Resizing Images - which software?

I have a Canon 20D and have a question about image upsizing. Would it

be better to use Canon's DPP ver. 1.5 or Adobe Photoshop Elements

ver. 3 to upsize? I've heard with the Adobe products that it's best

to upsize in 10% increments. Is this true for the Canon Digital

Photo Professional also or can you just dial in the final size? I

have both software on my computer and would like to optimize my

output. I plan on shooting some images that I will want to have

printed at 16x20 inches. Thanks. Steve

Getting 16 inches out of the native 2348 pixels is a bit of a stretch. I've done it in 10% increments with PS, but at less than 40" it looks a bit chunky. To make it look smooth, you need a dedicated tool like GenuineFractals.

You should also investigate QImage which boasts a variety of upsizing algorithms that are superior to those found in Elements (or, I suspect DPP). One factor to bear in mind is that the PPI of the enlarged image should ideally be an exact factor of the DPI of the printer. It is the printer driver that will do the final interpolation to dots of ink, and this works best if it is fed appropriately.

The 10% thing applies to any software. The theory being that creating a few more pixels in increments instead of creating a bunch more pixels at once will result in a smoother image. In reality, your mileage may vary. As for which is better of what you have, try it and find out.

 

Both QImage and Genuine Fractals have been reported to have better resampling than Photoshop.

Would Genuine Fractals 3.0 LE be sufficient for the 20D? Thanks!

I just bought the SI Pro v1.1 - Stair Interpolation Plugin (PC)from http://www.fredmiranda.com/shopping/SIpro and I am very impressed. This is Fred Miranda's site and program. For only $20 it is worth trying out. I looked at GF but its $159. I took some of my old 10D photos and blew them up to 400%. At 400% you could see some problems, but up to 300% looked good. IMHO

You would need the next step in Genuine Fractals up from LE because of the 64meg size limitation. I don't think there's anything better then GF and if you're gonna be doing a lot of uprezing of your images, GF is money well spent because it is such a good product.

 

They're now have come out with a Genuine Fractals 4.0.

 

Download a trial version. Start with a converted RAW file and uprez the file to 24"X36" The file is a monster file of some 222MB and then enlarge your image to 300% and compare the unrezed image at 300% to an image uprezed with GF 4.0. There's no need to compare an image where you've done 10% stairsteps as the image has been so destroyed, in comparison, by the time you get to 300%, that it's not worth comparing.

 

Check out GF. It doesn't cost you zip, other then your time.