Resizing software

I've used various versions of Genuine Fractals/ On1Resize but the program always crashes after doing the resize. Can anyone recommend professional level resizing software for making enlargements? Has anyone tried Alien Skin Blowup?

Testing I did for a Webinar a few years back, where I tested several such products compared to upsampling in Photoshop and Lightroom (400%) out to an actual print: none were visibly superior to Lightroom then Photoshop with proper capture and output sharpening. So save your money. And concentrate on the area that IMHO, makes a much more significant visual difference in the output to print: capture then output sharpening!

.....concentrate on the area that IMHO, makes a much more significant visual difference in the output to print: capture then output sharpening!

 

So where can I find the ultimate resource for sharpening? Just the answers, no big technical explanations! :)

Sharpening should be done in three stages - Capture (to restore sharpness lost in capture), Creative (to enhance detail at various levels) and Output (to offset printing defects such as dot gain for various processes, or for web display). PhotoKit Sharpener by PixelGenius is probably the best, and has an extensive tutorial, for about $100. NIK Sharpener (Google) is free and has similar properties. Google recently purchased the product from its developer, but has announced no further updates will be made.

 

PixelGenius - PhotoKit Sharpener

Google Nik Collection

 

I do a lot of printing on a color laser jet, which can be dark and muddy. PhotoKit Sharpener not only sharpens the result, but reduces the dot gain, opening up the images to near photographic quality without resorting to CMYK conversion.

Dot gain affects density, not sharpness. So how would (do) these fancy sharpening programs differ from standard (and cheaper) USM or other sharpening algorithms, together with use of a tone-curve tailored to the output?

 

Because I have to agree that all the one-trick pony resizing programs appear to do nothing better than what can be done in PS or any other decent image editor. For all the hype of using "Fractal" algorithms or whatever.

Edited July 18, 2017 by rodeo_joe|1

Dot gain affects density, not sharpness. So how would (do) these fancy sharpening programs differ from standard (and cheaper) USM or other sharpening algorithms, together with use of a tone-curve tailored to the output?

The middle stage of sharpening does the heavy lifting. PhotoKit Sharpener uses adjustment layers, and masks can be inserted to adjust the area and intensity of the sharpening.

 

The final stage is strictly for the type of output at the designated size. Dot gain is controlled for inkjet (including laser jet) or half-tone outputs.. Other options are for continuous tone (e.g., dye-sub and wet prints) and web images. Sharpening is applied appropriate the the physical size of prints, or at the pixel level for web images after resampling to a fixed size in pixels.

 

These operations can be stacked, in adjustment layers or flattened for direct effect.

 

You could use USM or some other method for the middle stage of sharpening. PhotoKit Sharpener has useful presets which you would otherwise have to enter manually in USM based on your own taste and experience. Output sharpening has a profound effect on my laser jet (1200 dpi), and preserves really fine detail in my Canon Pro-10 printer. Use of adjustment layers saved with the image allows you to change the settings for different purposes without duplication or resampling.For example, I can create a master TIFF or PSD file, athen djust the settings for different outputs and save the results in a new, usually JPEG, image file.

 

I apply tone curves to adjust the master image. When i print, I use print profiles which I download from the internet or create myself using an i! spectrophotometer.

Edited July 18, 2017 by Ed_Ingold

So where can I find the ultimate resource for sharpening? Just the answers, no big technical explanations! :)

Start here, the source of a sharpening workflow which found it's way into Lightroom and ACR (well two out of three technically):

Out of Gamut: Thoughts on a Sharpening Workflow - CreativePro.com

Dot gain affects density, not sharpness. So how would (do) these fancy sharpening programs differ from standard (and cheaper) USM or other sharpening algorithms, together with use of a tone-curve tailored to the output?.

Output sharpening is designed for specific kinds of output devices (halftone, contone, inkjet, screen etc). At least in products that are properly designed for this task. Lightroom has two output sharpening targets: screen and ink jet.

Somehow PhotoKit Sharpener works without creating halos around high-contrast items, like tree twigs against the sky, or ironwork against a building. They are not unique in this respect, but the product seems to be foolproof, unlike basic UMS in Photoshop.

 

That's for the middle level of sharpening. Output sharpening for print can look rather odd on the screen, a little like focus peaking in an electronic finder. However there are no visible artifacts in the print itself. Fine details are preserved, nearly down to the pixel level. The details are actually in the original image, but a 42 MP image from a Sony A7Rii is good for 30"x20" at 300 PPI, yet the finest details are preserved in an 8"x12" inkjet print at 1200 PPI with output sharpening, but not without.

 

Output sharpening dramatically improves the appearance of images printed on a color laser jet. When you print in RGB, the printer doesn't make effective use of the black channel, rather tends to render black as "process black", which stacks all of the pigments. In the past, This produces dark and muddy prints. In the past, I've converted to CMYK and tweaked the results to get near photographic quality. PhotoKit Sharpener produces better results without special effort.