Need help with a resolution problem

[aj_sartor]

Hey all. I'm new to the forum, and not too great at photoshop yet, so thanks in advance for any help. I can really use it. I'm having a problem getting a photo to look good in the project I'm currently working on. It's a stock photo of a large painting and I got it off the web. It said it was 3240x1534. In my PSD, the photo is at that size, and at 300 dpi. I thought by getting the very large image that I'd have a little more freedom to scale it, but it looks very blurry and low res at pretty much any size, larger or smaller. I tried bringing it down in increments all the way to 72 dpi also, nothing seems to help. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

 

[chrisix]

are you sure the photo itself isn't blurry?
add the photo as an attachment to your post (moderators will aprove the attachment)
to see if we have the same problems with it

 

[aj_sartor]

Hey Chrisix. Thanks for the reply. Here is the JPEG.

 

[aj_sartor]

Is there any way to scale it slightly larger and clean it up a bit? Maybe sharpening masks or something?

 

[Tom Mann]

Is there any way to scale it slightly larger and clean it up a bit? Maybe sharpening masks or something?

I'm not sure what happened to this image to make it so badly blurred, but, instead of using post-processing techniques to try to repair a problem that shouldn't have happened, there's a MUCH, MUCH easier method to make it sharper: Just start over and download a sharper version from the web. The painting is called, "Creation of Man" by Michelangelo. It adorns the roof of the Sistine Chapel.

For example, here is a link to a perfectly sharp version that is ~ 3200 by 1500 pixels:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/73/God2-Sistine_Chapel.png

Tom M

 

[Tom Mann]

PS - I just remembered that you said that you got this image from a stock agency and they stated its dimensions as 3240 pix wide. I'll bet that refers to the dimensions you get if you pay money to the stock agency. What you probably downloaded (ie, for free) was a highly down-rez'ed thumbnail.

Tom M

 

[aj_sartor]

Awesome Tom! Thank you so much for the help. I really, truly appreciate it! And yeah, I bet you're right about the thumbnail.

AJ

 

[iDad]

I can't help it but that image be just a little bit to funny......... sorry it's the juvenile in me I can't help it

 

[Tom Mann]

iDad - if the previous is tickling your funny bone, you ought to see the effect this variant of it has on the both sides of the evolution - creationism divide. LOL!

 

[iDad]

That's a subject that will never have a winning side.

 

[chrisix]

from avatar wars to painting wars?

 

[MikeMc]

Brush Wars.........

 

[iDad]

Digital wars!

 

[Paul]

Bore score draws.