1 -> upsize 10% -> directory2
...
directory9 -> upsize 10% -> directory10

To get a 100% (or 2X) upsized image?

Art Scott · February 2, 2007

DavidTO wrote:

Apparently the secret to upsizing (I've been told) is to do it in 10% steps. You could write an action to do just that, upsize 10% the desired number of times. I would use Image Processor to initiate the action and save the file, it will make a new folder for the new file, and is non-destructive to the original.

This is old school or if you are going to use Photoshop (and PS is not any good at even uprezing just a little...I have never been able to anything that was not somewhat pixelated and stair stepping to say 600% in 10 percent increments is a bitch to say the least...that is 60 steps evn in an action would take a loooooong time....with the newer versions of the uprezing software it can be done, in ONE step and is much better than the stair step method (like you mentioned above)....softwares like GF printPro and pixlsmrt scale and others I am sure...but I know GFPrintPro works great as I have taken some 8mp files adjusted the dpi in PS from 72 to 300 (always constrain proportions and un-tic the remaple box...never resample....brought photo to approx 8 x 10 and then resized to 30 x 40 in ONE step....this gave me a 30 x 40 inch print at 300dpi this was absolutely tack sharp even when viewed while handheld of course I cannot upload that file to my SM account as it is way to large (few hundred MB as a #12 jpg)....

John...one rule to remember when uprezing is this: DO everything you're going to do to the pic (post processing) before upsizing,,,,,,EXCEPT SHARPENING and that is done after sharpening.....works great

I have tried several interpolation softwares and so far nothing has come close to GF PrinPro 4.1..there is now public beta GF5 ready for FREE download.....

Even Vincent Versace uses it for his uprezing:
GF info page

his statement along with others towards bottom middle of page.....

Swartzy · February 2, 2007

What about Scott Kelby's book?
For CS2???? Page 108 (Rule-Breaking Resizing for Poster-sized prints). I'll bet you'll like the results better than plug ins.

digismile · February 2, 2007

Although CS2 and these plugins do some amazing things on upsizing, there is only so much that can be done with something 600 pixels across. There just isn't much detail there. As mentioned, the current CS2 does a very good job in upsampling.

I recently tried to to do much the same for a co-worker who had some important photos that were taken in-camera as 640 x 480 or so. I wasn't very satisfied with the final output.

All you can do is give it a try.

pathfinder · February 2, 2007

I wondered too about what these photos were supposed to look like.

I rather doubt that a 604 x 453 pixel image is going to uprez to a professional looking 8 x 10, no matter whether you use Genuine Fractals or PS 10% increments.

jchin · February 3, 2007

My friend is not looking for professional looking images. He knows that the 600px wide images have little detail to start with. All he wants to do is be able to save these old photos and be able to get decent (not good) 5x7s and ideally 8x10s. Most of these photos are of his grandchildren during holidays and vacations.

Thanks for the suggestions. I think I will try a simple batch run in ACDSee Pro and IrfanView (both of which have a very simple batch processing interface). I'll see what I get before attempting the Photoshop CS2 (which I'm not good at, at all).

Fishead · February 3, 2007

Related Question
...I have a photo I would like made very large approx 20 by 30 at least.....There are no "pro" labs in my rural area but the local staples has some sort of HP printer that they use to do blow ups. The original photo is 3872 by 2592....3.6 MB. A few questions

Should I re-size the photo in elements to the size I want the final output to be or should I let them do this...for example 20 by 30 at 300 dpi?

Or should I give them the Image as is on cd , the staff at the staples is not real knowledgeable about these things.

I'm not looking to get a "professional" job from them, just to try the service.

thanks! allen

this is the photo, a barrier island washover this past thanksgiving.
awashoverem.jpg

Art Scott · February 3, 2007

Swartzy wrote:

For CS2???? Page 108 (Rule-Breaking Resizing for Poster-sized prints). I'll bet you'll like the results better than plug ins.

don't know never used CS2 or read the Kelby book....which book is it any way?

xris · February 3, 2007

jchin wrote:

My friend has about 300-400 photos which were originally from flim and made into a CD by Kodak at processing time. Doing them one at a time would be too time consuming. Any automated way (hopefully something easy)?

Just a thought. Back in the days when Kodak was just starting the CD thing (I believe it was called 'PhotoCD') they actually placed (I think it was) 5 separate resolutions of each image on the disk. The lowest res was what they often called TV, for displaying on, well da, your TV. The res you have there sounds like that. Thing is, the other four versions are stored in a proprietary interleaved format and both your software and your CD ROM drive had to be PhotoCD compatable to access them. Most drives have been compatible for a very long time. But I'm wondering if maybe you should be looking for an 'open PhotoCD' command or something in your software? I'm guessing here. It's a longshot. But it just may hit paydirt.

jchin · February 3, 2007

xris wrote:

Just a thought. Back in the days when Kodak was just starting the CD thing (I believe it was called 'PhotoCD') they actually placed (I think it was) 5 separate resolutions of each image on the disk. The lowest res was what they often called TV, for displaying on, well da, your TV. The res you have there sounds like that. Thing is, the other four versions are stored in a proprietary interleaved format and both your software and your CD ROM drive had to be PhotoCD compatable to access them. Most drives have been compatible for a very long time. But I'm wondering if maybe you should be looking for an 'open PhotoCD' command or something in your software? I'm guessing here. It's a longshot. But it just may hit paydirt.

Unforunately, the CD that my friend has only single resolution ("screen resolution"). He has what is called a "Picture CD" not the more expensive "Photo CD". At the time he didn't know better.

jchin · February 3, 2007

Fishead wrote:

...I have a photo I would like made very large approx 20 by 30 at least.....There are no "pro" labs in my rural area but the local staples has some sort of HP printer that they use to do blow ups. The original photo is 3872 by 2592....3.6 MB. A few questions

Should I re-size the photo in elements to the size I want the final output to be or should I let them do this...for example 20 by 30 at 300 dpi?

Or should I give them the Image as is on cd , the staff at the staples is not real knowledgeable about these things.

I'm not looking to get a "professional" job from them, just to try the service.

thanks! allen

Allen,

At your default resolution, many online printers (Club Photo, Snapfish, Shutterfly, etc.) will be be able to make a large poster print. I personally use dotPhoto (good quality and cheap). If you'd like to try dotPhoto, send me your e-mail address and I can send you a referral from my wife's dotPhoto account (their referral system sends the link directly to that referred email address) so we can get $5 credit from dotPhoto for referring you (if you don't mind me getting the credit). Thanks.

BTW, very nice photo.

RogersDA · February 6, 2007

Art Scott wrote:

don't know never used CS2 or read the Kelby book....which book is it any way?

This one, I believe. Kelby mentions an upsizing technique by using 360 dpi and bicupic sharper as the resampling method. Works quite well.

ballentphoto · February 7, 2007

RogersDA wrote:

This one, I believe. Kelby mentions an upsizing technique by using 360 dpi and bicupic sharper as the resampling method. Works quite well.

I have had good success with the following method:

Crop to aspect ratio without the DPI box filled in (8x10).
Bicubic smoother to 20% larger than the target size (so 12 inches on the long side for a 10 inch desired size)
Then Bicubic sharper to the final size ( 10 inches in this axample)

need upsizing recommendation

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