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There are several other methods available to change the printed size of an image. May I ask, was there a specific reason you required this to be accomplished using, "content aware resizing"?
Tom M
OK. Please post the image so we see what we are dealing with.
Tom M
With one exception (nearest neighbor), all of the resizing methods, including the oldest and simplest (ie, straight bilinear) all fill in pixels if you have the "re-sample" option checked, which is probably what you are going to wind up doing. There are many times when one of these (eg, bicubic, bicubic softer, bicubic sharper, etc.), especially in conjunction with some judicious cropping, or reflecting and/or stretching an edge will work much better than content-aware scale, especially on canvas wraps....as I understand Content Aware, it fills in pixels when you resize a photo...
The best thing to do is to simply upload the file to dropbox, yousendit.com, or one of the zillion other free file sharing services, and then post the link here in this thread.
To get the largest number of people to participate in this discussion, please select a file sharing service that doesn't require the recipient to go through a tedious registration process if all the recipient wants to do is simply to download a file.
A second possible approach one can use (in certain cases) is to simply zip the file and upload the zipped version to this forum. The forum's uploading software won't be able to tell the dimensions of the file in pixels, and although it will complain about it being a zip, it will still allow one to upload a file. The catch is that the zipped version has to be smaller than about 10 Megabytes (...I don't remember the exact number), so this method will probably not work on your 15 Meg file. (See PS#2. The correct file size limit for zip files is 30 Megs, not 10, so this method would work for you.)
A third and final possibility is that, as you suggested, one could down-rez the file to make it less than 3500 pixels in both dimensions, but needlessly throwing away pixels like this lowers the resolution of the file and defeats the purpose of good Photoshop technique. In addition, I've seen quite a few cases where people make errors while doing this, thereby further delaying providing them help with their problem. That's why we generally prefer the Dropbox or Zipping methods.
Don't worry - we will get to the bottom of this.
Tom M
PS - By the way, what type of file are you trying to send? JPG? NEF? CR2?
PPS - Gedstar, one of the other moderators, refreshed my memory. The file size limit is 30 MB for Zip files, so, method #2 will work for you. Thank you, Ged!
Before I do anything, I just wanted to check that you realize that there is a discrepancy between the image size you posted in the first message in this thread, 4482x5976 pixels, and the file you put in dropbox, 4147x5184 pixels.
I presume that the dropbox version is the one we should be working with, right?
Also, from the statement in your first post, "...I have a photo that is approximately 24+ x 18+. I want to print it at 20x24...", interpreting this as written, it appears that you intend to switch from a portrait orientation to a landscape orientation. Given the subject matter, that seems unlikely. Can you please clarify this, as well, please.
Tom M
Also, I think I see some odd subtle patterns in the leaves on either side of the couple. I can't be sure of this, but, by any chance, did you try to widen the original a bit to bring it up to 20x24 aspect ratio?
Tom M
Unfortunately, I just don't have the time to go back and repeat what I've already done, except, this time base the canvas extensions on the full image, ie, the last version of the image that you posted instead of on the preceding cropped versions that you previously posted.
However, I would make one recommendation: IMHO, the background is too busy and distracting. The bokeh (quality of the OOF blur) looks like you shot this image with a typical consumer grade, slow, wide-range kit zoom set at a some safe medium aperture, say, around f/5.6. I would try to minimize the attraction of viewers' eyes towards the background. In addition, I find the bright spots on the woman's knees, as well as the slighter brighter path crossing diagonally at the same level as her knees to be distracting.
Coupled with the lack of truly bright tones in the original (ie, say, greater than 230 out of 256), I would try to compensate for the optical and lighting limitations as well as increasing the drama and separation of the subjects from the background by darkening and simplifying the color structure of the background, and brightening the subjects. Such a change is, of course, a matter of personal taste, but I've had good commercial use of my own environmental portraits by making similar changes.
Cheers,
Tom M
PS - For ease of comparison, I also added a copy of the first full version of the image that you posted. The only change I made to it was to down-rez it to the same size as my "after" version of the same image so there is no bias due to image size differences.
I used Photoshop's Image / Image Size tool, made sure the "Resample (automatic)" option was selected, and entered 698 pixels as the vertical dimension."...I do not know how you resized it (for future reference)..."
Different sized displays and different web browsers may change the order in which images appear, so referring to them by terms like "top" or "first" can be ambiguous. The easiest way to distinguish them is that the one I worked on has the darker background with almost no greens or browns, and smoother, more glowing skin on the woman. Also, on desktops and laptops, you can hover the cursor over each photo and its file name will appear. The resized version of the original that you posted includes the words, "-as_originally_posted-down_rezed_to_698px_hi"."...The top photo I assume is the one you worked on..."[/i]
I started with that one, down rez'ed it (since I knew it was just for purposes of illustration, and only going to be used in this forum) and then applied significant further editing.."...The very first one I posted was my final edited version and it looks like you may have applied the same editing I did..."
On a desktop or laptop PC, to download images from this forum, just right click on the image and select, "Save image as". On any other device, eg, a phone or a Mac, you'll have to follow whatever procedure you usually use to download images."...Also, how do I download the one you edited? Or did you put it back in dropbox?..."
"... My lens is not a consumer grade lens. It is a Canon brand..."
"The EF-S 18-135 is a pretty decent lens with the “middle of the road” performance you’d expect from a lens of this class. The zoom range of the 18-135 (equivalent to 28-216mm full frame) covers most of the requirements of the average photographer, from wideangle to telephoto, and does it in a single lens with a very effective IS system. For some users this might be the only lens they need and there’s no denying that not having to switch lenses can be a convenience.
Those looking for the highest image quality will have to pay more and/or be content with a smaller zoom range."