Anyone have any experience with this program that claims it can enlarge images up to 1000x with no loss of detail?
(sale until june 8 - $99 for th pro version)
I haven't used the software since I demo'ed it a few years ago Sandy. The general consensus I've read is that it only provides a benefit over standard software (Photoshop, for one) in a few limited cases. That was my feeling too in very limited usage.
Overall, unless you have some particular failing with Photoshop you see, I wouldn't bother with other software. Enlarging without losing detail is relatively easy - but there are trade-offs as in most things. So while other software may improve on some points, it may fail on others. Any overall gains I've seen from other software (or unique algorithms like Lanzcos) are very minimal, and I don't know that you'd ever notice them in print.
Here's a series of columns from The Online Photographer that are getting a pretty old now, but give some good insight, or maybe give you some things to try yourself if you want to demo the software :
Hi Sandy! I doubt I'm the most qualified to respond to this, but my findings were pretty much what David reported above. I dowloaded the trial to use on an image of Jenaya's that had been selected to be displayed in the Canadian Museum of Nature. It was a moderate crop shot on her D70s and I thought I'd better do everything I could to maintain as high an IQ as possible in the resulting print. It did a fine job, but I couldn't see a difference from my original attempts with PS CS5. I printed a full-res slice from each file and couldn't see the difference there either! Of course, I was only using the trial so surely hadn't mastered all the potential benefits, and I note Scott Kelby and others have suggested you really don't begin seeing appreciable benefits on upsizing under 300%.
In any event, I couldn't justify the cost for the extremely rare times we would need it at the time (and frankly was quite impressed with how far PS had come in recent generations!)
Hopefully someone who does use this for mega upsizing can weigh in and tell us all why it's the best thing since Velvia for big prints.
I've been using Genuine Fractals for years now.
I believe it's superior to the other methods, at the range I apply it..
As far as mega resizing I can't comment.
But at the approx.1.5x or less of re-sample I use it's the best IMO.
That's my two cents Sandy
Posted by Dottie Short on June 6, 2012 at 10:28 AM
Sandy, I use it but have not enlarged images to any great degree. I use it when I want to have one of my images printed on to canvas and wrapped around a 2 inch thick board. I don't want to loose any of the subject in the printing process and Perfect Resize 7 adds a mirror image the appropriate depth of the board around the perimeter of the photo. It's easy to use and I could not be without it. I've found that 'plugins' are much easier to use than doing the same thing in the host applications. Of course there is the cost factor, but my time has value too.
This product built a solid reputation as Genuine Fractals, before OnOne decided to name their products Perfect this-that-and-the-other-thing. I have used it both before and since its rebranding with really good results. Never tried to enlarge by 1000x though. This is from a company that has been really good about version updates and and new version upgrade prices.
Posted by Paul DeCesare on June 22, 2012 at 12:36 PM
Hi Sandy, I'm a little late with this but wanted to jump in with a couple thoughts. I did buy the whole Perfect Suite 6.0 (which is on sale for $199 which is far better than $99 for one program). Last Fall I had to make a 3-foot-wide canvas wrap for a client, so I did the upsizing work myself and saved the file in the TIFF format that my local printing lab wants. Then I went back and used Perfect Resize to accomplish the same result and saved THAT out in the same format the lab requires. When I got to the lab, I told them what I had done, and had them open both files and inspect them at 100% and tell me which one they felt would work better for this canvas wrap project. Their conclusion was that the two files were nearly identical and both would work equally well. So the conclusion is simply convenience; if you want to open a plug-in and have it take care of the upsize in 15 seconds, you can trust that it will work as expected. The time-saving alone is worth $99 to me, lol. Or, if someone is newer to post production and they have to enlarge some images and aren't sure what all the steps are, WHAM, let Resize do the grunt work. The important thing is that Resize only does what Photoshop lets you do, it doesn't create this magical amazing 10 foot image from your source file. It just automates the process, doing the best things possible that Photoshop allows, if that makes sense.
I will say that the entire suite for $199 (when it's on sale) is a killer must-have plug-in suite. I use Perfect Effects a LOT as well as Perfect Portrait, plus I saw a demo of the Masking module and it works as good or better than CS5's Refined Mask tool. Then if you use Lightroom you also get the Layers module. I sound like I work for them, lol! But between the Perfect Suite and Nik's CEP4 and Viveza 2, thise plugins cover everything I need.
Discussion
6 replies(sale until june 8 - $99 for th pro version)
Any comments greatly ppreciated!
//www.ononesoftware.com/products/suite/perfect-resize/?ind&gclid=COOQ5LDZt7ACFQkaQgodcW377Q
Thanks!
Overall, unless you have some particular failing with Photoshop you see, I wouldn't bother with other software. Enlarging without losing detail is relatively easy - but there are trade-offs as in most things. So while other software may improve on some points, it may fail on others. Any overall gains I've seen from other software (or unique algorithms like Lanzcos) are very minimal, and I don't know that you'd ever notice them in print.
Here's a series of columns from The Online Photographer that are getting a pretty old now, but give some good insight, or maybe give you some things to try yourself if you want to demo the software :
http://theonlinephotographer.typepad.com/the_online_photographer/2008/02/its-bigger-but.html
http://theonlinephotographer.typepad.com/the_online_photographer/2008/03/its-bigger-but.html
http://theonlinephotographer.typepad.com/the_online_photographer/2008/03/its-bigger-bu-1.html
In any event, I couldn't justify the cost for the extremely rare times we would need it at the time (and frankly was quite impressed with how far PS had come in recent generations!)
Hopefully someone who does use this for mega upsizing can weigh in and tell us all why it's the best thing since Velvia for big prints.
I believe it's superior to the other methods, at the range I apply it..
As far as mega resizing I can't comment.
But at the approx.1.5x or less of re-sample I use it's the best IMO.
That's my two cents Sandy
This product built a solid reputation as Genuine Fractals, before OnOne decided to name their products Perfect this-that-and-the-other-thing. I have used it both before and since its rebranding with really good results. Never tried to enlarge by 1000x though. This is from a company that has been really good about version updates and and new version upgrade prices.
I will say that the entire suite for $199 (when it's on sale) is a killer must-have plug-in suite. I use Perfect Effects a LOT as well as Perfect Portrait, plus I saw a demo of the Masking module and it works as good or better than CS5's Refined Mask tool. Then if you use Lightroom you also get the Layers module. I sound like I work for them, lol! But between the Perfect Suite and Nik's CEP4 and Viveza 2, thise plugins cover everything I need.