Great software for stills

mudsmith wrote on 5/26/2012, 7:02 PM
While waiting for feedback on my probably too frequently posted issues, I wanted to put a little plug (not plugin) out there for OnOne software's new package for working with stills.

All of their stuff was originally designed to work with Photoshop, but their new 6.1 Suite can work standalone, with some caveats.

In our situation, we had a short deadline to put together a trailer I have been talking about here more or less endlessly, and this trailer includes multiple historic stills that we can only use for free at a truly crappy 72dpi, plus a bunch of new, hi resolution stills.....Both needed, in some instances, some fairly heavy zoom, pan and/or crop....in some instances this had to be animated.

Part of the OnOne suite is a program called Resize that utilizes fractal geometry to give you greater resolution. The effect on the 72dpi historical stuff is nothing less than stunning. By simply increasing the number of pixels in one dimension by a factor of 4, not only do the stills look absolutely fine in a hidef display on a 42 inch screen, but fairly extreme zooms look great, too......The effect on the modern hires stills was even more phenomenal.

Although it took us a minute to get the rules of the road straight on my computer (which does not yet have Photoshop on it), things ultimately worked quite well, and the OnOne folks were more than willing to give great phone support.

I bought the whole Suite, but Resize is available separately for not too much dough.

Simply increasing the size/res in Photoshop (on my partners computer) did not seem to yield results that were anywhere near as satisfying.

Comments

Steve_Rhoden wrote on 5/26/2012, 11:23 PM
You sure you dont work for onone software?....lol
Opampman wrote on 5/27/2012, 8:50 AM
I see from looking at their web site Resize appears to be an updated version of Genuine Fractals. I certainly don't work for OnOne, but I can attest to the voodoo that Genuine Fractals use to do and I would assume, Resize does. I got a free copy of Genuine Fractals years ago in a magazine promotion that allowed 10 free uses (within Photoshop). I had a project going on to create some large blowups for a backdrop on a TV set. The client provided me with 125k digital files and wanted them blown up to 30x40 inches. After printing one out on my Epson photo plotter they were so pixellated that they were unusable. The client had no other source for the material so I tried various forms of resizing. Nothing worked. Then, I remembered the free Genuine Fractals disc, loaded it into Photoshop and printed a test. It was absolutely mind-blowing... amazing! While I know it sounds impossible, the detail in the 30x40 prints looked sharper and more detailed that the original 3x5 sample prints. So, if indeed Resize is a remake of Genuine Fractals, then I'm placing my order today. The only reason I didn't buy it after trying the original years ago is that it was too expensive. Now, I can justify it even for occasional use.

Kent
mudsmith wrote on 5/27/2012, 12:36 PM
The whole deal about fractal geometry is that the better fractal algorithms actually produce encode/decode pictures with greater resolution than the originals. In other words, you get detail beyond the point in the original where you would zoom in and have nothing but pixel blocks.

It seems like magic, but my personal belief is simply that fractals describe the limits of our abilities to describe images in our brains, so.....

The best fractal formulas are most likely in the hands of the military, but the patented fractals used in Resize seem to do a pretty good job for the money you spend.
Laurence wrote on 5/27/2012, 1:39 PM
I've been using PhotZoom Pro for resizing stills for years. They're up to version 4 now. One thing I love is the option to zoom while reducing jpeg artifacts. Awesome software that I use all the time.
Guy S. wrote on 5/29/2012, 12:25 PM
Thanks for the heads up on Resize and PhotZoom Pro. Your timing was perfect - this is exactly what I need for a project I'm working on.