Low Resolution Photo

[Guinness]

Hi all, a friend of mine has sent me a photo taken on a low(ish) resolution camera. Is there a feature in PS Elements 4 or CS2 that might help sharpen it up at all? I know it might be alot to ask of the program but even if it's just a little better it would help.

Thanks.

 

[Azuth]

You can use an unsharp mask or other sharpen tool, but you can't get more from the photo than is inherently contained within it.

 

[BloodMaple]

I would use Smart Sharpen (Filter - Sharpen - Smart Sharpen) Rather than Unsharp Mask, because Smart Sharpen offers a lot more options and precision. It also depends on how blurry the low-res. photo is. Sometimes it's a lost cause. I agree with Azuth, you can't create information that wasn't there already.

 

[fmw]

It won't help. Sharpening doesn't add resolution. It simply increases the contrast at the edges of the subject. You have to capture the resolution. You can decrease it later but not increase it.

Unsharp mask, by the way, is almost always the best way to handle sharpening.

 

[Guinness]

Thanks for your reply's people. I did try the unsharp mask after you suggested it, but it didn't help. Nevermind.

Thanks.

 

[PetersCreek]

It's true that you can't create more visual information than was captured in the low-resolution image...but some programs/utilities, like Genuine Fractals, do a fair job of guessing at it. Just an option to consider...depending upon how low the resolution of the photo is and how motivated you are to get more out of it.

 

[Guinness]

Thanks Peters, I'll google that and see if I can get a download.

 

[markc]

There may be a demo, but if I remember right, the program itself isn't cheap. It does an amazing job though. Not in sharpening, but in fooling the eye into thinking there is more data there than there really is.

 

[Guinness]

I'll find it.:thumbup: And has adobe also bought out a new version of PS? Or is it just PS Elements?

 

[markc]

I'll find it.:thumbup:

--edit--

I took this to mean pirating. If so, not cool. If that's not what you meant, my apologies.

 

[PetersCreek]

Here's the Genuine Fractals website.

The current version of Photoshop is CS2. CS3 is in the wings. PS Elements isn't the same thing but versions 3 and 4 apparently work with GF.

 

[ahelg]

Noiseware is an excellent, and cheap, program for increasing the quality of a photograph, and the best thing is it's a standalone program, so it doesn't require a copy of photoshop.

 

[markc]

Unfortunately noise reduction doesn't really help in a case like this. Noise reduction takes out noise, whereas upscaling an image runs into the problem of trying to reproduce data that was never captured in the first place. It looks like good software though. I'll have to try it out.