Super Resolution from Adobe...

I haven't tried it yet, and probably won't until it is available in Lr itself (I don't think it is yet, just ACR) but it might make some old images that I liked but just didn't have enough resolution salvageable. Also, it is going to make me consider how many images I scrapped due to the same thing over the years.

This is the first feature added to PSCS (ACR) since it went subscription that I will miss having. Still using stand alone PSCS6, and have seen no new feature that I would miss in the subscription version.

CyberDyneSystems wrote in post #19208590
This is the first feature added to PSCS (ACR) since it went subscription that I will miss having. Still using stand alone PSCS6, and have seen no new feature that I would miss in the subscription version.

I resisted the subscription for a long time, and initially when I chose the Adobe subscription it was related to our needs at the office. After using it there for a while I became a believer. I know the downsides but things are far more seamless than it was previously. The same holds true for Microsoft products. Fortunately the Adobe photography bundles is pretty affordable for most. Not all but most.

jcothron wrote in post #19208608
I resisted the subscription for a long time, and initially when I chose the Adobe subscription it was related to our needs at the office. After using it there for a while I became a believer. I know the downsides but things are far more seamless than it was previously. The same holds true for Microsoft products. Fortunately the Adobe photography bundles is pretty affordable for most. Not all but most.

Cost isn't really the issue for me, I'm stubborn.

CyberDyneSystems wrote in post #19208662
Cost isn't really the issue for me, I'm stubborn.

. Lol I hear you. I wasn’t going to go mirrorless either but....

Jake - Does that CR have Textile? I shoot almost all flowers and such now-a-days and my LrC work would probably be seen as tending toward "hyper-reality" by the "pure" photography types. I live on that Textile slider (IMO the best new addition in recent years), Dehaze and the Focus Magic sharpening plugin in PS.

tzalman wrote in post #19208918
Jake - Does that CR have Textile? I shoot almost all flowers and such now-a-days and my LrC work would probably be seen as tending toward "hyper-reality" by the "pure" photography types. I live on that Textile slider (IMO the best new addition in recent years), Dehaze and the Focus Magic sharpening plugin in PS.

No, I don't think it has any of those things.

CyberDyneSystems wrote in post #19209031
No, I don't think it has any of those things.

I think they are talking about the "texture" slider that's relatively new to Lr, I thought Camera Raw had that as well but maybe not.

Yeh, Texture. Damn phone!

I think the term "Super Resolution" is misleading. Like Gigapixel AI, the Adobe Super Resolution algorithm attempts to add or refine detail as it changes the pixel dimensions of the image - it is fabricating data based on the AI training model, etc.

"Actual" Super Resolution refines the resolution and signal to noise ratio of an acquired image by combining multiple shots of the same scene, with slight variations in the viewpoint of the light ray hitting the sensor. Some cameras do this by using the IBIS mech on the sensor, shifting the sensor slightly for each image in the Super Res set it acquires. You can also handhold or slightly shift the camera on the tripod (just by slightly pressing against the camera or tripod) and get similar data. The images are then registered and combined to yield more detail and less noise at a higher pixel dimension. You can also downsize the Super Res image to the original pixel dimensions of a single image and get a much cleaner image file with more useable dynamic range.

Years ago, there was an application called "Photo Acute" that was, frankly, ahead of its time and performed several computational photographic tasks, including Super Resolution. Here is the website - still functional:

http://www.photoacute.​com

but you can tell from the site verbiage and OS requirements it has not been updated for quite some time. Astrophotography also has several workflow options that perform some of the computational aspects of combining several images into a single working image file, but no so much for spatial resolution, more for increase in signal to noise ratio, given the very faint light that their imaging devices are trying to acquire.

The combination of many images into a single, higher pixel count image, can be done manually in PS and similar image editing software. Here is a proof of concept video using an image set acquired in burst mode on an iPhone:

https://youtu.be/vr7Jo​BGqoCk

When using multiple images shot with slightly varying points of view, one is actually gaining resolution (and SNR) compared to a single image. With the Adobe or Gigapixel AI approach, pixels are being fabricated. How well each workflow and result works for you is for you to decide! Give each technique a try with the same image data and see how much each result gives you what you want.

Kirk

kirkt wrote in post #19209652
...

"Actual" Super Resolution refines the resolution and signal to noise ratio of an acquired image by combining multiple shots of the same scene, with slight variations in the viewpoint of the light ray hitting the sensor. Some cameras do this by using the IBIS mech on the sensor, shifting the sensor slightly for each image in the Super Res set it acquires. ....
Kirk

That sounds really impressive, now I want to find which cameras can do this trick!?

CyberDyneSystems wrote in post #19209662
That sounds really impressive, now I want to find which cameras can do this trick!?

Isn’t that the pixel shift feature some bodies can do now?

Even m43 cameras, such as my E-M1 III, can do pixel shift. They have been doing it for years.

CyberDyneSystems wrote in post #19209662
That sounds really impressive, now I want to find which cameras can do this trick!?

Most cameras with IBIS systems also have firmware that supports pixel shift or similar mulit-shot image acquisition and combination in camera, or through external software (for example, the Fujifilm GFX100, whose 100MPx files are probably prohibitively large to try to combine them using in camera processing).

You can also do the trick manually if you slightly perturb the position of the camera during each acquisition of an image (use the shutter release instead of a timer, or handhold).

Give it a try!

Kirk

Here is an example of "pixel shift" super resolution multi-shot imaging using the IBIS system and built-in processing of the Leica SL2. The camera acquires 8 images while shifting the sensor in a half of a pixel increments. There result is a DNG (Leica cameras use DNG as their raw file format) that is four times as many pixels, or 187 MPx, compared to the standard 47 MPx raw file (twice the linear resolution in width and height, compared to its standard DNG file).

Attached are a few images - one showing the scene that was used in the test, and two 100 percent crops (next post). In the 100 percent crops, the larger multi-shot image was scaled by 50 percent in PS using bicubic interpolation to match the linear dimensions of the standard image. This reduction in pixel count further reduces noise.

Both raw files (standard and multi shot) were converted in ACR, with no sharpening and no noise reduction applied, and tonal settings copied to both images. In PS, I boosted the tone curve to reveal how the standard image falls apart compared to the multi-shot image (brighter than I would use for the actual image). The dynamic range of the scene was about 15-16 EV, typical of an indoor-outdoor scene.

kirk