Enlarging images using Photoshop Super Resolution
Image Results & Gigapixel AI Comparison
If you’ve ever tried to enlarge an image, you may already know that it’s a process that often yields disappointingly low-quality and/or blurry results.
Photoshop recently added their Super Resolution feature to Adobe Camera Raw, which allows you to enlarge images by a factor of four (enhanced images will have double the width and double the height of the original image, or four times the total pixel count).
Having tried to enlarge images myself previously, I decided to test this new feature to see the results first-hand. You can see these results from these tests in the video below and I’ve summarised the results from three of these below as well.
Test 1
Enlarged 50% resolution file vs original file (using Photoshop Super Resolution)
The original image, 100% resolution.
Image at 50% resolution enhanced using Super Resolution.
The original image, at 100% resolution.
Image at 50% resolution enhanced using Super Resolution.
As I explain in more detail in the video, the results from this test were particularly impressive, with barely any visible difference between the enlarged and the original image.
Test 2
Enlarged Sony A7R2 image vs Hasselblad H6-100c image (using Photoshop Super Resolution)
Hasselblad image.
Sony image, enhanced using Super Resolution.
Hasselblad image.
Sony image, enhanced using Super Resolution.
I go into further detail in the video, but as you’ll see from these images, the enlarged image shot on the Sony just doesn’t have quite the same level of detail and sharpness, even with additional enhancements.
Test 3
Photoshop Super Resolution vs Gigapixel AI
Enhanced image using Photoshop Super Resolution.
Enhanced image using Gigapixel AI.
Enhanced image using Photoshop Super Resolution.
Enhanced image using Gigapixel AI.
The results from this comparison surprised me somewhat. Not only did Gigapixel AI take much longer than Photoshop, there were also visible differences in the image: there were differences in contrast, crispness, and grain structure, but not necessarily for the better.
In the video you'll see I did further tests, including how Super Resolution fares when enlarging smaller JPEG files. I also compared Photoshop's Image Resize function with Super Resolution.
As you'll see, all of these methods were successful in enlarging images while still maintaining overall quality, albeit with varying results.
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