Upres update

[SRPcashie]

Hi all, 

I was searching through posts about upres in LR and PS and was wondering what the latest guidelines would be for upres'ing a high res raw file.  Are other 3rd party apps still better then Adobe's?  

Thanks, 

Mac Sequoia 15.5

LR 14.3.1

PS 26.7.0

[Conrad_C]

I haven’t used the third party apps so I don’t know if they’re better, but if you’re starting from a raw file, the best Adobe option is probably the Super Resolution option in the Detail panel in Camera Raw/Lightroom. That is a 2x upscale that uses machine learning/AI to enhance details using the original raw data.

All other options, especially in Photoshop (Super Zoom, Image Size resampling, etc.) either use the older, simpler algorithms such as Bicubic instead of machine learning, or aren’t using the original raw data.

[Srishti Bali]

Hi @SRPcashie

I second the suggestion shared by @Conrad_C. You can find more details on this topic here: – Enhance details in Camera Raw

Let us know if you have any further questions!

Regards,

Srishti

[SRPcashie]

Hi Srishti, How would you go from LR so that the edits to the image are applied to the raw file and go into Super Resolution?  Do you choose the resolution or is it automatically 2x the resolution?

[Srishti Bali]

Currently, there isn’t an option to select the resolution. It automatically scales the image dimensions linearly by 2x in both width and height.

[Conrad_C]

If you’re starting with a raw file in the current version of Lightroom Classic or Lightroom, you do not even have to send it to Photoshop. Just select Super Resolution as shown in the picture below. (Lightroom Classic shown, slightly different in Lightroom)

Super Resolution is 2x only. Other AI upscaler software may offer more choices. Or you can use a non-AI scaling method (such as setting dimensions in the Export dialog box in Lightroom Classic, or using the Photoshop command Image > Image Size) where you can set any dimensions you want. 

[SRPcashie]

is this better than a simple upres using PS and bicubic smoother?  I did both and I think the simple upres looks better.

[Conrad_C]

Super Resolution is supposed to be better, especially at more extreme enlargement amounts, because it uses machine learning to do a better job of preserving details in the upscaled results. The other ways just use algorithms so image details tend to fall apart faster as you increase the amount of upscaling.

But, ultimately, the best one is the one you think is the best.

That’s why they let you decide, and haven’t removed the old ones. Sometimes something like Bicubic is fast and sufficient; Bicubic is still used in many other features in Photoshop that have a scaling option like Save for Web or Free Transform.

Also, sometimes the best method depends on the content of the image. For example, for photographs Nearest Neighbor is a Resample option you never, ever want to use. But if you’re designing pixel art, Nearest Neighbor is the only one you want to use! So they let you choose.