A Program better than Photoshop

[vkbarefoot]

I am at a loss. I have the latest Photoshop and I'm always on the tutorials learning new things about the program. I've downloaded and tried many programs that are touted to be excellent at resampling but none of them are better than Photoshop.

But ... is there another, more professional program out there that is better at retaining detail and ending up with a finer image after reduction resampling.

I came across a couple of articles about software that is used by NASA for moon shots, etc. The tv show CSI seems to have some software that's magical.

What am I missing? I feel like Alice in Wonderland where everybody knows the obvious but me.

Any ideas?

Thank you ... viki barefoot

[djr33]

NASA may have some other software... I have no idea. But remember, those guys are literally rocket scientists.
The software on TV doesn't actually exist, unfortunately. There's no magic "make this picture do stuff because I think it should!" button.

So, you're down to Photoshop and other commercially available products. Photoshop is and has been for years industry standard and with someone who knows what they are doing, it is a very powerful program. In fact, it's more the user than the program. I have an old copy of Paint Shop Pro 5 (got it new) and I can use that or PS to create anything I want, because I'm experienced with photo manipulation.

Tutorials and practice will get you there, and Photoshop is probably the right tool. Now, if you just hate photoshop (and I'd suggest just acclimatizing to it), there are other options, but none are superior. The GIMP is a free graphics editing application meant to be like Photoshop and it's close, and I would say not quite as good, though some say equal (I find it annoying and unstable, but some like it).


Now, on the issue of resampling a photo, there are some options out there but it's not a simple matter. You can't just click "make big" and have that happen-- there just isn't enough data. I don't know of any programs that come with this embedded, though there are some plugins for video production. Instant HD and others like it are designed to take standard definition video and upsize it to HD with interpolation to create a crisper image than just a resampling, but this is not all that great, and it's also somewhat expensive (plus, I don't know if it runs just for images, as you may need to use it within After Effects).

If you are desperately needing to fix a single image, an experienced user may be able to do something by hand to give you a decent larger resolution image. If you want, I could give it a try. I don't promise a miracle, but I'll try to get something decent.

[jscheuer1]

According to the website that promotes this:

http://www.truview.com/

it's what NASA uses. I have a friend who is a digital artist. She uses photoshop for most things, but has a program for enlarging and enhancing images. According to her, It works well for some images and not for others. It adds pixels as it enlarges the image, somewhat like on TV shows like CSI, though not nearly so dramatic. I agree with djr33 that those effects on TV are most likely faked to look more impressive. I'll ask her the name next time I think of it while talking with her.

http://grafficore.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/06/csi.jpg