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Photoshop reducing art quality, creating blurry prints.

Forum|Forum|6 years ago
January 13, 2020
6 replies
10783 views

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?

Problem or error

Correct answer davescm

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 Author

Participating Frequently

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

JJMack

Community Expert

You only see your actual image when you view your images actual pixels that is zoomed to 100% size. At any other zoom percentage you are not newing you image at all you are viewing an image that was quickly scaled from you image. At some percentages the scaling can be quite poor. The eraser tool can easily create soft feathered edges. Many eraser setting will produce soft feathered edges.

JJMack

Emilywallartwork Author

Participating Frequently

but feathered edges wouldn't make the whole thing blurry, right? i am dragging the original image onto a ps canvas that's set to 13x19 inches. it starts large, and then I scale it down to the size I want the print. why would scaling down reduce quality?~

D Fosse

Community Expert

Your mistake here is assuming physical dimensions have any relevance in Photoshop. They don't. In Photoshop, it's just pixels - how many pixels wide by how many pixels high. That's the size of the file.

In your example one is shown at 107%, and the other at 40.1%. That means those are two very different images. One of them has been resampled quite substantially.

You need to realize the significance of viewing at 100%. It's not just a nice round number. It means something very important: exactly one image pixel is represented by exactly one screen pixel. That's a 1:1 representation on screen, and that's the only way to reliably judge sharpness.

On screen scaling will soften the image. Always judge at 100%.

davescm

Community Expert

Are you checking on screen sharpness at 100% zoom (i.e. one screen pixel mapped to 1 image pixel)? Any zoom less than that is combining multiple image pixels into single screen pixels which Lightroom does differently to Photoshop.

Dave

Emilywallartwork Author

Participating Frequently

i have checked it a lots of zoom chnages, including 100%. here's a comparison

JJMack

Community Expert

You would have to attach your image so we can download them to see what you are dealing with. The site scales the images you post here. We do not see what you see. We are presented with scale images and I have no idea as to how well they were scaled. It also look like your scanner lighting pick up you paper texture which has some effect on the quality of the scanned painting

JJMack

Leslie Moak Murray

Community Expert

I'd like to see a screenshot of what you mean.

Emilywallartwork Author

Participating Frequently

here's the comparison, the subject with background removed on the left, and the original on the right. the difference is very apparent when printng.

War Unicorn

Community Expert

Adding to what JJ said, what techniques are you using to eliminate the background?

Emilywallartwork Author

Participating Frequently

I'm using the eraser tool and a pen tablet. the blurryness is the whole subject though, not the edges

JJMack

Community Expert

It sound like the process you used to remove the background employed feathering that soften the subject extracted edges of your watercolor. The edges have a feather transparency and will blend with any background is below the extraction the edges will have soft feathered look.

JJMack

Emilywallartwork Author

Participating Frequently

You may be right about the edges, but i used a reasonably hard brush with
minimal feathering. the issue of blurring is more the whole image including
the centre, nowhere near where the rubber was used to remove background.
seems more like a resolution issue

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