How to Use Photoshop Super Resolution Image Enlarger
We all know that when you make a small image bigger using Photoshop then the result is a blurry and pixelated photo…
Sure, it’s bigger by the pixel dimensions, but the quality is still low.
Fortunately, the brilliant minds at Adobe were well aware of this problem and now developed a tool called “Super Resolution” right into the newest Photoshop 2021 Camera Raw tool.
Using this feature allows you to double the size of your image and with the assistance of AI (learnings based on real image sampling data), the quality of the image will also remain considerably okay when you enlarge your image.
Technically speaking, the Super Resolution tool will:
- Double the resolution of your photo
- Make a picture twice the width and twice the height of the original photo
- 4X the total pixel count. For example, a 16 megapixels photo will result in a 64 megapixel image
So here is the quickest and easiest way to use Super Resolution to enlarge your images using only Photoshop (with Camera Raw):
1) In Photoshop, click the File menu and choose Open as.
2) Navigate to your image and select it. Then click the small dropdown menu and choose Open as Camera Raw. Then click Open.
3) Once the image has loaded, right-click anywhere on the picture and choose Enhance from the menu.
4) Photoshop will now start doing the magic and it can take quite a bit of time. You can see small preview areas of the progress by panning around the image, but you can also click the Enhance button to complete the image.
5) This step will also take time, but once completed, another copy of the image will appear in the menu, where you can compare the images side by side and save the new version as a JPG image (right-click and choose Save Image).
Super Resolution Conclusion
Overall the tool seems to work pretty well, compared to the regular image enlarging and resize methods and really does make the picture sharp and realistic.
If your interested in reading more how and why this effect works, then there’s a pretty good story from the guys who actually built and made Super Resolution in Photoshop and an article from a photographer Michael Clark, who also did some detailed testing with the tool (with great visual examples)
We even tried resizing and enlarging the same photo multiple times (save as JPG, then import again as new) but of course, the results are not that good if you process the image many times.
So here was a quick tutorial about enlarging your images… What are you waiting for? Jump into photoshop and give it a try.
