**Program Tutorials** : Digital Image Pro : *Technique

This technique will not work for all photographs. I have had good success in using it on portraits to improve the print quality of the image.

The photo below of my daughter taken on her 3rd birthday, was the only one to capture her with a natural expression rather than the usual fake smile she tends to give for the camera.

Cropping the photo to a 6”x4” proportion at 300dpi left me with an image that was barely 2inch by 3inch in size.

Increasing the photo size to 6”x4” compromised the resolution and the image became pixelated and noisy, as seen below in this view at 100%

In order to print the image at 6”x4” for framing with reasonable quality I found the following method successful.

Crop and size your chosen image appropriately.

Zoom in on the face. You should judge the results of your editing on how it affects the face.

Change the photo to black and white – this eliminates any chromatic abberations (color patches and fringing) that you get with a enlarged low resolution image, though this method may also work with color photo’s.

Choose TouchUp> Sharpen> Unsharp Mask and then click on Sharpen a Portrait. I found I needed to fine tune the sharpness by a small amount by increasing the edge width and noise reduction threshold. The idea is to sharpen the eyes as much as possible without compromising the rest of the image too badly. The clarity of the eyes is the most important factor in a portrait. Click done when satisfied.

Choose the freehand tool, zoom in on the eyes and draw around them (use the + button to select both eyes).

Apply a feathering of around 10

Then select Invert

The eyes will now not be affected by the changes we make.

Select Touch Up > Other Photo Repair> Remove Dust

Start by clicking on the smallest circle, and then each larger circle in turn, to judge which setting will give you the best result.

Result with smallest circle: Barely any change.

Result with second circle: Much improved

Result with third circle: Too blurry

For this photograph the second circle gives the best result. Click Done when satisfied.

Much of the obvious pixelation and noise has been removed from the photo and it can be printed with good results.