Enlarging/Upsampling Images ???

I'm pretty sure that Cloudup is presenting a scaled down version -- if you want to see the full 4x I think you'll have to download ... here's a screen dump from cloudup

Thanks Peter, that will explain it.  I did just a "Save Image" when I right clicked the image in the link which downloads the scaled down version and not the full size version.

Hi Peter, I got the full 13336 x 11580 now.  I didn't see the "Download" button earlier , but still seeing a few "spots" that I am not sure if they are on the original image or not.

 But it's no big deal.  For onscreen display, the enlargement is fine as images that are larger than the screen are "compressed" to fit on the user's screen and so small irregularities might not be noticeable.  (hence reviewing images at 100%, especially if the image is to be printed, is a must for me)

If I were to print it, the "spots" might or might not be noticeable.

I didn't keep the photo after my post yesterday.  There were 5 or 6 on the petals. 

As I suggested in my first post


I don't have the original photo, so unfortunately I can't check if they are on it or not, but you could.  Just compare your enlargement with the original. If you see nothing wrong then they are on the original as well.

Hi Peterj,

thank you for uploading the zip file containing the original and enlarged image.  I have downloaded it and compared your original with your enlargement and found that the "spots" I referred to on the petals are on both the original and enlargement, so they're not introduced by ON1.

But, then with your original image already opened in my PSE 14, I decided to enlarge it in one go to 13336px x 11580px (same as your enlargement) using PSE's Bicubic Smoother (best for enlargement) option and then compared PSE's enlargement to ON1's enlargement.  Well, my eyes see next to no difference at all.  If I really look hard straining my eyes, in a few small areas one image might be very slightly sharper than the other but its really a bit of a stretch.  For all intents and purposes, my eyes tell both the PSE and ON1 enlargement are the same.

So the lesson here is, I for one won't be rushing out to purchase ON1 Resize based solely just on this one test image.  I would have to do a lot more testing on a lot more images to see if PSE or ON1 has any advantage over the other when it comes to resizing before considering purchasing an application just for resizing images.

As always, just some food for thought

I think we all learned a bit from this exercise ... Thanks Sepiana & Bailey for participating. Up until now I was happily enjoying the marketing from On1 that it's resize module was the best - now via these posts I've confirmed it myself.

For all folks reading this please do note that On1 Photo Raw suite is much much more than the resize module and is well worth the 30 free trial offered... www.on1.com/dl/11/

Hi Sepiana,

I did say in my original post


Using the test image from Peterj there was no pixelation in the enlarged image when I enlarged it using PSE as I described earlier without using smart objects.  His original image of  4000px on the long side was enlarged to 13336px. 

No-one has to take my word for it.  Pete has kindly uploaded the original and ON1 enlarged images for anyone to download and do their own comparison in PSE if they wish.  But that is not to say that every image will enlarge to a high quality.  As I mentioned above, the contents of the image play a part as well.

I doubt any software manufacturer will give an unconditional 100% guarantee that it's software will yield perfect results in every single case, so I suspect there will be images that both PSE and ON1 would struggle with.  With high resolution originals I would suspect both ON1 and PSE would generate very good results.  The more interesting test for me would be a comparison of enlarging low resolution images as I described in an earlier post.  If I ever get sufficient spare time in the future I might do the comparison myself.