Expert: LizaL - 9/21/2004

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       Hi Lizal:
      Before anything else TK's  so much for your support and fast response.

       Answers:

1. What is the original size of your picture? In other words, have you downloaded it to your computer, and if so, what does it measure in Photoshop?

RP: yes it is in my pc  and measures are 2000x3008pixel ( 6.67x10.027inch)
at 300 dpi

2. What types of problems with resolution are you having? Is it fuzzy, grainy, etc.?

RP: noises and pixel ,the pic do not appears  sharp.

Note: I have to do enlargements a several sizes from pic 's that were taked w /d100  ; but when I print  it  do not look neat /shap .


I've got some theories and advice on resolution and photo printing, and I'll get right back to you once you give me that little bit of added info.

Thanks!
Answer -
Hi again!

I'm thinking a couple of things might be working against you here.

1. You said you have to do enlargements in several sizes, and if I understand you correctly, you're stepping up the size by doing incremental enlargements of the same picture. This is going to alter the original quality of the picture in much the same way as copying a copy of a document, on a Xerox machine. In other words, copying something, making it larger, and then copying it again at a larger size, will only hurt the resolution, and make the output fuzzy.

2. In Photoshop, bitmap data is resolution-dependent, and changing the pixel dimentions of an image can cause loss in image quality. Resampling is the term used for changing pixel dimensions, and what you're doing is resampling UP. When you resample up, the computer interpolates the missing pixels.

That is, when you resample up, as in enlarging a photo, you're asking the computer to supply the "missing" pixels -- in order to increase the size of the image. This is what causes the fuzziness of your photos when you print them.


That said, what you can do in Photoshop is always make sure that when you increase the size of your photo, always use Image pulldown menu and select Image Size, and add your dimensions in the width and height dialogue boxes.

Also, in the Resampling area of the Image Size dialogue box, make sure your interpolation method is Bicubic -- this method will make your printing slower, but it's the most accurate method of the three that Photoshop offers.

You can also sharpen up your image prior to printing by using the Unsharp Mask filter, under the Filter pulldown menu, and the Sharpen submenu. Enter a value here until you achieve the sharpness you're looking for. You can preview your image while you use Unsharp Mask, to see how the command affects the image.

Another thing you could do is download the image from your camera into Photoshop, print it at the default settings, and then scan it at a high resolution. Or, if you're able to do this, download the image directly into your scan program. Manipulate the scan in Photoshop, resampling up if you have to, and printing from the scanned image, once you've resampled.

You're doing some really large images here, so it's hard to control the resolution, simply printing using Photoshop and a regular inkjet printer. But if you always size from the original image, and not enlargements of that same image, and if you use the Bicubic interpolation along with Unsharp Mask, it might help.

If this doesn't help, please let me know and we'll try someething else!

Lisa       

9/14/04
Lisa:
Thank-you very much for your assistance on the resize-pixel matter.  You were right, now is accurate, clear and sharp our pictures.  But I would like to know other approach to the same problem with photoshop solution, if is possible.  
Additional to this, I would like to receive from you additional information about: automatic processing- batch procedures;  what I mean is that sometimes, I have to do the same corrections (task) like give a number and a name to more than 300 pictures, for the customers to view those pictures, and I'm still doing one by one.  When I do the pre-set on my D100 Nikon, and I use a white square sheetof paper, sometimes I get different results on the color of my pictures, and other times no.
Please give me a help in this processing and shooting problems on once again, thank-you very much for your help.  We, my husband and I, were a little bit wet, and scare because of the hurricane Frances, so it was difficult for us to thank you for your assistance and help.
Answer -
Hi Pat,

I'm so sorry I'm so late in getting back to you! Please forgive me.

I'm glad I could help you before, and that your pictures are looking better.

To answer your follow-up question, there is a simple way to do what you're describing. I'll try and describe it here.

It's called Actions, and basically what this is is a means of creating "pre-recorded," or "batch" operations for things you do over and over -- such as naming and numbering pictures, in your case.

Actions is in a palette to itself. Go to Window>Actions and you'll see it. Open it, and the first thing you'll see is a folder full of Default actions. You might look these over, to see if there are any you can use! But you can also create your own, to follow a specific set of instructions that you need in order to do the job you want.

Open a picture that you need to work on, and then at the bottom of the Actions palette, click on the little page icon (second from right, beside the Trash can). A dialog box will pop up, asking you to name your action. You can even assign your set of actions to a Function key, if you want. Once you've named your Actions set, hit the Record button, then just perform the steps you need to do for your picture. When you're finished, hit the little square icon on the Actions palette (on the bottom left). Your Actions set will be saved in the palette as whatever you called it.

When you need to do those actions again, open a picture, then hit the Play button on the Actions palette (the arrow icon, third from left).

You can specify an Action to close a file, but I'm not sure if you can make it open one; you might experiment with this, and I'll look it up to be sure. You could also just open several pictures at once and apply the Actions with the files open.

Also, don't worry if you put something in your Actions set that you don't like, or that you did by accident. You can deselect any command you've recorded by unchecking the check mark to its left, and you can even trash an Action if you don't like it, and start over.

Hope this helps! And again, I'm sorry I didn't respond to you sooner. Hope everything is OK with you, in terms of the weather! We've had a bit of bad weather ourselves the last couple of days, and I got behind in my work.

Please post back if you need more help.

Lisa


9-21-04

Hi Lisa,
Thanks again for all your support, the last recommendation you gave us, we already put it to work, but we still have some need of your assistance.  
The other day, I have the chance to do some shots on a birthday party (3 ½ years old boy)
I noticed, when I downloaded my pictures several of them were out of focus, due to the movement of the children.  The set-up from my D100 was: W/B = Auto; ISO 400;
On “M”, with a tripod.  Please, let us know what is the best set-up to avoid these out of focus situations.   I will be waiting for your response, and once again, thank-you very much for your assistance.  
And by the way, we checked your web-page, and we will probably use your service for our web-page.
Bye,
PAT & PEDRO  

Answer
Hi Pat and Pedro! I'm so glad I've been able to help you!!

About those blurry pictures -- I've got a couple of things I'll mention:

1. In Photoshop, you can always use the Unsharp Mask filter to sharpen up your images. You can find that under the Filter pulldown menu, and then select Sharpen>Unsharp Mask. That's the very best sharpening filter, because it lets you actually go in and specify a value, and the other sharpening filters don't let you do that.

But that filter kind of has some limitations. As I'm sure you'll see by experimenting, if you sharpen too much, you'll pixelate your image. So you just kind of have to play around with it to see what gives you the best result.


2. Your camera settings sound fine, especially with using a tripod, and I realize it's nearly impossible to keep little kids still while photographing them! But one thing you might try is setting your camera to use the flash. Flash will kind of "freeze" movement -- I always used this technique when I was using 35mm and shooting to film, and I've found that it works just the same when shooting digital.

So do some experimenting before your next shoot, and see if using your camera's flash helps. If it doesn't -- please post back.

I do freelance work for two photography studios in my area, and I'll ask these photographers their opinion on avoiding blur. One of these photographers shoots a lot of digital, so she might know some tricks. And I'll be happy to share with you what I find out.

I hope this helps you guys out some! And thank you SO much for thinking of using me for your Web page! I'd be very glad to talk with you about this. My email address is lizal@little-works.com if you'd like to discuss it further.

Take care and please post back if you need help -- and if I get some good advice about blurry pictures, I'll post back here too.

Bye!

Lisa