[Noyb]

Has anyone actually seen any upsizing improvements using Fractals in Photoshop …
As compared to the Normal upsizing methods ??

It’s my impression that Fractals, as used in Photoshop, is merely a method of obtaining a high file size compression (and recovery) without any degradation.

Am I wrong ??

[hewee]

Say what? I did not know Photoshop did Fractals or you talking about a Plug-in?
Or are you importing then into Photoshop?

[Noyb]

Yes .. Genuine Fractals addition.
http://www.ononesoftware.com/detail.php?prodLine_id=2

I once was watching the Learning Channel, and one of the pioneers of Fractals (not the uni-bomber) was trying to describe (in my language) how Fractals worked.

He said, that in theory .. Fractals could recreate details in Images that weren't there originally.
Maybe NASA is using this technology ... but I don't think this technology is down to our level.
Maybe on one of the CSIs .. you think ??
Sounds like mind reading to me.

Slipe has mentioned upsizing using Fractals in a couple of other posts .. Now he's made me curious.

I've tried Genuine Fractals a couple of times .. and didn't see any reason to use it for upsizing images.
Did I miss something ??

It says it can upsize without degradation ... but that doesn't mean "Improving" .. (mind reading)

[buck52]

Originally Posted by Noyb

Slipe has mentioned upsizing using Fractals in a couple of other posts .. Now he's made me curious.

I've tried Genuine Fractals a couple of times .. and didn't see any reason to use it for upsizing images.
Did I miss something ??

In my opinion NO...

I have both GF as a stand alone as well as a plugin for PS...
The phrase splitting hairs comes to mind

slipe will no doubt come back with a great detailed post but...I'll stand by my splitting hairs comment as well as the prints I sell...


buck

[Noyb]

I was hoping Slipe would Jump in ... I didn't want to HiJack another post with this conversation.
http://forums.techguy.org/digital-ph...-pictures.html

[buck52]

Originally Posted by Noyb

I was hoping Slipe would Jump in ...

He will

[slipe]

I hate to be so predictable.

I have actually done several tests between GF, Stepped Interpolation (SI) and Alien Skin Blow Up. There was also a tutorial on Luminous Landscape for a method using an oversize with Bicubic Smoother followed by a 20% downsample to the target size using Bicubic Sharper.

I generally agree with Buck that you are splitting hairs rather than doing magic. I have read some absurd posts concerning the abilities of GF in making an image ten times larger with great sharpness and detail. A 5 Mp image has only 5Mp of detail and you can’t make a silk purse from a sow’s ear.

You do get better results with GF than with any combination of Bicubic, Smoother or Sharper. But the differences are subtle. Some images look better with SI, but it takes longer to run on a large image. Blow Up has a decent sharpener built in which I don’t usually use. It also has the ability to add noise, which seems to help an extreme blow up even though it isn’t intuitive. But then again nothing is as non-intuitive as SI.

None of them will add detail. If you look at an extreme blow up after an upsample you will see that both GF and SI add artifacts that actually lower the detail but give the impression of increasing it.

[blaqDeaph]

Basically, NONE of these programs will do anything to increase what you had in the original image. All they can do is try to guess and interpolate what might have been there if there were more data.

The whole illusion of those Alias shows where they can expand a little crop out of a low res CCTV image to fit the entire screen is totally false.

Personally I've used GF and it seems to perform well up to 300%, then you can really start to see that it doesnt do much better than any of the built in options in ps

[Noyb]

Sounds like Ya'll agree with my assumption ...
GF is only good for compressing the psd .. and recovering without loss of detail.
Not worth it if you have a lot of disc space.
As far as upsizing ... forget it.
Would this about wrap it up ???

[slipe]

Originally Posted by Noyb

Sounds like Ya'll agree with my assumption ...
GF is only good for compressing the psd .. and recovering without loss of detail.
Not worth it if you have a lot of disc space.
As far as upsizing ... forget it.
Would this about wrap it up ???

I don’t agree with that at all. GF will upsize an image better than any of the built-in Photoshop resample filters. You will end up with a better print doing an upsample with GF. I am just saying you will not end up with a lot better print. Nor will GF do some of the magic I’ve seen claimed for it.

I think it is overpriced if you don’t have need for the compression capabilities. Qimage will probably do as good an upsample and has a lot of extra capabilities at a fraction of the price.

[Noyb]

I've misunderstood something along the way ... Thanks for the correction.
I think can see a difference when zooming into the eye and fence ...

Photoshop ... http://anym.home.insightbb.com/Laura01.jpg

Genuine Fractals .... http://anym.home.insightbb.com/Laura01gf.jpg
But these weren't upsized too far.

[slipe]

I don’t see any difference in your samples.

These are two that are blow-ups taken from one of Steve’s DSLR tests. They show just a tiny portion of an image that are a little over 2X from the original. You can see the difference, especially in the railing. The first is bicubic and the second GF.

[hewee]

I can see a difference but only in the darker background. It seem to add more brown colors.

On other the railing and sign you can see the difference.

[Noyb]

That may be misleading .. I probably adjusted the Shadow/Highlites differently.
Hummm .. I thought I saw a bigger difference before I uploaded them.
Now ... I don't see any difference either.

This is actually working on Laura's Calendar pictures .... trying to fine tune some procedures.
http://forums.techguy.org/digital-ph...-pictures.html

[hewee]

Well what you seen when doing it in Photoshop could of shown more of a difference but then saving it as a jpg you losted part of it.
Zoom way in to the upper right or left and you see the added brown colors.