Photoshop reducing art quality, creating blurry prints.

[Emilywallartwork]

I'm trying to create watercolour prints of my artwork. So far I've been opening the photo of my artwork in photoshop as a smart object, and then dragging it onto a blank PSD that I've created at A3+ size, since this is the size of the paper I'm using. 

I spend a while carefully rubbing out around the edge of each painting and removing the background, so that only my subject prints. I'm printing around 4-6 of each on one sheet of paper, so the artwork itself is not blown up (which would explain it) it's generally between 3-6 inches 

I'm printing at 300ppi. The image I'm working on right now (before having the background removed) is 2986 x 3875 pixels, and 240dpi. All my other images are similar. 

I've noticed that if I open the original image (still with its background) in Lightroom, when zooming in, it's sharp. But if I open a PSD of the image with the background removed, the subject is slightly blurry. 

I have tried printing in lightroom, however the prints keep coming out extremely oversaturated. Either way, using photoshop and removing the background seems to be ruining my sharpness. What can I do? 

[Emilywallartwork]

wonderful reply, thaankyou so much. I'll try this. one more question if you don't mind. I need to make the image a certain size, but i also need to dupicate it, and then evenly space these on  a canvas so that I can print on a big sheet of paper, and create say, 4 evenly spaced prints. How would you go about this? Since I'm not using a large canvas 

[davescm]

Do the steps above then go to Image> Canvas size and extend the canvas as required. Duplicate the image layer (Ctrl+J) and move it across the canvas. Repeat twice so you have 4. Select all four image layers and use the align option in the tool bar to space them evenly

Dave

[Emilywallartwork]

wonderful, thanks so much again. I'll report back with results tomorrow.

[JJMack]

You need to understand when you resample (interpolate) your image to have a a different number of Pixels you lose some image quality.  You no longer have your original image, your have new resampled image and its quality is  not as good as the image you started from.  If you reduce  the number of pixels you had discard some image detail the you had in the original image. For there are fewer pixels to store image details.  If you increase the number of pixels the interpolation method had to create details you do not have for the details in the larger image.   The best pixels you will have for your image are the Pixels you get from your scanner or Camera they were capture using  a device that actually scans and copies your painting or captures an image of you painting using a good lens,  sensor and firmware.  When you interpolate your image. Only your  scan or capture image is available for the resizing.  You painting is not available so it can be recaptured with required resolution detail for the number of pixels you require.

When you scale the Print size  you do not resample you image. You just change the Print resolution. That is you change the Pixel size used printing the Image.  The print size changes The image size and File size do not change not a pixel is change added or removed.  Displays can not change the size of pixels they display images they can not display you image different sizes.  Applications have to create smaller  or larger scaled versions of your image.  Photoshop zooming does that. You only see your actual image when zoomed to 100% where you see all or some of your image's actual pixels at your displays PPI.

[Emilywallartwork]

is there a way to revert my images back to their original size and sharpness? after rubbing out the background i've resized them the wrong way (yesterday) and wanted to save myself the time of removing the background again. I've saved and closed the documents so the history on the side is not available 

[davescm]

Unfortunately not. The exceptions would be :

1. You still had Photoshop and the document open

or

2. You had put the image layer(s) in a smart object before resizing. Then you could restore the original size.

But assuming that neither of those apply , then pre-resizing version is gone.

Dave

[Emilywallartwork]

So, I made some prints the way you suggested, used only image size to adjust them. the results  are....worse. the prints are more blurry than before, somehow. I used a frame to size the outline (not the image, that stayed the same) so that i could make them evenly spaced.  Now I have no idea what to do. I checked them all at 100% zoom and they were perfectly sharp, but printing them has made them worse  than when i was using transform>scale

[Emilywallartwork]

Any ideas on how to fix the print issue? It's better on screen, but the prints are worse 

[JJMack]

At 100% zoom your print image should be larger then what can fit on your display. Only part of your image should be displayed and it size on your display  will be larger on your display then that part is in the your print.

If this is not what you see you are comparing different images.

[Emilywallartwork]

yes, it's much larger at zoom. when i print this, the prints are less sharp than when i originally opened this thread, despite using dave's resizing method. 

[War Unicorn]

If the image looks fine at 100% but doesn't look so good printing out, my first gut reaction is: How is the print quality on the printer? If you took that same document and tried printing it via another app, is the print quality the same?

[Emilywallartwork]

it's a brand new canon pixma pro 100s, so the print quality should be top teir. I haven't tried printing it fro another app, can you suggest one? lightroom doesn't print well

[davescm]

Hi Emily

Can you confirm when you used image size that you did not check resample.

Also can you post a link to the PSD file (if you save it to your Creative Cloud Files folder you should be able to go online and get a "share" link). If you would prefer to do that via PM I'll watch for it. I'd like to see how it prints here

While experimenting you can save paper by cropping (without resizing) and printing small sections

Dave

[Emilywallartwork]

Hi Dave, yes, i made sure not uncheck resample. here's the link, and i appreciate the help. I'm printng on fine art paper, if that's relevant. and I've selected the correct printer profile. here's the link, I think. https://adobe.ly/36WezvT

[davescm]

That should print at 19.015 x 12.952 and 691 ppi

Can you confirm that you are not scaling in the printer driver - check Photoshop printer settings position and size and also the Canon print settings to ensure no scaling is being applied

Dave

[Emilywallartwork]

inches? yes, that's about the paper dimensions. here's what i see when I'm printing. 

[davescm]

Hi

Can you show two more screenshots please.

1. The Photoshop print dialogue "Colour management" settings

2. The Canon printer driver dialogue "Print Options"

Thanks

Dave

[davescm · Accepted solution]

You sent me the two screenshots and they showed nothing untoward.

There is one more possibility that I can't test here as I use an Epson P5000 printer , not a Canon.

The Canon print driver could be scaling internally and, in doing so, softening the image.

So as a final step, try this:

a. Use Photoshop Image >Image Size with resample checked and resample set to Automatic to change the resolution to 300ppi which IIRC was the "native " driver resolution for Canon. Try a test print.

If that is still soft try a small amount of print sharpening.

So after step a. (resampling to 300ppi) put all the layers in a single smart object and go to Filter > Sharpen >Unsharp mask. Try Amount 90% Radius 1.0 and Threshold 0%

Try a second test print and compare the output to the unsharpened Photoshop version (step back in history)

Dave

[Emilywallartwork]

Using auto size, and some sharpening seems to be doing the trick, i've tried it on 2 prints. thanks again for the advice, i can finally do my prints properly! 

[davescm]

Thanks for confirming. It sounds like the print driver was indeed doing some scaling. At least doing it in Photoshop you get to control it. A little extra sharpening before printing is not unusual. The trick is not to overdo it.

Dave

[Emilywallartwork]

Thanks everyone for your advice and replies. I'll report back tomorrow with the results.