Tutorial: Enlarging Images Cleanly In Photoshop

[TheShaner]

I thought I would share with everyone my method for enlarging photos found on the web that are intended for use in cabinet artwork. This wont work for every image, but does a pretty good job on most.  This only works on Photoshop CS6...

Typically what you are able to find out there on the web is artwork that is rendered at 72 pixels per inch.  This looks good on screen ...



But when you bump it up to 300ppi and zoom in to 100%, you can see all kinds of garbage.  This is typical.



If you have photoshop PS CS6 though, you can use the Oil Paint filter to correct this.  It will smooth out the lines after you have increased the size of the picture.  You will need to play with the settings a little, but as a rule, you are cranking down the shine, bumping up the clean, and playing with the stylization.

Here are the settings I used for this image:



The result, nice and smooth.



Most pictures will lose a little of their depth during this process, so it is usually a good idea to put a levels adjustment layer in place and bring in the high and low just a bit:



There we go, all ready for print!

[shponglefan]

Very nice.  I wonder if it's possible to do something similar in earlier versions of Photoshop w/ other filters since AFAIK the Oil Paint filter is new to CS6?

[Vebbo]

Nice tut TheShaner 

[edekoning]

Thanks a lot for this tutorial. It was a big big help to me: http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,119175.msg1312571.html#msg1312571

[Toadie]

Excellent post and a must for anyone designing their own CP graphics

[emphatic]

I use Smart Blur or Surface Blur then some sharpening myself for this. I will try this filter though.