Upsizing Software For MAC

[j. caputo]

I have read about various upsizing software but most are for PC. What can you MAC users recommend for an upsizing software? I have

photoshop CS3. I mention this because I know alot of those softwares are just photoshop plugins such as Genuine Fractals. I am shooting

landscape with a Canon 5D and I like to print at 24" x 36". Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

Thanks,

Jimmy

[jmck]

I am using Ben vista Photo Zoom Pro 2.3.4 on my mac mini Running OS X 10.4.11 and Elements 6 with no problems

that I am aware of.

The website is www.benvista.com and I think they have a try it free down load.

[colin_mattson1]

If you haven't already, try Photoshop. You may find the Bicubic interpolation routines built into it meet your needs just fine.

[j. caputo]

I have been using that but other photographers as well as my print house tell me I would get much better results with such

large prints if I go with a third party software.

[nathancraver]

I have heard Genuine Fractals and Blow Up (by AlienSkin) work very well. I am not sure about Fractals, but I do know that

all AlienSkin software works very well on Macs and are Photoshop plugins. I have never tried either, but own a few other

AlienSkin plugins and have been very impressed with them. They usually have demos you can try for 30 days, and I think

they let you save your results without leaving watermarks. I would give them a try. Like Colin said, use Photoshop's bicubic

interpolation in the Image Size menu first, I would only recommend trying something else if you are going for huge blow-

ups. I would think a 5D, with Bicubic interpolation set to 24x36" at 300 DPI would produce very nice results. I know I have

gotten beautiful 16x20" prints with a Nikon D70 (6.1 MP) using this method, and your camera is much sharper and higher in

resolution than that.

[g dan mitchell]

Let me make yet another suggestion, counterintuitive though it may be. Don't upsize.

 

That's right. I first heard of the following approach on the Michael Reichmann and Jeff Schewe video that goes into some

detail on this and other elements of the printing process. Schewe claimed that (in most cases) there is no advantage to

uprezzing in PS and then again in the printer. Yes, the printer also uses its own algorithms for this process.

 

His approach is to avoid the uprezzing step, and to instead change the resolution setting in PS until the print dimensions

match those that you are trying to achieve. For a small print the resolution could be quite high - for 6 x 9 proofs mine is

often in the high 400 range. For a 12 x 18 print from my 5D it will usually be in the 200+ range.

 

When I first heard this suggestion I was very skeptical, since I had also read all of the huffing and puffing about the

"right" ways to resize. But given the reputations of these two photographers I decided to try it out - and the results are

quite excellent. I always use this method now.

 

Schewe suggests one slight exception to this. Obviously if you make a very large print you resolution could fall below

180, often regarded as the minimum optimal setting. In these cases he suggests doubling the size of the image during

RAW conversion. I have not tried this, but both he and Reichmann seemed to think this works well.

 

I used to use the uprezzing tools in Photoshop, and I also used a third-party tool for this. I was OK with the results, but

frankly they were no better than what I get with this approach.

 

If you are as skeptical as I was, all I can do is suggest that you actually give it a try and see if it works as well for you

as it does for me.

 

(Yes, I do use a Mac.)

 

Dan

 

Two additional comments:

 

1. Do over-sharpen a bit when you prepare for printing. This compensates for the tendency of ink to spread just a bit on

the paper. (Technically, if you are very fastidious about this you would use different sharpening settings for different

papers since ink spread differently on them - for example, I have to sharpen a bit more when I print on Museo Silver Rag

than when I print on Ilford Galerie Gold Fibre Silk.)

 

2. The idea of using higher resolution settings for smaller prints actually makes a ton of sense. In order to maintain the

smallest details in the smaller print - which will likely be inspected very closely - higher resolutions settings are

appropriate. For several reasons, lower resolution will be just fine in the largest prints.

[nathancraver]

G Dan, I think that you are right, but it also depends on the printer and it's driver / software. Another topic was posted on

this recently and myself as well as others have encountered aliasing and digital artifacts when it was left to the printer to do

upsizing and uprezzing. I was using an Epson R2400 (and yes, a Mac also)

[g dan mitchell]

I'm using a 2200 and a Mac. Aliasing in a _print_ would be exceptionally hard to see given the very high resolutions used

for printing and the spread of the ink. How did you find this, and can you point me to the other thread?

 

Dan