Millions of great photos could be taken with older low-resolution cameras lying idle and useless because they cannot be printed. When photos are taken, cameras capture pixels of the subject and its surroundings. Because older cameras capture fewer pixels, when such images are printed, the pixels in the photo will spread out and become blurred. Adobe, the technology wizard of photo editing, has created Super Resolution, an ingenious feature to quadruple the size of such photos.
What is Super Resolution?
Super Resolution is a remarkable feature that uses artificial intelligence to quadruple the size of photos. To create Super Resolution, Adobe trained its artificial intelligence algorithm to create Super Resolution with millions of pictures in their original and quarter-size versions. This enables Super Resolution to develop and add more pixels into the photos, thereby blowing up a ten mega-pixel photo into a 40-megapixel one. This is useful not only to enhance older images but also distant photos of subjects taken with camera lenses having a shorter zoom.
Super Resolution works best with photos taken in the RAW format. Compared to other photo formats such as JPEG and PNG, RAW format captures many pixels. This greater density of pixels in the RAW format allows Super Resolution to enhance the size of photos with far more excellent quality. That said, Super Resolution works on JPEG and other photo formats and on photos taken with mobile phones.
How to use Super Resolution
Super Resolution feature can be accessed from Photoshop as well as Lightroom. In Photoshop, Super Resolution is available in the Camera Raw tool. This tool has an Enhance option in its Photo Menu that allows a user to upscale images to quadruple their original size. Enhance option is also available in the Photo menu in Adobe Lightroom’s Library mode.
Using computers with the latest hardware is recommended, as processing photos using Super Resolution can be resource-intensive. Similarly, using computers with Solid State Drives (SSD) instead of Hard Disk Drives (HDD) for quick file access is preferred as Super Resolution can create huge files.
Industry use cases of Super Resolution
Super Resolution can be a convenient feature for many industries and a boon for wildlife photographers who shoot excellent long-distance photos but cannot crop and print them. Some of the sectors which can use this feature are:
1) Real Estate
2) E-commerce
3) Jewellery
We at SmartPHOTOeditors have used the Super Resolution feature on photos and found the results impressive.
These are images we enhanced using the Super Resolution tool. As you can see, the first picture appears blurry, and the jewelry pattern is unclear. However, after using Super Resolution on a cropped image, the jewelry seems larger and sharper after enhancement. You can also use features like Sharpening and Noise Reduction to fine-tune images and obtain improved images.
The image of a building from a distance became sharper after using the Super Resolution tool. It can be observed how specific areas of the building have been enhanced and can be seen clearly
What is the cost of using Super Resolution?
Super Resolution comes bundled with Photoshop and Lightroom, so either has to be purchased from Adobe.
Individual plan for Lightroom with 1TB starts at USD 9.99/month
Photoshop is now part of the Adobe Creative Cloud package
Individual plan for Creative Cloud Photography with 1TB starts at USD 19.99/month
Individual plan for Creative Cloud All Apps 100GB starts at USD 54.99/month
Business Plans for the packages would depend on the licenses required and could be significantly higher.
Our thoughts on Adobe’s Super Resolution
- It’s a great feature, but one mustn’t use it in all the images. Not all photos have to be four times their original size.
- It also may give a poor output if the picture is highly blurred or distant. It may help to identify a person or object but not make it print-worthy.
- But if you want a large print and your camera lacks the required resolution, Super Resolution can come to the rescue.
- You can also improve the quality of older pictures clicked with low-resolution cameras or mobile phones.
At SmartPHOTOeditors, we have the expertise of using Super Resolution to enhance any format photos for our customers to large print sizes. We also offer exceptional photo editing services for restoration, converting black and white pictures to color and vice-versa. Additionally, we offer impeccable photo editing services at affordable rates with quick turnaround times. Get in touch with us instantly for the best photo editing and photo restoration services.
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