Why is it...

[Geoff]

That when I look at a photo in Photoshop (at fit on screen) size it looks incredibly blury, yet when I maginify/enlarge it up to about 67% or more it looks incredibly sharp and NOT blurred? Is it me/photoshop or the monitor? Thanks in advance,


Geoff.

[Nnnnsic]

It's from Photoshop resizing the images.

You'll often find at percentages like 25, 50, and 75 the image will be sharp but at 33 or 66 it will get blurry or look almost pixelated.

[johndec]

Geoff,
I've noticed that too but just assumed it was my crappy monitor.

As a second why is it.... Why is that when I print stuff out at 6 x 4 they look pretty ordinary, but when I print the same image at A4 it looks sooo much better

[Geoff]

Geoff,
I've noticed that too but just assumed it was my crappy monitor.

As a second why is it.... Why is that when I print stuff out at 6 x 4 they look pretty ordinary, but when I print the same image at A4 it looks sooo much better

Hmm..that one I can't explain..anyone?

[phillipb]

I think that larger prints have more of an impact in the same way a large TV screen on movie theatre screen will have more impact than a small portable TV. It's just a sensory thing.

[beetleboy]

Cos it's bigger?

Sorry..couldn't resist

Answer to the previous question; nnnnsic was correct, it's cos Photoshop has to anti-alias the image and at odd percentage's the algorithms make the image look a little odd!

ALWAYS check sharpness etc at 100% to ensure you're not over-sharpening.

Liam =]

[gstark]

ALWAYS check sharpness etc at 100% to ensure you're not over-sharpening.

Actually, sharpening should always be your final step, and only applied after any resizing. At that point, as Liam suggests, view the image at 100% (at whatever size you've gone to) and check sharpening there.

[onimod]

Photoshop is much better a zooming to particular levels - usually 25,50,100,200 etc(this is from memory - no ps on this machine). If fit to screen doesn't match one of these 'defaults' then the picture is crappy. ctrl - and ctrl + are your friends....

Nnnnsic stated this already, so I'm just backing him up.

[Onyx]

I found that image rotation with Photoshop also results in noticeable loss of image sharpness. Not 90 degree type rotation, but like 1 or 2 degrees to account for tilted horizons... which is another reason to compose properly (using viewfinder gridlines helps greatly) and not rely on PP to fix up basic shooting mistakes.