Upsampling in ACR-pros or cons?

[fabthi]

Hi everybody
I am new to this forum, so I want to thank in advance all the people for the patience and help they will provide to me!
I am set for printing a certain number of pictures taken with a Canon Eos 5D; the prints will be A3+ and A2 size. The pictures are mostly about city scape and many of them have a quite troubled exposure (mist, sunsets, rainy weather and so on). With this goal in mind, I would like to clearly understand if upsampling the file size through the CS3 Camera Raw "Workflow Options", would give to the file any valuable improvement in terms of better contrast, detail enhancement, etc and if choosing to upsample this way has any consequence (either way) on noise.
I have been on other forums too inquiring about this issue, but at now the response is quite controversial: for some "it just doesn't make any difference", for others "it does, but it depends...".
I hope here at Photoshopgurus to find, if possible, a sharper answer to my question!
Again, thanks to everybody will help me!
Fabio

 

[Jiax]

Fabthi,

I am no expert. So I expect you will receive other--more accurate--answers. But in my experience, the answer is a qualified yes. I believe, have read, and found through testing, that I can usually upsample one size to the next larger size.

The upsampled image loses some sharpness, it's is a little softer, but it is also clearer, not so pixelated, not so jagged when compared to a non-upsampled image blown up to the same size. Try upsampling a shot of a face and saving it. Then open the original and the upsampled image. Crop both down to a detailed area like the eye.

Then have the view for the cropped down eye in each image changed to fit the screen. You now have a very blown up image of the eye. You can compare directly and in my experience, the upsampled image is an improvement over the non-upsampled image at those larger sizes.

You'll want to experiment and I don't like the results when I've tried to upsample more than one size.

Good luck,

Jiax

 

[fabthi]

Fabthi,

The upsampled image loses some sharpness......
Good luck, Jiax

Hi Jiax
first, thanks for your advice.
Well, sharpness is something I should take care of since the pictures are plenty of buildings with fine details but of course I have to look for the best result in terms of general appearance of the image, and if this improvement could mean a bearable loss of sharpness than it's fine for me. I agree, the best thing to do is comparing the images obtained with different upsampling ratio although in my experience you can really see the difference only when you come to the final printing
Fabio