Digital BW, The Print

Louis,
I feel I'd like to thank you for your contribution.. Your point is very well 
spoken an also perfectly illustrated to get your point across. Which also 
brings us to what  we as artists are after when "we" ...."tweak" our 
images.. artificially adding perceived sharpness is usually at a price.. 
added contrast.  So I think what is missing in this series of posts is what 
we as photographers and artists must do with these fancy tools that are now 
available.. and to me that means not just letting the tool  decide the 
image.. but rather use the adjustments inside the tool not the default 
setting to obtain the very look we are after.  Your highlight example in the 
shell image is perfect...... it went to far and the price was too high. Yet 
I found the angular portion of shell in the lower right third an example of 
being right on the edge maybe. Almost as if the edge were honed.. LOL.. 
Anyway.. I think regarding focusing to much on perceived sharpness is very 
well taken .. It's the image and it's feel as a whole that matters.. 
Sometimes we as artists get to caught up in a technical area of the craft 
such as sharpness and then measure the image's success using just that.. bad 
move.. In my post I suggested a sharpening mask using the find edges 
technique.. As far as obtaining sharpness goes I feel that is the best 
technique for me.. each of the steps is adjustable by the user to obtain the 
effect their after.. One of which is applying a bit of Gaussian blur to the 
mask to prevent the example you brought forth.. Anyway here I like using  GF 
and this technique if necessary to get the look I'm after.. but I am going 
to download Ben Vista to play with it ...why not?

jimbo
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Louis de Stoutz" <loudest@...>
To: <DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Friday, October 29, 2010 6:24 AM
Subject: Re: [Digital BW] Genuine Fractals Resizing for printing?


> Very interesting subject.
>
> To me, the question is not only what looks sharper, but also what looks
> more natural. In photography, I've come to accept the limits of film and
> optics as looking "natural". What I'm concerned with, looking at the
> output of Genuine Fractals and Benvista, is that they have an edge
> sharpness that does not seem to correspond to the level of details shown
> within surfaces.
>
> Looking at Paul's samples, I do not see significantly more details in GF
> than I do in CS5 bicubic, though in GF the details, and especially the
> shapes, have significantly sharper outlines. This leads to a look
> comparable to "airbrush with masks", where smooth gradients are abruptly
> stopped by the mask. In other words, GF looks less photographic and more
> illustrative than bicubic does.
>
> What I find really unacceptable though is, if you have a look at the
> Benvista samples on
>
> http://www.benvista.com/photozoompro/examples
>
> and check out the shell still-life: look at that narrow vertical
> highlight on the shell-edge in the lower left corner of the picture. In
> bicubic you can see its shading, which gives the edge some
> three-dimensionality. Benvista turns this into an almost uniformly
> white, though very sharp blob, which reminds me of those "artistic"
> watercolor filters in PS.
>
> Of course, all of this is being viewed highly magnified on screen, and
> what really counts is what it looks like in the print, so any valid
> comparison should be done there.
>
>
> Just my 2 centimes,
> Louis
> Zurich, Switzerland
>
> (P.S. Paul, let me take the opportunity to warmly thank you for your
> many and always very valuable contributions to this list!)
>
>
>
> On 29.10.2010 04:15, Paul wrote:
>> (I hope this is not too far off the forum's scope.)
>>
>> In searching for the best way to make the sharpest print I can, I've 
>> taken a quick look at Genuine Fractals re-sizing software.
>>
>> I think it may do a better job of up-sizing images to 720 dpi for 
>> printing than if left to the printer software.
>>
>> A comparison sample of image files is here:
>> http://www.paulroark.com/BW-Info/GF.jpg
>>
>>
>> In the past I've thought that GF preserves edges better than the 
>> alternatives, but I have not done a recent survey of the alternatives. 
>> The GF image in the sample, above, does look better to me than the 
>> bicubic method, which is what I'd guess printer software uses.
>>
>> Paul
>> www.PaulRoark.com
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
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>
> ------------------------------------
>
> Please visit the Group Homepage to check the Files, and other resources as 
> they are often being updated.
>
> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint
>
> If you wish to receive no emails or just a daily digest, or you wish to 
> unsubscribe, please edit your Membership preferences by visiting this same 
> page.
>
> Please follow these basic guidelines:
> - As threads develop, trim off excess portions of earlier messages to keep 
> them short.
> - Good manners are required at all time. No personal attacks or flames. 
> Hostile, aggressive or argumentative users may be removed from the 
> membership without notice.
> - Keep your posts and threads related to the group topic of digital B&W 
> printing. Users who persistently make off-topic posts may be removed from 
> the membership.
> - By posting on this forum you agree to abide by the group rules and 
> guidelines, and to abide by the actions and decisions of the group Owner 
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