Retain image quality after resizing?

jordy2324

OK. I'm making a flier that has a few photos on it.
The photos are rather large in size.... around 4-6mb each.

When I bring the images up in Photoshop, they still look good. They are sharp and very clear.

When I drag these onto a new 8.5x11 project, they are obviously huge. So, I need to resize them so they only take up a fraction of the 8.5x11 flier.

I've tried this in a couple ways. I tried resizing the image in PS (ctrl+alt+i) then dragging the image.

I've tried compressing the photo with other programs to a smaller size.

I've tried resizing the photo with other programs to a smaller size.

I've free-transformed in PS, holding down the shift key to retain the original dimensions.

HOWEVER, each of these approaches results in a loss of quality. The end result is a photo that is sized correctly for the flier, but it has lost some quality. It is the right size, but it is no longer sharp or crisp. When you zoom in on it, it is a little blurry and no longer perfectly focused.

So, I'm out of ideas. I'm sure there's an easy fix to this, I just haven't stumbled upon it yet.

So.... how do I resize images in PS (or any other program) to a MUCH smaller size while retaining the crisp quality from the original file?

Thanks much.

editinggeek · Posted: Thu Oct 22, 2009 12:04 pm Post subject:

I could be wrong but I do not think your request is possible.

You are working with a raster image so the only information Photoshop has is the color value of each pixel in your image. When you resize the your image, Photoshop just create a new raster image and uses your original image to guess the color values for each pixel in the new image. In other words, you do not have a scaled version of the original image, you have a brand new image that was made from the original.

That said, you could try to:
1. duplicate the layer with your image
2. hide the original layer
3. resize the duplicate layer

If you want to make changes later on, you can still work with the original.

Hope this was helpful.... and correct.

hawkeye · Posted: Thu Oct 22, 2009 12:11 pm Post subject:

Look at the resolution of the photos (PPI) first. Make the blank flier file the same resolution as the images. For instance, if they are 240 PPI make the flier the same.

Then drag the images into the file and resize (transform) the images as necessary.

artd · Posted: Thu Oct 22, 2009 1:00 pm Post subject:

Hi jordy,

I don't think you're going to find the perfect solution to that problem. Any time you reduce the size of (downsize) an image, it will usually end up losing some of it's sharpness. How much depends on the image, and of course how much you reduce it's size. Using Photoshop's "Bicubic Sharper" option, in the Image Size dialog, is very helpful. You can also sharpen the image, after it has been reduced, using Photoshop's "Unsharp Mask" filter. You may also be interested in a filter called "Focus Magic" ( http://www.focusmagic.com/ ). I use this filter often, it works wonders!

ktlin547 · Posted: Tue Feb 18, 2014 10:02 am Post subject: Might be a smart filter issue?

I just experienced this image quality issue, but I'm not sure it's the same issue the original poster had.

Make sure there are NO smart filters applied to the image layer or group of layers you are moving and downsizing. Those don't size with the layers they are applied to, so it may make your image look bad. You can go in and adjust the smart filter as needed, or just un-apply it to get your image to keep the high quality look. The smart filter icons are hard to find at the right edge of each layer in the layers palette. You may have to widen the palette to see this icon.

Thanks and I hope this helps someone!

Patrick · Administrator

Welcome aboard, ktlin547. Thank you for sharing that.

Patrick

Fogey · Posted: Thu Jul 03, 2014 12:36 am Post subject:

The best way to get over this is to take your photographs in RAW.

From Adobe Bridge, crop the file to an approximated size required and save as an uncompressed tiff.

Open the tiff file in Photoshop and set the crop size you want and crop accordingly. Sharpen the image using the unsharp mask and save as tiff.

The moment you save as a jpg, the photograph will be compressed and will become 'blocky'.

With existing JPG's you have very little chance of retaining detail from an already compressed file.

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