This is a question about how BEST to handle a situation.
Image 5616x3744. I want to use a section ~1820x2300 to make an 11x14 print at 240ppi.
I did basic processing in Lightroom, then additional processing in Photoshop. From Photoshop I invoked the Photo AI plug-in and did noise reduction and sharpening in Photo AI. It is not possible to do an upscale from the Photoshop plug-in, so I saved the finished image in 1X back to Lightroom.
I ALSO saved the PRE-Photo AI image to Lightroom then ran Photo AI on that image from Lightroom, upscaling to 2X and doing what normal noise reduction and sharpening - I’ve found in recent tests that minimizing ALL the values in the upscale section and doing “normal” noise reduction and sharpening works best with V2. I used the same settings for noise reduction and sharpening on both images.
After all the processing, crops were 1824x2322 for the NON-upscaled image and 3649x4644 for the upscaled image. I exported both images to 14x11@240ppi, so the non-upscaled image was increased by 45% and the upscaled image was decreased by about 38%.
When I LOOKED at the images at 100%, the noise appeared the same on both images, but the undersized image was sharper - not much but at 100% it’s perceptible.
This SEEMS backward to me UNLESS I need to process the upscaled and non-upscaled images differently, but when IN Photo AI at 100% they looked the same as near as I could tell.
So, after all that, the question: In a case where you have the choice of upscaling the image in Photo AI then having it shrunk to fit the output versus NOT upscaling in Photo AI and increasing the size when it’s exported from Lightroom, is there a “better” method?
Cool. I did not know they’d done that… Any chance it’ll make it to the filter? My brain does not embrace change - like having to got the File menu and plug-ins to use the one in Lightroom… I’ll try the one in Photoshop to see how THAT affects appearance.
I don’t have a definitive answer for which workflow is better. I’ve seen users do both interchangeably and it depends on your personal preference. Please give the automate plugin a try and see if that works for your needs.
Yup… Ran the same image from Photoshop using the plug-in. did it with and without the upscaling.
And, of course, since the NON-upscaled image was better the other day, the UPSCALED image is better THIS time!!! The only difference is running it both ways from Photoshop.
In the end, I’m doing the comparisons at 100%, and even there the differences, although perceptible are hardly problematic… If there’s no clear “best” way with reasons why, I’m not going to worry about it. 75% of the time I run Photo AI on the RAW image and can do minor fiddling in Photoshop on the output. It’s only when I have to do bigger things like removing a tree limb from behind the subject that I try to do it BEFORE going to Photo AI.
If anybody DOES have a reason or reasons for using one method over the other, let me know!
The automate plugin works and I was able to upscale the image. Hopefully, this capability will move to the Filter soon 'cause having to go to different places for the same tool is a pain in the neck.
