Please help me scale down images and keep sharpness!!

[narcisf85450815]

I have a really big problem with PS that i don t know how to figure it out.My problem is that my DSLR takes photos in 5184x2714 px and when i want to change the size for instagram for 1080x556 it's always blurry.I've tried all the ways:smart object,bars,everything and the picture in 1080x556 is awful.

Please help me!

[Leslie Moak Murray]

How are you going about reducing the size? Reducing the size should make it sharper. Did you try:

-Image>Image Size> and changing it from 300 dpi to 150dpi

-Save for Web or Export As or whatever the new way is that replaced "Save For Web"

OR:

Image>Image Size>and enter the dimensions you want.

Having said that, I thought Instagram displays images at 600x600 pixels.

[narcisf85450815]

It doesn't work.I have tried these before,but useless.I have tried also with bicubic,neighbour and also when i do what you said to me the photo is turning in a awful way.

[Leslie Moak Murray]

I assume the original image from your camera is 300dpi? Would you like to send it to me and I'll see what I can do with it?

[narcisf85450815]

It is 72 dpi.Thank you for your help.

I need my photo to be 1080x556 or 1080x1350,but I want it uncroped

[D Fosse]

This is about pixel sizes, not ppi.

Narcisf is on the right track. He/she needs to resample from 5184x2714, and down to 1080x556 - but is not happy with the result. That's it, that's the whole problem.

First of all, make sure you're viewing the result at 100%. Any on-screen scaling will soften the image, sometimes quite a lot.

I don't see any problems with the attached image. That said, a little careful sharpening, after the image has been resampled, will usually improve it. Not too much! It's just to tighten up edges that have been softened in the resampling process. A little goes a long way.

Avoid "Bicubic Automatic" or "Bicubic Sharper". They both overdo it and tend to introduce disturbing halos and artifacts. I always use "smoother" because it doesn't sharpen at all - and then I do my own sharpening.

[narcisf85450815]

It's not a problem with the image because it's the 5184 pixels version but when resizing it looks really terrible.I also have tried to create a new doc with the 1080x556 pixels and use smart object for the image,but also useless.I also used  bicubic and smoother,but useless.

[PECourtejoie]

The smart objects do not give a better scaling, they are mostly useful when scaling because they maintain all the pixels if you downscale, THEN rescale, see: https://youtu.be/G43M1FTMCsM?t=651

[davescm]

Forget ppi - that is just a meta data value used by a print driver to calculate print size from pixel size. It is irrelevant for web use which is all about pixel dimensions.

When you go from 5184 x 2714 to 1080 x 556 you are going from 14,069,376 pixels to 600,480 pixels. So the new pixel size can only hold 4.2 % of the image information that could be held in the larger size. You cannot lose 96% of image information without any deterioration. The best you can do is resize with an algorithm designed for reduction, such as Bicubic Sharper, and then live with the reduced image.

One additional note - apply any image sharpening after reduction not before or it will be lost.

Dave

[JJMack]

Are you sure the numbers you poster are what you see in Photoshop. For  5184x2714 is not a  3:2 or 4:3 or 16:9  aspect ratio what DSLR do you use? Also a constrain resize of  that image to 1080 wide would produce a image with a height  of 565. So if you use image resize to do an unconstrained resize to a height of 556 you distorted your image.  Perhaps Content aware resize might produce a more accessible image

[narcisf85450815]

I use a Canon 700D and I'm a begginer,because this is my first photo edited in PS and when exported and post it to instagram i was shocked of how pixelated it is.Could you tell me please what content aware means?

[PECourtejoie]

Could you post a link to the image on instagram, the image you posted here is fine.

You WILL lose details if you downscale. I concur about the numbers, they look strange.

You can find content aware scale in the edit menu, or if you use Ctrl+Shift+Alt+C (PC) Cmd+Shift+Option+C (Mac)

This allows a scaling of the image that extends the sky for instance, instead of the characters, if you are trying to convert a square image into a rectangular one, and vice versa.

See: https://blogs.adobe.com/jkost/2009/10/video-tutorial-photomerge-auto-align-and-content-aware-scale.h...

[narcisf85450815]

It looks like this when i use content aware. =((

[Test Screen Name]

Please post a screen shot. NOT a photo of the screen. 

[narcisf85450815]

This is how it looks after resizing:

[JJMack · Accepted solution]

Your Canon 700D camera has a 3:2 aspect ratio and captures an image 5184px x 3456px  can also output a 16:9 Crop image 5184px x 2912px.   You should use the 3:2  image  5184px nx 3456px and do your own cropping for the aspect ratio images you want.  First think about your post image content and its aspect ratio.  Do not be concerned at first about the number of pixels you want to post. What should be you first concern is the content you want to post. The composition of the images you are going to post.

I did a quick search for Instagram image sizes and found a nice link instagram image size guide2020  It has a chart the brakes the image size down to show kind, aspect ratio and the number of pixels.

What are the dimensions for Instagram?

Instagram video and photo sizes have varying dimensions depending on the orientation of the photo and tool it’s being posted with. Here’s a quick list of the most common Instagram photo and video dimensions:

Type of Instagram Post	Aspect Ratio	Instagram Post Size
Square Photo	1:1	1080 x 1080px
Landscape Photo	1.91:1	1080 x 608px
Portrait Photo	4:5	1080 x 1350px
Instagram Stories	9:16	1080 x 1920px
IGTV Cover Photo	1:1.55	420 x 654px
Instagram Square Video	1:1	1080 x 1080px
Instagram Landscape Video	1.91:1	1080 x 608px
Instagram Portrait Video	4:5	1080 x 1350px

So the steps you should do are:

1.) Decide what type of image you want to post from column 1

2.) Set the rectangle marquee tool to fixed Aspect Ratio use the numbers  shown in column 2.

3.) Draw out a selection around the image Content you want to post. Position it around the content for best composition.

4.) Use menu Image>Crop

5.) Use menu Image>Size...

6.) In the the Image Size dialog check Resample.

7.) Make sure the link icon shows width and height is liked constrained

8.) From chart column 3 enter the width or height Photoshop should set the other side correctly

9.) Check the interpolation setting is good  Auto should do.

10.) Click OK to commit the resize and save a jpeg to post on instagram. 

Instagram is not one of Adobe Share options.

Please not I did use the Crop tool it has features the can mess up beginners. The rectangle marquee tool set to fixed aspect ration should be good for selection your image composition. It easy to do over and position the selection by dragging inside the selection ants.

The problem you are having is composition. Landscape to portrait will not work you need to post a Landscape not a portrait 1080 x 1350px a landscape 1080 x 608px

Note: the Landscape Aspect Ratio in the chart is wrong  it should  be 1.78:1   not the one listed 1.91:1

The image image need to be cropped for instagram aspect ratio I set 540:304 in the marquee tool

[narcisf85450815]

Thank you so much !

[JJMack]

I just when to instagram site their help stater the 1.9:1 is correct that would make the height 566 not 608 but 608 will work for the help state 1080 wide  height 566 to 1350. Therefore, with that image you may want to post a square one 1080x1080 for viewing on displaye that can display 1080x1080px.  Here what I see in their help.

When I share a photo on Instagram, what's the image resolution?

When you share a photo on Instagram, regardless of whether you're using Instagram for iOS or Android, we make sure to upload it at the best quality resolution possible (up to a width of 1080 pixels).

When you share a photo that has a width between 320 and 1080 pixels, we keep that photo at its original resolution as long as the photo's aspect ratio is between 1.91:1 and 4:5 (a height between 566 and 1350 pixels with a width of 1080 pixels). If the aspect ratio of your photo isn't supported, it will be cropped to fit a supported ratio. If you share a photo at a lower resolution, we enlarge it to a width of 320 pixels. If you share a photo at a higher resolution, we size it down to a width of 1080 pixels.

If you want to make sure that your photo is shared with a width of 1080 pixels:

• Download the most recent version of the Instagram app.
• Upload a photo with a width of at least 1080 pixels with an aspect ratio between 1.91:1 and 4:5.
• Make sure you're using a phone with a high-quality camera as different phones have cameras of varying qualities.

[D Fosse]

I looked at the posted image again, and now I see a very blotchy and mottled sky that doesn't look good. Is that what you're concerned with, narcisf?

I have a hunch what caused this. It's probably a fairly noisy image to begin with - and then it has been resampled with "bicubic automatic" (which is the default). As I mentioned above, "bicubic automatic" tends to overdo it with very aggressive sharpening, and it often introduces unpleasant artifacts. Like here. Looked at more closely, the whole image looks oversharpened and full of halos.

Jpeg compression after resizing made it even worse.

[narcisf85450815]

It's not the sky.Look at this photo.

This is how it looks after resizing .I mean just zoom to see how bad it looks.

[Test Screen Name]

No, DON'T ZOOM. Did you not see the reply which said First of all, make sure you're viewing the result at 100%. ?

It's made of pixels. Zooming over 100% is made so you can see the pixels. So it will be pixellated, like everyone's photos if they zoom over 100%.

[narcisf85450815]

even zooming at 100,my photo is still bad =((

[Test Screen Name]

Looks fine to me. But I am not saying you are wrong. It's just that the photographer always sees things more closely. What should we be looking for?

[narcisf85450815]

I don't really know,but I really want this version to be exactly the same quality as the original one.I mean just look for the headvof the camel:the original looks great for me comparatively to this resized.

[davescm]

"I really want this version to be exactly the same quality as the original one"

As was explained earlier - you can't throw away 96% of pixels and have the exactly the same quality. In downsampling, information is always lost. Several pixels from the original are combined to form one pixel of the downsampled image. The fine detail in those separate pixels cannot be retained.

Dave