Help, what am I doing wrong?

[Connieliv]

I download background JPEGs, that are 3" by 2", I try to resize them and they look terrible. There are in my pictures file, are they in the wrong place?

Thank you,

[GaryK]

Hi Connie

Depending on the resolution most photos don't "size up" very well.

[46thGA]

Connieliv,

There is a method in Scott Kelby's book "The PSE 3 Book for Digital Photographers" for enlarging pix that has been successful for me. Go to Image > Resize > Image Size. Put a check mark in "Resample Image". Switch the unit of measure to "Percent" and enter 110% in the height and width fields and click ok. You'll have to repeat this several times but it will gradually increase your image size (by 10%) without distorting the image.

[Norm F]

If your starting with a downloaded image which is 3"x2" at 72 dots per inch, you don't have a lot of information to work with and are not likely to get results which will please you when upsizing.

[Wendy]

Hi ...

I agree with Norm ... its better to try to find high resolution images to use as backgrounds.

Morguefile are pretty good.

Wendy

[Connieliv]

Live and Learn. Thank you, I've been so busy learning PSE5 that I haven't had a change to take photos. Hope to get out this weekend..

[johnfranklin]

Originally Posted by Connieliv

I download background JPEGs, that are 3" by 2", I try to resize them and they look terrible. There are in my pictures file, are they in the wrong place?

Thank you,

There is no substitute for a large original file size when you're trying to upsize a photo. Then there's the Jpeg artifacts to contend with. I call it "digital confusion". These happen most prominently at boundaries within the images IE, face to hairline, sky to tree, etc. Photos sometimes are uploaded purposely at low, low, quality Jpeg settings to save space and prevent theft. Even larger images can be compressed (Jpegged) to look awful. In some cases it's a business decision. Why give you a great picture of Miss January when we can make you buy the calendar. There are "Dejpeggers" Made by Nik Software and Vicman which will improve the quality of larger slightly over compressed images. Nothing will possibly save the little ones, no matter in which folder they are stored. Technically, downloading some photos can be a copyright violation. Keep in mind that the only people that seem to be able to "digitally enhance" a 2,000 pixel file into a full length portrait ,the person's car and it's license plate number, are the the guys at CSI Miami.