🚀 go-pugleaf

Well, we've all seen the advert, but that's not what I want to talk
about, so get that out of your head straight away. No, let's think
about what many call the "Queen of Arts" - namely painting.
Have you ever wandered around a huge Art Gallery and marvelled at the
works by Tintoretto, Raphael, Constable or any master painter who has
produced huge canvasses? Then again, we have many fine examples of
beautiful artwork in cameos and miniatures. In fact, in all sizes
between these two extremes the evidence of creative genius can be
found down through the ages.
However, it's patently obvious that the correlation between size and
creative genius is poor. Mere size on the premise, "never mind the
quality feel the width" is not the prime element of a masterpiece. Yes
we are fascinated by the Sistine Chapel, for example, by the sheer
scale of the paintings, but it's the genius of the painter that draws
the eye. It's also true though that the artist tugs at our
heartstrings by the wealth of detail that working in a large format
permits.
In the same way, large format and medium format cameras have
traditionally been the working tools of professional photographers for
many, many years. In a previous article, I suggested that there would
always be room for film, especially for users of the larger formats.
Now, we get to the nub of the matter, because in digital parlance, the
wealth of detail evident in the larger formats is expressed as the
size of the file. Unlike physical dimensions which cannot be changed
once the work has been committed to the recording medium, be it film
or indeed canvas size, the digital file is not so restricted.
Of course, when image size is changed from the original during, say,
image compression, there is generally a loss in quality e.g. jpeg Even
the use of a lossless transformation doesn't add anything to the
image, it merely preserves what's there.
However, there is a revolutionary item of image manipulation software
that does totally "change the picture" It comes as a Photoshop plug-in
with Photoshop 6.0 or higher and it's called "Genuine Fractals" and
here is what the originators claim,



"It's an indispensable tool for photographers, graphic artists and
digital imaging professionals, Genuine Fractals enables you to create
resolution-independent images from any size file and lets you print
superior quality enlargements without any degradation in image
quality"


By saving your digital image with this package as a very small stn
file, you can create lossless files of up to 70Mb and beyond. After
saving and re-opening this file in Photoshop, Genuine Fractal kicks in
and you can easily produce files of a specified size
I was stunned by this software and began to wonder what the impact
might be for both digital photographers and medium/large format
professionals. Of course, as already stated, this increased size does
NOT put extra information into the shot. There again, neither does
making a 67 dupe of a 35mm slide improve image quality and many
photographers still do that when submitting to libraries.
Digital photographers may get even more benefits by beefing up the
file size using Genuine Fractals, before printing out enlargements.
This could be very useful for Wedding Photographers who want the
convenience of using a digital camera, but are unhappy about the
quality of enlargements often requested. Using Genuine Fractals may
save time effort and money by eliminating the need for a film backup
camera.
On the other hand, it may be that Genuine Fractals may produce the
best result with photos captured from film and then scanned, because
noise in the original image is not removed when enlarged, in fact it
will be more obvious. This means that mid-range digital camera shots
are likely to fare worse on enlargment than film shots captured with
10 million pixels+
With a new version Genuine Fractals 3.5 just released, it could be
worth a test and could be a worthwhile investment too. So, if you want
to explore this a little more, get a copy of Amateur Photographer for
23 October 2004 and read their review of this exciting software.
You can get a free test copy of the software itself from this link:
http://www.dcp-systems.co.uk
Why bother with a medium format camera if 35mm caressed by this
Software will do instead? Oh I know I'll get lectures from purists for
even suggesting something so daft, given superior lenses and better
optics, but for some people that may be just overkill. If this article
has opened up the possibility of a better working method for some
freelances, that's all that matters.
So don't please run around telling your mates that size does not
matter and that I've assigned medium format cameras to the dustbin of
history. No, I'm just shining the spotlight on that funny old coin
digital/film and giving it a flick in the air. Who knows how it will
land? At least I've got a 50-50 chance of being right!

Learn Photoshop Elements On Your Own...: http://www.psselements.tk/