image sizing - scale rather than crop

[Anti]

Can anyone confirm that Lightroom doesn't have a method of scaling/resizing images?

Thanks.

 

[Mark Sirota]

Lightroom resizes in the Export dialog.

 

[clee01l]

[quote author=Mark Sirota link=topic=7343.msg5''33#msg5''33 date=1248571559]
Lightroom resizes in the Export dialog.
[/quote]To amplify, being a non destructive editor, LR never alters the original image and can only implememt changes in a copy created at export time.

 

[Anti]

OK, thanks.

Well let me describe my 'problem'; maybe there is another solution.

I get photos from several sources (family/friends). Most are 8MP.
But some are 3MP and when those cameras are zoomed the size is as low as 1.9MP.

So when I set-up a slideshow using most of the monitor to display the photos, the 8MP
look good, but the 1.9-3MP look bad at that size.

I can decrease the size of the slideshow so that all the photos appear smaller, which
improves the apparent quality of the smaller photos, but then the larger ones aren't seen
in their 'full glory' (we are just talking about family snaps, so there isn't a lot of glory).

Any ideas?

 

[clee01l]

[quote author=Anti link=topic=7343.msg5''49#msg5''49 date=12486''879]
I get photos from several sources (family/friends). Most are 8MP.
But some are 3MP and when those cameras are zoomed the size is as low as 1.9MP.

So when I set-up a slideshow using most of the monitor to display the photos, the 8MP
look good, but the 1.9-3MP look bad at that size.

I can decrease the size of the slideshow so that all the photos appear smaller, which
improves the apparent quality of the smaller photos, but then the larger ones aren't seen
in their 'full glory' (we are just talking about family snaps, so there isn't a lot of glory).

Any ideas?
[/quote]In the Slideshow options panel, there is a checkbox "Zoom to fill Screen" Uncheck it. Then any images that are less than the resolution of your screen will be displayed at 1 image pixel = 1 screen pixel. If you have a large HiDef monitor (say 192'X12'') and the image is 64'X48', then the image will only display in ~1/3 of the available screen. Maybe not desirable, but not distortede limitation to imaage quality is always limited to the source.

"GIGO = Garbage In, Garbage Out"

 

[Anti]

Thanks for your reply.

> In the Slideshow options panel, there is a checkbox "Zoom to fill Screen" Uncheck it.

It isn't checked. Apologies for not making that clear.

> Then any images that are less than the resolution of your screen will be displayed
> at 1 image pixel = 1 screen pixel

Yes, this is the problem. The resolution of the 1.9MP images is 1'22x766. Displayed at their full resolution in a slideshow, it looks bad. By resizing them smaller, I thought I could make quality 'increase' (ie. decrease the grainy, pixelation currently seen) at the expense of size.

It looks as though there isn't a way to do that for individual photos in a slideshow?
And as already stated, to scale these photos, I need to export them and reimport the
smaller versions.

I suppose I don't quite understand why a scaling tool would have to be 'destructive'. For instance, web browsers resize the viewed images without affecting the original; it's just that they do it very badly with regard to quality. And doesn't photoshop have a non-destructive resizing tool?

Cheers.

 

[RikkFlohr]

Clarification: 1'22x766 is approximately .75 MP not 1.9 MP. Either these images have been cropped or they were not taken at the full dimension offered by your camera

You will have better luck if you use the Export function to take these smaller MP images and upscale them to a new file and then use the new file in your slide show. The export algorithm is going to create a better result than on-the-fly fit-to-screen scaling.

Upscaling tools are not destructive. They simply cannot create information from nothing. You don't have enough information to make a picture larger. Down-sampling will always look better than up-sampling because the information necessary for the job exists.

It is usually better practice to control your up and down sampling in software rather than let an application do it on-the-fly.

 

[Victoria Bampton]

Anti, you might find that you can improve them a bit by increasing the noise reduction, and then rendering 1:1 previews for those images (under the Library > Previews menu in Library module) so that the noise reduction is applied to the slideshow images.