866-580-5261You might have often been left with low-resolution images to work on. Low-resolution pictures look blurry and strange. The most challenging part is to use such images to create a design. Designs that use low-resolution images look shabby and unimpressive.
You might not know much about editing images as a business owner. And, if you don't have a heavy-duty, pixel-perfect camera, don't worry. You can still get high-quality images if you can edit the pictures in Adobe Photoshop and Photoshop Lightroom. Knowing just a few tricks in Adobe Photoshop can help you enhance your images quickly.
Let us discuss how to make the image look sharper, how to use Super Resolution in Lightroom, and how to adjust the image size and resolution in Photoshop. We will also discuss the best method to make a low-quality image look better.
Understanding Image Resolution
Let us understand what image resolution is before we proceed with the methods of improving it. 'Image resolution' refers to the number of pixels in the image. All digital images are composed of pixels, with higher pixel counts resulting in higher resolution.
These pixels affect the image's quality, clarity, and size. The image will be clearer if it has more pixels and will be blurry and pixelated if it has fewer pixels.
Pixel Resampling
Resampling means adding or removing pixels from an image. Lessening the quantity of pixels will decrease the size and resolution of the image and vice versa.
Upsampling and Down-sampling
Upsampling is a technique to increase the pixel count of an image. It's commonly used to enlarge an image without degrading its quality. The software adds pixels to the image based on the surrounding pixels, producing a bigger image with improved clarity. However, oversampling the image can make the picture look distorted or grainy.
Downsampling is a method used to decrease the number of pixels in an image without affecting its quality. It removes select pixels from the image based on analysis of nearby pixels. As a result, the image becomes smaller and has a lower resolution. Photographers may downsample images to save storage space or make images load faster online.
Using Super Resolution in Photoshop and Lightroom
Let us consider a situation where your client wants to replace their current headshot with a great photo of them in a group portrait. Simply cropping a small photo area and enlarging it can result in significant pixelation, which may not be desirable. To avoid this, you can try upsampling the photo to increase its resolution, but it may require some effort to achieve a satisfactory result. So how can you do this?
Using Super Resolution in Photoshop and Lightroom can be helpful when you want to increase the resolution of images without compromising their quality. This is especially useful when creating elaborate designs or printing the images. AI and machine learning technology are utilized for this purpose.
With Super Resolution, you can enhance your photos and increase the pixel count up to four times just by clicking a button. Through AI and ML, Photoshop and Lightroom carefully pick the most appropriate pixels for the context of every image, resulting in high-quality resolution. This can provide enough extra resolution to create a sharp digital headshot for your client or a stunning framed print.
You can use Lightroom or Photoshop for this purpose. Let us have a look at how you can use them.
Using Lightroom's Super Resolution feature is a quick way to enhance lower-resolution images and produce high-quality prints. You won't need to resize your image. Lightroom will automatically select the best-looking pixels to add, doubling the size and quadrupling the pixel count based on the picture's context. You can use the feature with various file formats, such as DNG, JPG, TIFF, and PNG.
- Improve the quality of an image by utilizing Photoshop
To achieve greater control over the resolution of your image, utilize the Super Resolution feature in Photoshop. Once applied, adjust your image further by refining it with tools like Sharpening, Noise Reduction, and Texture to achieve the desired outcome.
Traditional resampling is the best option to significantly alter the size or add a specific number of pixels to your original image.
There are two ways to change image size and number of pixels in Photoshop. With one, you can adjust both independently, and with the other, you can change one at a time while Photoshop automatically adjusts the other.
Check the Resample box if you need your image to have specific dimensions or size for printing purposes, like a poster. This allows you to adjust the print size and resolution separately, affecting the number of pixels in the image. Follow these steps to begin.
- Open your desired Image in Lightroom.
- Go to image> Image Size and enter the desired pixel size for your image.
- Ensure to activate the chain icon linking the Width and Height properties to maintain the current aspect ratio.
- Enter values for the Width and Height under Dimensions. You can find the new file size for the image at the top of the Image Size dialog box and the old file size in parentheses.
- Choose Resample from the options and then select a specific interpolation method.
- To scale the effects of styles applied to layers in your image, select Scale Styles under the gear icon. Please be aware that this choice is only accessible if Constrain Proportions has also been chosen.
- After your preferred options, click the OK button to resample your resized image.
You can adjust the dimensions or resolution without changing the pixel count to get a high-quality print. Photoshop will automatically adjust the other value for you when you make a change while keeping the aspect ratio and pixel count consistent. Follow these steps to do it.
- Open your desired Image in Photoshop.
- Go to image> Image Size and enter the desired print size for your image.
- To lock the current ratio of Width and Height, uncheck the Resample option.
- To adjust the size of the image, enter new values for both the height and width in Photoshop. The software will automatically update the resolution accordingly.
Select the most suitable interpolation method for upsampling.
The image quality can worsen when you resample an image, especially when you increase its size. However, you can reduce any undesirable pixelation by using the proper interpolation method, which is how software like Photoshop obtains color values for new pixels. Some of the most commonly used interpolation methods are:
The type of image determines the resampling method in Photoshop. For example, it will use bicubic interpolation for photographic images and bilinear for non-photographic ones.
This is the simplest of the three methods, which averages the values of pixels before and after resampling. It produces minimal artifacts but has a blurry effect on high-contrast edges.
This method considers more neighboring pixels than bilinear and produces better-quality results. However, it can produce some blurring in areas with low contrast.
The newest interpolation method uses machine learning to detect details like faces or foliage and adjust them without creating artifacts or distortion during resampling. This is great for preserving the detail and sharpness in your images.
Ending Note
With some simple steps, you can use Adobe Photoshop or Lightroom to achieve the desired quality of images. Try using Super Resolution and resampling to improve your older digital photos or enhance new ones. You can create stunning pictures to hang on your wall with some experimentation.
However, if you don't want to get into the hassle of editing and reediting your images, you can outsource your work to Beast Branding. We can create printable designs for your labels, get them printed, and apply them for you - all at affordable costs!