Resize Images Without Losing Quality | Photoshop Tutorial

In this Photoshop tutorial, learn how to resize images without losing quality by using smart objects instead of rasterized images.
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[@pixelandbracket]

Topaz Labs is the best image enhancer I've ever used: pxlbr.link/topazlabs

[@pixelandbracket]

I made a couple of courses on Skillshare! My Illustrator Class: skl.sh/2z0MViZ My Photoshop Class: skl.sh/2jbp4V4

[@pixelandbracket]

Guide To Getting It On really appreciate that!!

[@thethomasboy]

Step 1: Start with a high-res image. Step 2: Done. ...Helpful. Thanks.

[@pixelandbracket]

Agreed.

[@DianaVBV]

You can also start with a picture, NOT size it down, and then no pixelation will occur. Then try NOT enlarging it, so nothing happens to your pixels.

[@pixelandbracket]

Resizing photos in Photoshop documents while creating composites is an incredibly common process

[@thethomasboy]

@@DianaVBV Bwahahaa... is THAT what you think I (and others) are doing? You are technically correct, tho: Reducing an image's resolution -- only to re-enlarge -- would be silly, not to mention redundant. If only clients understood how raster images work...

[@DianaVBV]

...I was agreeing with you. You are a little paranoid. I was agreeing and being a little sarcastic... just like you were.

[@scottk1525]

Thanks for the video, though not quite what I was hoping for given the title. How does one increase an image *beyond* 100% without losing quality? I think that's what most people who click this video are probably interested in. Cheers.

[@pixelandbracket]

you are exactly right. the problem is that beyond 100%... quality loss is unavoidable. there's a grey area, maybe between 100-125% that the image is still acceptable (depending on the format/publication). HOWEVER, there are some techniques to help cover up some of the quality loss (surface blur, unsharp mask, etc). based on the popularity of this tutorial and the number of people searching for ways to increase quality I definitely plan on recording a tutorial showing a few of those processes. thanks for the comment though Scott, I'll let you know when I release that video!

[@chasenuuhiwa]

That is actually the exact thing I was thinking. Deceiving title.

[@thethomasboy]

​@@pixelandbracket I think many people would find a succinct yet comprehensive tutorial like this very useful. The infinite complexity and power of the tools PS / AI offer, can make lower-res images 'workable' -- though the process can be daunting. Many freelance and amateur designers (like myself) simply lack the time or experience to properly enlarge/vectorize the lo-res images we get from clients. Creating a tutorial(s) that shows the process, then optimum 'starting settings' for general use, then continues with tweaking examples by displaying how each tool works would be invaluable.

[@ajaybaxi6794]

Same query here

[@dalton8082]

Gigapixel

[@AlexArtist325]

This tutorial shows you how to use smart objects to retain the full quality of your images while adjusting them in Photoshop. I think some people might be looking for a way to enlarge a low quality photo to make a high quality one, but that's simply not possible. Images are made up of pixels and there are only so many to work with. If you resize a low quality image, it will look pixelated. Photoshop can only do so much interpolation based on the surrounding pixels. You can add sharpening and blur effects, but at the end of the day it's not a high quality photo. As a professional designer, you will need to find a better photo, sadly there's no magic bullet.

[@LORDSofCHAOS333]

Yeah but in a way those are also the limit's of the photo quality as well. If the photo or image has at least 300 DPI it will be okay for prints and no matter what size we print it . In some parts it will alweys look bad like blurry or not crispy . I only can wish to see the day when we find a way to rezie it no matter in what size and never lose the same quality . A mix between vector and Rez

[@michealjohn5578]

this is actually the answer i was looking for, thx man

[@SkimoStories]

Except there is. They're all paid software, but vectorize, etc, do this.

[@vapandrei]

That's called clickbait. :) What I do is report, downvote and hit "don't recommend this channel".

[@theWayoftheHero]

The only way you can upscale an image or video without quality loss is with an AI upscaler. I use Gigapixel for photos. Works like a charm.

[@CC-hd7bp]

Omg thank you!!!!!!!! I completely forgot this while trying to create composited photos for class.. dude you saved my grade! Yay I can finish my fictional photography class!!!! I hope this works!

[@bobp160]

Wow, no one in my photo club could figure out how to resize down w/o getting all pixelated. THANK YOU! Now I know.

[@ramseshernandez6062]

Thanks a million!!! I've been trying so hard to downsize a huge panorama for a small print and kept losing all the amazing quality. This really helped! Thank you!

[@pixelandbracket]

+Ramses Hernandez right on, I’m glad it helped!

[@joesilk3300]

Amazing, been trying to downsize an infographic for a portfolio for ages, and finally I know how. Thank you!!

[@xDaniTooMuch]

YOURE A GODSEND. KNOW THIS.

[@donjoel6754]

Thank you so so much Pixel and Bracket. I used to watch your videos back when I did photography professionally, its good to see your content is still helpful and amazing.

[@user-wq9mw2xz3j]

sure you have a 15 sec intro but I LOVE how you get right into it after!

[@xophotoable]

Great tutorial and thank you for sharing it, question: is this the same process regardless of what size you choose to print?

[@MizBryteEyez]

Thank you, I am near tears. I had a very nostalgic snapshot of my now deceased mother. Unfortunately the only copy of that image was 72 resolution (pulled from Facebook archives).. I desperately needed/wanted too be able to print to a 20x60. I had tried many things such as printing it out then scanning it back in as a slightly larger size.

[@AllStar]

I thought this wasn't gonna work at first but once I did File then clicked place and scaled the image it worked perfectly. Thanks man!

[@5moh]

yoo allstar im a fan

[@MizBryteEyez]

OMG Thank you! I first searched for a font or premade. I wanted it the font to place in the corner of a photo we are mounting to the wall in our Gallery. Nearly fell out of my chair learning how easy it is. Again I thank you.💕

[@jobmartin9561]

Well, thank you, sir, for solving a problem I've dinged around with for a thousand years Right When It Really Counted! Thank you!

[@jobmartin9561]

@Its Ur Mom Duh This is classic. Love it! ... I am only a thousand years young today.

[@kow833]

Thank you so much this helped me a lot!!

[@gr8tone332]

Thanks love. It was wonderful and very helpful

[@fishfreak911]

Great explanation!! Not too much fluff and just enough information to make me fully understand this. The only recommendation I would have moving forward is to maybe explain what you need to do for PCs as well as Max. Luckily, I know enough to know how to translate it. Thanks for the help!

[@victorzimbardi1104]

This was very helpful! It was really good to finally learn what the difference was between rasterized and smart objects are!

[@swarnsingh3378]

÷: the

[@WhenCutVenKat]

That was awesome, thanks a ton!

[@WuxiaNovelsAudiobookHD]

Thank you very much for this! I can now resize my sprites without blur!

[@FLOWTUTS]

Nice ^^ thnak you spencer

[@franky1cool]

Thank you.. I got the right answer what I was looking for. Very simple yet much understandable.

[@pixelandbracket]

Awesome I’m glad to help!

[@doc1701]

Thanks for taking the time to upload such a quality tutorial without all the useless chit-chat often heard in other tutorials. As an amateur this was very useful to me.

[@pixelandbracket]

Thanks for your comments! I try to get to the point most times haha

[@donn4life]

Thank you! For those who don't know: you don't have to have the image saved on your PC. You can just Right-click any image and click Convert to Smart Object! I didn't want to have all images in my document saved on my pc so looked into it and found it's that simple. However, @Pixel & Bracket, do you maybe know of some downsides to this? Just curious, since maybe there is a reason why it's not mentioned in the video. Thanks again, this vid helped me!

[@joannemanginelli3612]

This is exactly what I needed. Very easy to follow. Thank you. JoM

[@williamechavarria5872]

Hey Spencer, Thank you very much you just save my life. Great Job!!!!

[@pixelandbracket]

You’re welcome, i really appreciate the comment!!

[@mikek545]

Not what I was looking for but did learn something great, thank you Sir!

[@wuwba]

Ive done this. But every single time i take a big image and make it small and look at the picture its pixilated even though its a high res image and i did everything right.

[@iresatnom]

thanks for your solution, I'm fresh in it and you helped me so much.

[@OliOop]

SUPER helpful. Thanks!

[@robox2725]

Finally, I’ve been searching for a good tutorial on resizing in photoshop, thank you!!

[@pixelandbracket]

nice! you're welcome!

[@jesse8721]

that was great ... I learned something new. Thanks !

[@nikolay_2134]

Thanks man...u made it simple and achievable...appreciate you, subbed

[@pixelandbracket]

You’re welcome Lebowski!

[@cheongmh7215]

Hi Spancer, I found your videos are very helpful, I would like to thank you for your kind sharing. Would you mind to share how to increase the the quality of the photo for example an image with low pixels / resolution to higher pixels/resolution. Thank you.

[@marvinportillo3382]

sir, thank you! I've learned something valuable !!

[@Fantasticleman]

Thx bud! All I needed was the "Ctrl+T" but I left a like and let the video play through to support ya! 😁👍

[@heyjudit9062]

Wooow... very clear, easy, 6 complete explanation, thanks dude.. i luv u

[@monke8195]

Lol gay. Jk haha good meme very skratta

[@saeedsedigh1032]

This video really helped me , Thank you

[@cheliae8560]

Thank you for that easy to understand tutorial!

[@ChannelChippy]

Thanks dude! it helps me out with my current project! cheers! :)

[@ela2006]

Awesome, thank you very much

[@sadesign9575]

Perfect teaching! Finally something worth it. Thanks so much.

[@AlMamunVideos]

Hello Spencer, love your vids. Can you make a tutorial on how to make low res images to "somewhat" workable high res? Thks.

[@pixelandbracket]

+Mohammed Al Mamun ill try to collect a couple techniques that I've used and put something together!

[@erdemsekerpare]

First of all, in Photoshop resizing the images will get re-calculate (draw) in every single time from last layer, hence it will eventually cause poor quality when u increase and then decrease the size. Theres no way to escape it in rasterized file-layers due to Photoshop’s program build. its simply not vector based program. For turning around this photoshop has 2 thing; linked layers and smart object. Those 2 option always uses the original file’s base information. Hence when u increase size and then shrink it, it always uses the original size. And this is the optimum way of using files in Photoshop. Else gtfo and use illustrator. As for increasing sizes, using the pixel ratio change is the way to go. it shows u the best possible resolution of your file instead of manually changing sizes. Another tip, always use 10 20 25 50 75 100 etc. Way to increase file size with changing pixel sizes. it will reduce the work load of Photoshop due its redrawing it every single time when u change the file. it will increase the life span of your picture and reducing the quality loss. So in short ur informations are simply for amateurs and not an actual tip. its the way it should be.

[@TheGalvestontx]

Thanks for the helpful video! I used this for my last thumbnail on my last video!👍

[@SpectralightPhoto]

Nice tutorial Spencer! I hope you can help me out on this... In Photoshop CS6, I'm trying to take an image that is 390 x 390 pixels @ 300 ppi and change it to 512 x512 pixels at whatever ppi needed to keep it the same overall file size... maybe 512 x 512 pixels @ 200 ppi. But when I change the height and width in Image Size > Pixel Dimensions, I can't seem to adjust the Resolution under Document Size without the Pixel Dimensions changing to some other numbers. I've Googled this issue but haven't found a way to work this out. Any suggestions? Thanks!

[@barefoot9001]

this tutorial save my life !!! thx

[@motorcycleprincess]

didnt really help my case but thanks i still learned something new lol

[@namalfernando]

Thank you. I Learned something new.

[@pixelandbracket]

you're welcome!

[@pixelandbracket]

FYI - holding shift & option is my favorite way to resize elements... learn it, use it, love it!

[@thetruetimedesigner]

Pixel & Bracket that's the easiest and the best way..

[@Gelato41_]

How the fuck do you resize on windows

[@pixelandbracket]

Shift + alt

[@mickeydekoe2136]

@@pixelandbracket it does not work. using photoshop 2015. please help

[@IronIsKing]

@@mickeydekoe2136 it works on photoshop cs6 and cc

[@kamalchoudhary8364]

Its very helpful tutorials.

[@panjae3418]

Thank you! I'm a concept art student and this week we had to photobash (with crappy images) and my resolution absolutely sucked! This tip definitely made a difference!

[@jacobthomson9369]

Excellent.Thank you.

[@allenblevins5878]

This video was such a huge help! Earned a like and subscribe! Thanks so much!

[@strawberryfortressstrawber8015]

Just what I was after, thanks buddie.

[@UralaTAO]

The title indicate a different subject then you talked about.

[@emm_gee1294]

I cant believe i have been using photoshop for years and didn't realize that was going on when I was scaling up or down. Well dang, I guess I wasnt paying attention in class to this part of the lesson. I been doing a different way for years to compensate for image quality. This is much easier, thank you.

[@pixelandbracket]

Finally someone who understands this tutorial! Thanks for watching :)

[@emm_gee1294]

Pixel & Bracket well they are probably the same people who can't use coupons correctly at a grocery store either lol. Some people just don't use common sense in hand with reading the fine print. Even though I didn't end up using your method, rather taking a bunch of macro photos and stitching them together to make a big image that was clear at the one inch eye level and not blurry. But nonetheless learned something from your video.

[@suresh1957]

Extremely useful tip. Thanks a lot !

[@pixelandbracket]

You’re welcome!!

[@holliewilliams8696]

Doing some coursework for Uni - you're a lifesaver!

[@pixelandbracket]

woo!

[@sophiedolan5485]

Super appreciate it this! fast and to the point

[@siLox95]

exactly what i was looking for - thanks

[@michellerodrigues1343]

You are definitely a life savour! Cheers!

[@pixelandbracket]

+Michelle Rodrigues haha I would go THAT far :)

[@TexasCowboy6]

Thank you for the tutorial.

[@Mike0193Azul]

Thanks so much for this video ✊🏽

[@thetruetimedesigner]

Really essential one Spencer! Good one..👍

[@scott5087]

Great video! Question for you: I’m trying to make a video with a bunch of small images of people, would it be alright if go about it with a colored background?

[@pixelandbracket]

I mean, based on your description I don't see why not!

[@filia-kun]

omo this saved me thanks a lot!!

[@IllG0RhythmT3st3r]

Woah, very helpful!

[@nedmelvin8594]

What about if your trying to drag another layer from another project?? how do you stop that from pixellating?​ I tried dragging it in from desktop and reducing the size of layer manually first.

[@arielBOSS11]

TY so much, very helpful!

[@pixelandbracket]

+ariel boss you're welcome!

[@takich9317]

I learnt something thank you, my presentation will look great

[@fanofnishantjagga5498]

Man you are like god to me❤️ thank you so much for making this video. You are the only who made video on this problem🔥 thank you sooooooooo much🔥

[@sarahsezyes]

I have 2 images, one of a tattoo on a womanʻs arm, the other of a newborn baby. They are not the same scale. Desired end result: momʻs tattoo on babyʻs arm. Do I start with a blank document, res 300, drag each photo in, then resize to match scale, or do I try to resize first and then drag in? Thanks for the tutorial.

[@pixelandbracket]

+Sarah Satterlee yes definitely start a new document sized as large as you need. Then place both images, or drag in. They should come in as smart objects and from there you’re free to scale up and down as much as you want. Keep the images at 100% or lower scale and you will be working with max quality

[@bnataliya]

thanks, Spencer. Few years with photoshop and didn't know it((( What is difference between smart object and .. other? What can I do with JPEG and can't do with a smart object?

[@pixelandbracket]

that's a really good question actually, I'm glad you asked because I think it deserves a follow-up video. the biggest difference between the two is that smart objects are not DIRECTLY editable. that doesn't mean they aren't editable however, you can apply filters, masks and layer styles. you can also stack adjustment layers above them as well as layers that use clone stamp or dodge & burn. and finally, a smart object is like having an embedded photoshop document, you can actually double-click on the thumbnail and jump to the original image, edit it to your like, hit save, and jump back to your composite PSD and it will update. pretty cool stuff, if anything it's absolutely more advantageous just a little different workflow but all completely non-destructive

[@bnataliya]

Pixel & Bracket , you make me dizzy))). It definitely needs a follow up VIDEO

[@pixelandbracket]

hahaha, i was driving while thinking up that answer and DEFINITELY saw a follow-up video :)

[@twitchc-gonzalez6873]

Nataliya Boyko they're Shamy

[@CallumAitkenMusic]

Nice one cheers mate ! only video I found that solved my issue

[@shockerson]

Man i love You :D hahah

[@dasolati]

This was such a big help thanks so much!

[@pixelandbracket]

you're welcome, happy to help!

[@ausfan100]

Thanks Spencer. Actually, it was only AFTER I sent my first query to you, and before your reply, that I noticed there is an option listed in the LAYERS menu to convert images to a Smart Object - which answered one of my questions. So I take it from your reply that there is no 'DOWNSIDE' to saving any image as a Smart Object?....in other words, it won't prevent me doing any further processing of the image for later projects?

[@pixelandbracket]

NO downside. if you have any troubles just let me know!

[@OpalToday]

Hi Ive got a 3" x 5" b+w photo that I want to use to either paint or sketch. I'd like to enlarge it to A3 size but even A4 is too blurry. The original may be 50 or more years old. Is there any way to enlarge it and have clarity? Thank you.

[@HoundDogRock]

Hi Spencer! Thanks for the tutorial. I'm currently making a collage of pictures. However, I want to remove the background in each picture, so every single one needs to be rasterized before scaling it to different sizes. How would you suggest going about this project? Removing the background of each image without resizing, and saving it again as a png or PSD before importing them as a smart object into the PSD document?

[@pixelandbracket]

Remove the background using a mask, not by erasing the photo

[@HoundDogRock]

​@@pixelandbracket Thanks for the quick reply! Unfortunately, after downscaling the image with the mask applied and then upscaling it again, the mask gets pixelated while the image remains perfect. Merging the image with the mask before scaling doesn't seem possible. Any idea on how I could solve this?

[@Tzedakah263]

You just saved my assignment, thanks!

[@generaldesigner6137]

well yes, it just saves the og file in smart object. To increse this effect use the tiff file if possible. While u are in side the smart object convert the color profile from RGB to LAB, this way if u change colors do your edit, your images dont get reckt by the hue

[@pxjesse8128]

Hey man, I loved this old intro song, what's it called? It sounds a lot like Proleter's Can't Stop Me, but I couldn't find it online...

[@pixelandbracket]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/hF67l5prdrWrn80

[@zerosandones7547]

very helpful thanks

[@epicadventure01]

Thank you a bunch man this was verry helpful

[@magdatojr.rolandom.6907]

You nailed it! Awesome 😊

[@babylove2150]

simple, easy to remember and very helpful. Thank you

[@ruebenrigor1846]

2019 anyone? Thanks mate! You're awesome.

[@pixelandbracket]

2020 ‘round the corner!

[@minapourerfan1180]

Thanks an ocean my friend , it was so useful💎

[@bigtm6216]

I need to do be able to do this to a picture that is about the size of an I.d .what is the best method to go about this? Thank you for your time.

[@lowpolytigerfigurine]

YOU SAVED MY LIFE THAKN YOUUU !!

[@mayabitar1316]

Hello, thank you for your shar3d knowledge of this information, but if thier is by any chance if i can improve the resolution of a screen shoted picture from the pc and not a regular jpg???? (copy from pc then pasting in phd).

[@melaniehayward6064]

this helped so much thankyou

[@NaeReese]

Wish it was more to the point but you helped me. Thanks

[@marieb2898]

Hey! I've downsized my image using smart object but when I save/export it it stays just as big. How can you save a resized (smaller) smart object to that size?

[@OriginalBiggie1]

Thank you so much sir.

[@pixelandbracket]

+originalbiggie1 you're very welcome!

[@notinusesoon4975]

PS 2019 doesn't import images as smart objects now or is it just me

[@timsolnze7300]

Convert it into smart object yourself then.

[@harrychufitness]

@@Nyaton Layers Tab > right click the layer > Convert to Smart object.