Examples: Image File Formats Enhancement Processing Stitching

Master image of Friendship Harbor, Maine taken with an Olympus E-10 - 4.2 mega pixel camera. The image was stitched together from 8 separate overlaid exposures resulting in an image of 8960 x 7520 pixels. It was then re-sampled in Photoshop® to 432x 285 pixels and saved as a JPEG for display here.

Using this technique allows huge prints with high detail to be printed.

(See the links page for info on the image stitching software.......)

This is a small section of the very same image above. This is the amount of detail that can be obtained by employing image stitching
The above image was expanded and then cropped at the maximum pixel density from the stored master.tif image (the top picture). This would correspond to the detail present when expanded to a 30x40 inch print from an Olympus E-10® using this technique.

By expanding the print size even further to about an 80x100 and zooming in even more, we've now "run out of pixels" and each individual pixel is becoming apparent. (This is only a very small section of the overall image). To get around this problem, we'll next re-sample this image at the same size but will quadruple the pixel density.

(beware: - - - file sizes quickly become immense !)

Here, we've re-sampled the above image and "added" pixels using Photoshop's built in Bicubic re-sampling algorithm. Note that even though we've quadrupled the pixel density, the amount of detail remains unchanged. The mosaic appearance of each individual pixel has been resolved, but there is no additional detail, as the software merely approximates the color/luminance of each pixel to add based on its immediate surroundings . Without much logic, the software simply averages in some more pixels.

Employing more sophisticated image processing techniques than found in Photoshop®, we are able to in a sense, generate more apparent detail than was originally acquired by the camera. This technique is data intensive and can take many hours of compute time depending upon image complexity. The "detail" added however, is only apparent and not accurate, but visually and for real world purposes, this technique can effectively at least double to triple the apparent resolution. Compare it to the two above....... It is generated from the very same image !

Image processing/enhancement software in this example is Altimira Group - Genuine Fractals - Print Pro ®

Image processing makes possible the printing of large prints from digital cameras and 35mm films....

Traditional photo "purists" will undoubtedly disagree, yet when printed, the difference is dramatic !

The very same image as above but now saved and reopened 10 times in Jpeg format at various quality settings. The damage is apparent and sadly permanent. Note the artifacts and "missing" orange mooring buoy in the bottom left - - - small areas of color detail were "tossed out" as well.

Making large prints from images stored as Jpeg's at low quality (high compression) settings, often gives poor results.

High quality Jpeg's not shown here, are usually marginally acceptable, though they never fully approach the quality of images consistently saved in a loss-less format such as PNG.

.JPG

All colors displayed as a spectrum and saved as a Jpeg. Though compressed, Jpeg preserves all the color information.

.GIF

Notice the color banding due to a reduced palette of 256 colors. This was saved only once in the GIF format. Once lost, the missing colors can never be reclaimed !

Master image of Friendship Harbor, Maine taken with an Olympus E-10 - 4.2 mega pixel camera. The image was stitched together from 8 separate overlaid exposures resulting in an image of 8960 x 7520 pixels. It was then re-sampled in Photoshop® to 432x 285 pixels and saved as a JPEG for display here. Using this technique allows huge prints with high detail to be printed. (See the links page for info on the image stitching software.......)
This is a small section of the very same image above. This is the amount of detail that can be obtained by employing image stitching The above image was expanded and then cropped at the maximum pixel density from the stored master.tif image (the top picture). This would correspond to the detail present when expanded to a 30x40 inch print from an Olympus E-10® using this technique.
By expanding the print size even further to about an 80x100 and zooming in even more, we've now "run out of pixels" and each individual pixel is becoming apparent. (This is only a very small section of the overall image). To get around this problem, we'll next re-sample this image at the same size but will quadruple the pixel density. (beware: - - - file sizes quickly become immense !)
Here, we've re-sampled the above image and "added" pixels using Photoshop's built in Bicubic re-sampling algorithm. Note that even though we've quadrupled the pixel density, the amount of detail remains unchanged. The mosaic appearance of each individual pixel has been resolved, but there is no additional detail, as the software merely approximates the color/luminance of each pixel to add based on its immediate surroundings . Without much logic, the software simply averages in some more pixels.
Employing more sophisticated image processing techniques than found in Photoshop®, we are able to in a sense, generate more apparent detail than was originally acquired by the camera. This technique is data intensive and can take many hours of compute time depending upon image complexity. The "detail" added however, is only apparent and not accurate, but visually and for real world purposes, this technique can effectively at least double to triple the apparent resolution. Compare it to the two above....... It is generated from the very same image ! Image processing/enhancement software in this example is Altimira Group - Genuine Fractals - Print Pro ® Image processing makes possible the printing of large prints from digital cameras and 35mm films.... Traditional photo "purists" will undoubtedly disagree, yet when printed, the difference is dramatic !
The very same image as above but now saved and reopened 10 times in Jpeg format at various quality settings. The damage is apparent and sadly permanent. Note the artifacts and "missing" orange mooring buoy in the bottom left - - - small areas of color detail were "tossed out" as well. Making large prints from images stored as Jpeg's at low quality (high compression) settings, often gives poor results. High quality Jpeg's not shown here, are usually marginally acceptable, though they never fully approach the quality of images consistently saved in a loss-less format such as PNG.
.JPG All colors displayed as a spectrum and saved as a Jpeg. Though compressed, Jpeg preserves all the color information.
.GIF Notice the color banding due to a reduced palette of 256 colors. This was saved only once in the GIF format. Once lost, the missing colors can never be reclaimed !

Digital Printing Examples