Best Software for blowing up 2MP images?

"j" <thecathedral20022000 RemoveThis @yahoo.ca> wrote in message
news:1181885684.998465.30370@w5g2000hsg.googlegroups.com...
> Looking for simple to use software for blowing up 2MP digital images
> for printing 8x10 and larger.
>
> Has to be simple, no complicated settings and tinkering around just
> tell the software how
> large I'd like to print and have it do it enlarge the image with the
> best possible results.
>
> Preferably something who's main purpose is doing blowups of digital
> camera images so I don't
> have to have stuff installed I won't use anyways.
>
> Freeware or Commercial.
>
> Thanks.
>

Most any editor software can do what you want. Many printer supplied
software packages will allow you to choose the print size. So the answers
you will get are mostly going to be the personal preference of the
responder. Since you mention 8x10 and larger, you may want to look at Qimage
as it has a very good ability to print images over multiple pages.

Now, as to how good the end product will be, that is going to be a problem.
If you are not going for high quality images (such as art prints) an 8x10 is
possible. Larger than that is going to rapidly go down in quality. Some
programs are very good at guessing at what to insert in an image to make it
larger, but it is still trying to create data that does not exist. You will
not get an image that is as clear and detailed by blowing up a 2mp image as
you would by printing a 6mp image at the same print size.

There is one more concideration. The quality of the printer. Some printers
are better at giving acceptable large prints than others. So the same image
printed on two printers at 8x10, one may look good at arms length and the
other may not look good any closer than 4' viewing distance.

Good luck

Randy

==========
Randy Berbaum
Champaign, IL
 >> Stay informed about: Best Software for blowing up 2MP images? 

On 2007-06-14 22:34:44 -0700, j <thecathedral20022000.RemoveThis@yahoo.ca> said:

> Looking for simple to use software for blowing up 2MP digital images
> for printing 8x10 and larger.
>
> Has to be simple, no complicated settings and tinkering around just
> tell the software how
> large I'd like to print and have it do it enlarge the image with the
> best possible results.
>
> Preferably something who's main purpose is doing blowups of digital
> camera images so I don't
> have to have stuff installed I won't use anyways.
>
> Freeware or Commercial.
>
> Thanks.

OnOne's Genuine Fractals has long been considered to be the standard
and some stock photography companies have even specified it. However,
there are many products out there.
--
Waddling Eagle
World Famous Flight Instructor
 >> Stay informed about: Best Software for blowing up 2MP images? 

The images I want to enlarge are mostly of rain forests, mountains
and ocean in British Columbia
A lot of greens and browns and greys

All the shots were taken in late fall and winter so lots of overcast
skies and mist.
(Pretty much the same as Oregon and Seattle)

I will be printing at a professional lab (Black's , London drugs,
Futureshop, Walmart..etc)

Camera was Fujifilm A205 2MP

I don't want huge prints, mostly 8x10 and 20x16 whenever possible
without getting a melted crayon look of early colour laser printers.
Viewing distance will be at least 2.5 feet.

My system is a P3-650 with 128 MB of ram so I can't run anything that
requires
a newer system.
 >> Stay informed about: Best Software for blowing up 2MP images? 

"j" <thecathedral20022000.RemoveThis@yahoo.ca> wrote in message
news:1181885684.998465.30370@w5g2000hsg.googlegroups.com...
> Looking for simple to use software for blowing up 2MP digital images
> for printing 8x10 and larger.

Many say Qimage is excellent for scaling small images to larger print
sizes, and yes it does do it very well ...

http://www.ddisoftware.com/qimage/

.... in the help/docs there is a step-by-step example that should make
it very easy to simply make a large print; BUT, there are indeed a lot
of options which can be daunting so look through the faq/docs/help for
the examples.
 >> Stay informed about: Best Software for blowing up 2MP images? 

And lo, j <thecathedral20022000.TakeThisOut@yahoo.ca> emerged from the ether
and spake thus:
> Looking for simple to use software for blowing up 2MP digital images
> for printing 8x10 and larger.
>
> Has to be simple, no complicated settings and tinkering around just
> tell the software how
> large I'd like to print and have it do it enlarge the image with the
> best possible results.
>
> Preferably something who's main purpose is doing blowups of digital
> camera images so I don't
> have to have stuff installed I won't use anyways.
>
> Freeware or Commercial.
>
> Thanks.

I recommend AlienSkin BlowUp, which is a Photoshop plug-in. There are
a few others I can't remember the names of that may or may not do a
better job, but I've used BlowUp and have been very satisfied with the
results.

Its major contribution to scaling is maintaining the sharpness of hard
edges while not oversharpening softer features within the image;
something that takes more intelligence than simple bicubic algorithms.

It's not a silver bullet, but it should get 2MP images up to 8x10 in a
way that makes them very printable.

--
Aaron
http://www.fisheyegallery.com
http://www.singleservingphoto.com
 >> Stay informed about: Best Software for blowing up 2MP images? 

On Fri, 15 Jun 2007 11:47:12 -0700, j wrote:

> The images I want to enlarge are mostly of rain forests, mountains
> and ocean in British Columbia
> A lot of greens and browns and greys
>
> All the shots were taken in late fall and winter so lots of overcast
> skies and mist.
> (Pretty much the same as Oregon and Seattle)
>
> I will be printing at a professional lab (Black's , London drugs,
> Futureshop, Walmart..etc)
>
> Camera was Fujifilm A205 2MP
>
> I don't want huge prints, mostly 8x10 and 20x16 whenever possible
> without getting a melted crayon look of early colour laser printers.
> Viewing distance will be at least 2.5 feet.
>
> My system is a P3-650 with 128 MB of ram so I can't run anything that
> requires
> a newer system.

I would recommend you try some prints 'as is'. I really don't think you're
going to gain anything by more processing.
 >> Stay informed about: Best Software for blowing up 2MP images? 

In article <1181933232.003940.246590.DeleteThis@m36g2000hse.googlegroups.com>,
thecathedral20022000.DeleteThis@yahoo.ca says...
> The images I want to enlarge are mostly of rain forests, mountains
> and ocean in British Columbia
> A lot of greens and browns and greys
>
> All the shots were taken in late fall and winter so lots of overcast
> skies and mist.
> (Pretty much the same as Oregon and Seattle)
>
> I will be printing at a professional lab (Black's , London drugs,
> Futureshop, Walmart..etc)
>
> Camera was Fujifilm A205 2MP
>
> I don't want huge prints, mostly 8x10 and 20x16 whenever possible
> without getting a melted crayon look of early colour laser printers.
> Viewing distance will be at least 2.5 feet.
>
> My system is a P3-650 with 128 MB of ram so I can't run anything that
> requires
> a newer system.
>

In that case why not just take a file along to the lab and see what they
come up with..

I regularly used to print A4 from an Olympus 2100uz just letting my HP
printer's own software scale it to fit. Some of those are still on
people's walls..

T.
--
Do Binary Tripods have 11 legs ?
 >> Stay informed about: Best Software for blowing up 2MP images? 

j wrote:
> Looking for simple to use software for blowing up 2MP digital images
> for printing 8x10 and larger.
>
> Has to be simple, no complicated settings and tinkering around just
> tell the software how
> large I'd like to print and have it do it enlarge the image with the
> best possible results.
>
> Preferably something who's main purpose is doing blowups of digital
> camera images so I don't
> have to have stuff installed I won't use anyways.
>
> Freeware or Commercial.
>
> Thanks.
>

You could try this free upsizer program. The information is located at
the bottom of this page;

http://www.outbackphoto.com/filters/filters.html#upsizing

The procedure as given to me by a pro suggests;

a.) Crop first (if needed)
b.) unsharp
c.) resize (upsize)
d.) unsharp again (if needed)

I have used the DOP Upsizer on scanned slides with very good results.
Just a suggestion for something that might work for you.

sced13ri
 >> Stay informed about: Best Software for blowing up 2MP images? 

sced13ri wrote:
> j wrote:
>> Looking for simple to use software for blowing up 2MP digital images
>> for printing 8x10 and larger.
>>
>> Has to be simple, no complicated settings and tinkering around just
>> tell the software how
>> large I'd like to print and have it do it enlarge the image with the
>> best possible results.
>>
>> Preferably something who's main purpose is doing blowups of digital
>> camera images so I don't
>> have to have stuff installed I won't use anyways.
>>
>> Freeware or Commercial.
>>
>> Thanks.
>>
>
> You could try this free upsizer program. The information is located at
> the bottom of this page;
>
> http://www.outbackphoto.com/filters/filters.html#upsizing
>
> The procedure as given to me by a pro suggests;
>
> a.) Crop first (if needed)
> b.) unsharp
> c.) resize (upsize)
> d.) unsharp again (if needed)
>
> I have used the DOP Upsizer on scanned slides with very good results.
> Just a suggestion for something that might work for you.
>
> sced13ri

My bad! I forgot to mention this program is used as a plug-in for
Photoshop but, it works just as well in Photoshop Elements 3 and 5.
I have used it in both.

sced13ri
 >> Stay informed about: Best Software for blowing up 2MP images? 

> Looking for simple to use software for blowing up 2MP digital images
> for printing 8x10 and larger.
>
> Has to be simple, no complicated settings and tinkering around just
> tell the software how
> large I'd like to print and have it do it enlarge the image with the
> best possible results.
>
> Preferably something who's main purpose is doing blowups of digital
> camera images so I don't
> have to have stuff installed I won't use anyways.
>
> Freeware or Commercial.
>
> Thanks.
>

For free, Irfanview works really really well, you must use the Lanczos setting
in the image\resize dialog box. xnView is free and also has Lanczos.

Commercial, I use Genuine Fractals (in Photoshop CS3) from OnOne software
(it used to belong to "Lizard Tech"). But for less just buy Paint Shop Pro! GF
is $159 US and PSP is what...$110? PSP has an awesome algorythm for
enlarging digital images. That way you get another graphics program. Set up
cnews.corel.com and ask there.
--
}<)))*> Giant_Alex
cravdraa_at-yahoo_dot-com
not my site: http://www.e-sword.net/
 >> Stay informed about: Best Software for blowing up 2MP images? 

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 >> Stay informed about: Best Software for blowing up 2MP images? 

On Jun 15, 7:34 am, j <thecathedral20022....RemoveThis@yahoo.ca> wrote:
> Looking for simple to use software for blowing up 2MP digitalimages
> for printing 8x10 and larger.
>
> Has to be simple, no complicated settings and tinkering around just
> tell the software how
> large I'd like to print and have it do it enlarge the image with the
> best possible results.
>
> Preferably something who's main purpose is doing blowups of digital
> cameraimagesso I don't
> have to have stuff installed I won't use anyways.
>
> Freeware or Commercial.
>
> Thanks.

Try also Mihov Image Resizer: http://www.imageresizer.com/ - it's
free.

Miha.
 >> Stay informed about: Best Software for blowing up 2MP images?