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Blowing up images - best way with CS5?

yadmonkey

yadmonkey

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Aug 13, 2002
1,326
854
Western Spiral
I've been using Photoshop CS3 and a plugin called SIPro to increase image sizes. The results have been pretty good, but I'm soon going to CS5 and the developer of SIPro hasn't even updated the plugin for compatibility with CS4 yet, so I think I'll need an alternative and any alternatives would be much appreciated. Are there other plugins/programs that do the same thing?

Thanks!
 
Scaling Images

Depending on the amount of scaling required, here's a workaround that works pretty well.
In Photoshop, make your image into a floating layer then use canvas size to make the background the size you need ( scale up from a corner as this makes life easier in the next step)
Use the transform scale command and holding shift to constrain the dimensions, grab a corner of the image and drag up to the size of the now larger canvas.
This seems to be a better algorithm for scaling and usually produces pretty good results if the original image is of high quality.
 
bigsid said:
Depending on the amount of scaling required, here's a workaround that works pretty well.
In Photoshop, make your image into a floating layer then use canvas size to make the background the size you need ( scale up from a corner as this makes life easier in the next step)
Use the transform scale command and holding shift to constrain the dimensions, grab a corner of the image and drag up to the size of the now larger canvas.
This seems to be a better algorithm for scaling and usually produces pretty good results if the original image is of high quality.
Click to expand...

Im pretty sure the OP knew this, they obviously have a problem when it goes so large as to pixelate and blur terribly.

What you noted was the utmost basic Photoshop instructions that anyone capable of using another app, they noted SIPro, already knew.

:p
 
Thanks to everyone for your feedback. Indeed, these pics are being made very large, so the extra software is necessary. Genuine Fractals is certainly more expensive than SI Pro, but if it works as well then it'll be well worth it.
 
Sdashiki said:
Im pretty sure the OP knew this, they obviously have a problem when it goes so large as to pixelate and blur terribly.

What you noted was the utmost basic Photoshop instructions that anyone capable of using another app, they noted SIPro, already knew.

:p
Click to expand...

Well, OK, but I have instructed many a person who didn't know this, so that's why I put it in. You must be psychic to know everyone knows this! The OP never stated how much they needed to enlarge the image, so I gave a tip that not everyone knows. Every day is a school day after all.
 
designs216 said:
+1 for Genuine Fractals
Click to expand...

- 1 for Genuine Fractals.

Okay... that may be overstating it... but I find the artifacts produced by it to be no better than other methods available in PS.

The real secret is to not work with images that are too low in resolution to begin with.

A little planning and budgeting for good photography is the best solution.
 
citizenzen said:
The real secret is to not work with images that are too low in resolution to begin with.
Click to expand...


Heh. Like designers often have a choice. Sometimes you have to work with what you're given, with no budget or time for a reshoot, or in some cases, no chance of restaging at all in the case of photojournalism. Not all projects are planned by people who know what they're doing, yet they always expect magic from their 72ppi, it looked ok on the screen, small enough to email images.

My pet hate is supplied logos they've pulled from webpages and dumped into Word documents. Chasing down proper logos and artwork from the right people can be so damned awkward and time-consuming at times.
 
Blue Velvet said:
Heh. Like designers often have a choice.
Click to expand...

For the last 7 years I've had the pleasure of working alongside a very talented photographer and had the liberty to buy photography in the rare cases I needed it.

Please don't make me go back to the days you describe.

I don't think my delicate sensibilities could take it. :p
 
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