Alien Skin BlowUp
Reviewed By: Doug Sahlin
Rating: *****
Resampling images has always been a issue, no matter what application you use. When you downsample an image, you get good results. But when you need to enlarge an image, you're asking the image-editing applicaiton to enlarge pixels, which inevitably results in image degradation. There are workarounds, but why work harder when you can work smarter. Alien Skin Software has a clever automation plug-in called BlowUp that works with Adobe Photoshop Elements (version 3 and later) and Adobe Photoshop (CS and later). Alien Skin claims the plug-in does a better job of enlarging than using Photoshop's bi-cubic interpolation or any other 3rd party software. They claim you can use the plug-in to make enlargements four times larger (1600%) than the original image, without jagged edges or any artifacts. The application supports 16-bit and 32-bit images. After reading about BlowUp, I knew this was a plug-in I had to put to the test.
System Requirements:
BlowUp will work with the Macintosh or Windows platform. For the Macintosh, the minimum system requirment is a 1 GHz Power PC G4 processor with Mac OS X 10.3.9 or later operating system. If you own a Windows machine, the minimum system requirement is a 2 GHz P4 processor with Windows 2000 or XP operating system.
BlowUp in Action:
After installing the application, you're ready to create humongous enlargements. I do offer a caveat though: Don't think you'll be able to increase the size of JPEG images that have already been optimized for the web. Open a high-resolution image that's sharply focused, and then choose File | Automate | Alien Skin BlowUp to open the Alien Skin Blow Up Dialog box. The dialog box is divided into two windows. One window shows the image at 100 percent magnification, and the other window shows the entire image, with a red square that you drag to view other parts of the image at full pixel size. The right side of the interface is also home to several text windows where you enter values for image size, resolution, sharpness, and grain. If you enable the Constrain Proportions option, enter one value and BlowUp automatically calculates the other value. You can also change image resolution, apply sharpening, and add grain to the image. Adding grain is integral when blowing up an image to large proportions. Without a bit of grain, the resulting image has a plastic, sterile look to it. As you make changes, the left window updates in real time. Drag the red square to view other areas of the image. When you're satisfied with the result, click OK to return the image to the host application. A few seconds later, your enlarged image is ready to save or print.
Conclusion *****
I've been using Alien Skin BlowUp for several weeks. I'm satisfied with the results I get from the plug-in and use it frequently. It doesn't tax my system resources (2.8 GHz Pentium P4 with 2 GB RAM), and returns the enlarged image quickly. The interface is intuitive and easy to use. A well-documented PDF manual can be downloaded from Alien Skin's web site. As of this writing, the plug-in sells for $199, and is available for electronic download or physical shipment. For more information, visit Alien Skin's web site. I give the plug-in a 5-star rating.
