Using algorithmic enlargement software - bad idea?

[chrisv2]

For my birthday my wife got me the Sony 55-210 lens for my Nex camera. So I did what any normal person would do and tried to take a picture of the moon.

I think it came out "ok", and much better (obviously) than with the stock 18-55 lens. Then I got thinking, how cool would it be to crop and enlarge it? Here are the results, the original photo then a crop/enlarge using this online free service:

Image Resizing at a New Level - Reshade

So my question is this: Is it "ok" to use a service like that to enlarge your pictures? Also, this was the "free" version -- one can purchase what they say is a "Pro" or better version, which supposedly gives even better results.

What do you pros think about this sort of thing? Is it worth getting the purchased version of that software? I don't see myself ever buying a 1000mm lens or a camera that would be able to use it, so maybe this is a good option (?)

 

[SCraig]

No software can manufacture information from nothing. If the resolution of the original shot doesn't show enough detail then no matter how supposedly "Intelligent" the software is all it can do is interpolate between adjoining pixels. Some will do a better job of that interpolation than others, some will smooth and anti-alias edges better than others, but you won't get more detail because the original doesn't have it.

This appears to do a pretty decent job but I'd need to see a cropped image of the first at the same size as the second to make a true comparison.

 

[Ysarex]

First I would strongly second the point Scott made: If you didn't record the detail you don't have the detail and no software is going to magically produce it out of thin air.

That said it can be better than nothing to make use of a re-sizing algorithm. I took a look at the link you provided for Reshade and came away a little suspicious. There are good, better and best algorithms to get this job done. On their website Reshade is not very forthcoming about what's under the hood. The accepted wisdom is that fractal based algorithms provide the "best" result: Perfect Resize 7 Pro - onOne Software

One more caveat before you spend any money: Basic bicubic algorithms are typically included in most editing software as well as raw converters. They work pretty well and for my money well enough when used with discretion. You see the advantage of something like Perfect Resize when you've pushed past the limit of discretion such that their cr*ppy result is then slightly better than say Photoshop's cr*ppy result. It can feel kind of unsatisfying to have spent money on software to get slightly better cr*p.

Joe

 

[amolitor]

The great thing about the moon is that you can extrapolate all the detail you like by consulting other photographs of the moon that have that detail!