TOOL SCHOOL PUMP UP THE PIXEL COUNT IN PHOTOSHOP

Adding missing detail to a heavily cropped image is simple when you know how with Super Resolution

01 BATCH ENHANCE

You can use Super Resolution on several photos at once. First open them all into Adobe Camera Raw or Lightroom, then select them in the filmstrip (Ctrl/cmd-click to highlight several at once), right-click on them and choose Enhance. Only the first image shows in the preview window, but the rest are enhanced, too. You can also bypass the Enhance dialog box by holding Alt as you click Enhance.

02 SUPER RESOLUTION

Super Resolution is available in both Adobe Camera Raw and Lightroom. It doubles the width and the height of your photo, so the pixel count goes up four-fold. For example, a 3000x2000 pixels image would be bumped up to 6000x4000 pixels. To get started, navigate to an image in Bridge, right-click and select Open In Camera Raw, then right-click the image and choose Enhance.

03 RAW DETAILS

Whenever you use Super Resolution on a Raw file, it activates Raw Details as well. It can help to produce crisper photos, especially when you want to blow images up very large for printing. To the eye, the difference can be minimal, but it’s worth experimenting with. You can use Raw Details without running Super Resolution, but it’s turned on automatically when you use the latter.

04 WHEN TO USE IT

The race for ever-increasing megapixel count in camera models fizzled out a few years ago when we all realized that we had enough – so why do we need a tool like Super Resolution? In most cases, we don’t, but it is a useful tool to call upon at times when we need to make a tight crop, such as when you need extra reach in a wildlife photo. You might also want to print photos taken on older cameras.

05 SHARPEN DETAILS

After applying Super Resolution, open the resulting DNG file (it appears alongside your original) and check the results. Any edits applied to the original file in Camera Raw or Lightroom have been carried over to the newer version. However, doubling the width and height of the image may leave it looking slightly softer than before, so you might need to increase Sharpening and Noise Reduction in the Detail panel.

06 ESTIMATED COMPLETION TIME

The timing indicator gives you a rough idea of how long it will take to produce the new higher-resolution copy of your photo. Super Resolution performs millions of calculations, so a faster GPU in your computer might mean the difference between a photo taking 30 seconds to upsize and taking 10 minutes. Newer laptops with chips such as Apple’s M1 processor come into their own here.