Scaling Photos in Photoshop 6.0

[jeffla]

I take lots of photographs and often pick the better ones to scan (from a 4x6), scale and print in 8x10. I think I figures out the proper resolutions to use for scanning (1/3 of the print resolution). I am confused about the best way to upscale a photo in Photoshop. There are two paths that I've seen:

1. Use the Image/Image size dialogue box. I set the horizontal size to 8" and the vertical size jumps to 12", so I know I'll need to crop 2". I use the bicubic re-sample option and go for it. Once the picture is scaled, I figer out the best 2 " to crop and then priont an 8x10 . This works pretty well.

2. There is a sub-menu under the help menu called resize image. It takes your through a resizing wizard of sorts which asks questions which make little sense to me. It seems this is the way Photoshop recommends to do this, but I can't make sense of the directions.

Any recommendations on what works best?

Jeff

[DJ Dubovsky]

Hey welcome to Retouch. If your resolution is around 300 ppi you should be able to increase the size with out up sampling by going to Image Size and uncheck the Resample Image box. That will cause your resolution to lower to about 150 ppi as you type in the new dimensions but Photoshop won't have to add info that isn't already there and it should print at 8x10 with no visual difference.
DJ

[jeffla]

I scan at 800ppi which is 1/3 of my printer's (HP Deskjet 990cse) max resolution 2400pi.

[DJ Dubovsky]

That's great. Then there is no reason to have to resample. 300 was about the minimum size you could enlarge to 8x10 without having to resample. I don't like to resample if I can avoid it. You should be fine resizing when you scan at 800.
DJ

[jeffla]

I'll give it a try. Thanks for the tip