From Damaged Pixels to 11×17 Print

We all do it. We save our images as jpgs and, instead of resizing, we compress them so that they can be emailed.

The problem with over-compressing images is the loss of data. That doesn’t sound like it applies to images but if we look at the closeups of this image, you can see the damaged areas in the top corners. Those damaged pixels are called compression artefact and are the result of  ”aggressive data compression“.

Technically the pixel isn’t really damaged. It’s lost and replaced by the nearest pixel or, in extreme cases, left white.

For the sake of comparison, click on the images below to get  a close look at the pixellation enlarged 125%.

Did you notice the box effect on the photo of the little girl? That’s the data compression doing its pixel doubling magic, making the file size small enough to email by repeating nearby pixels and destroying the integrity of the image in the process.

To me, it is fascinating how much the human brain is willing to fill in. I am sure its a similar mechanism necessary to enjoy Seurat.

Now that little girl is a full grown woman, a mother  in her own right, and the daughter of my friend Lesli. She sent me this image after a visit with her grand-daughter, accompanied by the whiff of nostalgia…

As there are no other copies of this smushed digital image, I decide to attempt to save and print the image. The problem was its relatively small size and lost pixels.

The NSA and MIT could probably pass this image through some highfaluting algorithm but I just have my trusty Photoshop CS3 to work with.

I tried to suss out as much information as I could, using the Filter > Find Edges and Filter > Glowing Edges, then fix some of the glaring box effect with Filter > Surface Blur.

I am afraid it wasn’t enough. To print an 11×17 at 300dpi, I would have to somehow increase the image 350%.

After much deliberation and testing, I was finally satisfied with the result: the picture now has a dreamy yet vibrant watercolor feel.

Printed on 13×19 Velvet Fine art, paper, the final image looks great, id I do say so myself. (Will add pictures later today)

‘hope Lesli likes it.

Do you have an image that needs this kind of Emergency Help?