Genuine Fractals - Help

[joseelias]

I’ve been reading a few reviews about Genuine Fractals qualities but none of them was very clear.

Does anyone have experience with this software? Is it really great or it does not bring much value over the bicubic resizing?

I’ve also read that it requires from the start large files to produce good results, so that small size files do not differ much from the mentioned bicubic resizing. Considering that I own a Canon Powershot A70 with 3.2 megapixel, are the files big enough to achieve good results?

My problem is that I have a series of images that could be worth trying to print in large sizes, but my original files are not suitable for prints larger than A4 (20cmx30cm / 8x12 inches). Is this software a solution for my problems?

Considering I can not afford a better camera this could be a temporary solution for my problem.

Any advises are welcome! :-)

[Mike]

Hi Jose,

I downloaded a trial version of this a few months back, you can get it at:

<a href="http://www.lizardtech.com/solutions/gf/" target="_blank">http://www.lizardtech.com/solutions/gf/</a>

The software is actually quite good at what it claims, much better than trying to resize an image with Photoshop, though they do stress that for best results your images should already be of a good quality, preferably without JPG artefacts.

It's worth trying the trial version, you get a set number of trys before the demo ceases to function, I think it's around ten, enough time to evaluate whether the quite high cost of the software is worthwhile.

[joseelias]

Thanks, I've downloaded the trial already and it gives me 20 trys

And is it preferable to do it in the original images without any work on them or it maybe used in processed images without problems?

[Gix]

Hi Jose,
i'm not have deeph experience with genuine fractas, but i can recommend to you (for REALLY BIG phot print) the software "Qimage pro" <a href="http://www.ddisoftware.com/qimage" target="_blank">http://www.ddisoftware.com/qimage</a>
The enlarge algorithm is very good and the results (in my case with 4Mpix shots) are amazing.
You can make also posters, with a compo (p.es. 4 prints A4) also if yor printer is only A4.
;-)) Giorgio

[Mike]

It's a bit confusing Jose, the twenty that is referred to actually works out to be TEN images, that's because each 'access' is counted, and it takes two accesses to create one large image. How it works is:

You load up your image in Photoshop, do any creative manipulation of the image (so, yes, you can process them as much as you like first), you then SAVE them using the new extension that Genuine Fractals gives you (first access).

Now, LOAD your image back up, this invokes the Genuine Fractals program where you choose how large you want to make the image, this is the second access, so halving the number that was quoted, giving ten try-outs altogether.

[Gix]

Look what Michael Reichmann write in
<a href="http://www.luminous-landscape.com/reviews/fractals.shtml" target="_blank">http://www.luminous-landscape.com/reviews/fractals.shtml</a>
The difference (with bicubic) is not too big and apparently the results are better beginning with large files!
;-) Giorgio

[joseelias]

Thanks for all you feedback! It has been very useful indeed!