[Irma]

Hi everyone,

I've been working with topaz filter lately to give a special touch to my pictures

The thing is that if I crop my picture with resolution 300pixels/inch the effect of topaz looks great! but the size of the image is very small.. (for printing)

These two images have the same treatment one with 300px resolution and the other one 240.





My question here is, I like much better the effect topaz makes in my pictures when they are 300px resolution, but I want to print them larger. What is going to happen when I want this picture printed let's say in a 30 x 20cms size?

Here is the same picture I posted with 300px resolution, back to 240px.



What would it be the best to do? Should I re size my picture to 300px resolution before my treatment and crop? I am a bit confused ....

Thanks for your help...

[Toad]

The Topaz filters (I have them all) seem to be variations on their excellent edge detection algorithm. Once the edges of the objects are identified, then the various filters apply effects that modify those edges in interesting ways - either by blurring them slightly, highlighting them, diffusing them, etc. etc.

While some of the effects can look really nice, they become quite obvious as you blow the photos up to any size where they are easily seen. I don't think this is a problem if your photos are abstract or otherwise stylized - but a friend of mine has had some of his work rejected from a gallery because the effects didn't survive being enlarged to 30"x20" size for more naturalistic subjects.

My advice: enlarge your work to its full target resolution *before* applying Topaz filters. That sequence of events doesn't really work very well with my standard workflow, however, because it is too slow to do visual experimentation on large files,

I love the Topaz filters, but it is probably best to be sparing with their use on any photo that you expect to be enlarging to any significant size - or alternately use them only on highly stylized enlargements.

[Irma]

Thanks so much Toad for your advice. I did some test today and I like what I got. Now I just need to print one or two in 20x30cms to see the effect in print.

I only had simplify but I bought the clean filter just recently and I like it. I have worked with this filter some architecture photography and the effect helps a lot to have clean edges. Sometimes I make the effect visible enough to make my picture look a bit cartoonish but I like it. When I don't want it so visible I follow your advice about fading the effect to dark or light and makes a lot of difference.

Thanks again for your comment Toad.

[Zig]

I agree: I would do any work like this at the actual output size rather than beforehand, as one would also amplify any inherent and unwanted artefacts.
I'm not very knowledgeable with this, yet my experience is that the bicubic "uprezzing" in CS, though adequate, is not on a par with Genuine Fractals by OnOne.
I don't know if that would be a good investment? Perhaps so if you intend a lot of larger printed output. Some of the OnOne software is decidedly glitchy but Genuine Fractals is, IMO, the best of the bunch.

[Irma]

Thanks Zig for your comment. and info about this program....

I have re sized my files with CS and so far they look fine. At the moment, I think I couldn't justify the purchase of this program...

I will print something large and see if I really need it...

[Kombisaurus]

I haven't used Topaz, but as a general rule I'd suggest keeping images in their highest resolution (not resampling at all) for as long as possible throughout your processing. I try to limit resampling to something that only gets done once as the final output stage. Every time you resample, errors are introduced and detail is lost or softened slightly. Products like Genuine Fractals are excellent, but they aren't magic.
However, I notice you were talking about resolution in terms of DPI rather than pixel dimensions. You do realise that you can change the DPI of your image without changing its pixel dimensions, resampling or causing any change in quality, right? In the "Image Size" Screen as shown in your post above, simply unclick the "Resample Image" check box and then change your DPI settings.
Depending on how the Topaz filter was written, it may examine either image dimensions or DPI, so changing the DPI without resampling may or may not have any effect on it's output. Try it and see.

[Irma]

Yes, I have tried and I like it!!

I did it as you recommended and I get my picture with 300 Res. and the same number of pixels . The size now is 36,98x24.xx cm.... I understand that would be my print size in a good resolution.

Thanks so much Adrian for your comment and advice. It really work great. Topaz worked perfect too, very fast and the effect was really good... I am very happy!

Still I have a problem here with the crop tool... I tried to make my crop in LR but sometimes I want to leave the crop to the end of my post processing. When I do it in CS the crop tool has the options 4in x 6 in 300res. so my picture again comes 15x10 cm. I understand that it is because it crops 4 in and not 4 x 6 ratio? If that is the case how can I make the crop tool to work only with 4 x 6 or 8 x 10 ratio?

My apologies to all of you for making so many question about this topic, but I am a bit lost...

[Zig]

Ah, Irma, in your "normal" rectangular marquee tool, there are options to crop by ratio or a specific size, and you can just put the numbers in the box. 6x4 can also be expressed as a ratio of 3:2, whereas 8x10 as a ratio of 4:5.
"Full frame" ratio is 3:2....16x12(inches or cm) is 4:3.....and anything square is 1:1...see?

[Irma]

Thanks a lot dear Zig!!

I'll try it right now..