MRHooker2u Loc: Kingston, WA

Here is a situation I am having a hard time understanding. I took some photos years ago with a Sony 4 mp camera (I believe it was a CyberShot model. All I know is that is was 4 mp). The photos came out super sharp. I would now like to use one of those photos and add my signature & logo. It was originally shot at a resolution of 72 dpi. Using On1 Photo Raw I increased the size and the resolution to 300 dpi and exported it as a .jpg. My understanding is that On1 does not just increase the size of the photo or increase the resolution by adding pixels but uses algorithms and fractals to increase everything as if the scene was photographed at the desired resolution. I opened the photo in Affinity Photo with the intent to add the logo also at 300 dpi. The inserted logo was very pixelated and difficult to read (I added the logo in the middle of the building to show the clarity of the original photo along with the pixelation of the logo). Adding the logo to a photo shot on my Nikon full frame at 300 dpi is no problem. The logo looks very sharp and legible.
Can someone explain why the pixelation, even though the base photo, though originally shot at 72 dpi, is now at the desired resolution? Thanks!

(Download)

therwol Loc: USA

I don't know the answer, but if you post the photo again with the "store original" option, readers will be able to download the photo and see more detail to see what may be going on.

hassighedgehog Loc: Corona, CA

How did you add the logo? If done in a layer in Photoshop or Elements the resolution would be in that layer, which is sort of independent of the original picture's resolution.

MRHooker2u Loc: Kingston, WA

This is done in Affinity Photo as a layer. I have not seen anything in Affinity Photo where the layer resolution is different that the base image. I will have to research that. Thanks for the idea.

rehess Loc: South Bend, Indiana, USA

Are you talking about the area that says "M.R. Hooker, Eye For Creation"? That area is only roughly 94 x 24 pixels now - of course it is pixelated. I don't know how large it was before you added it to this image, nor how you added it.

lamiaceae Loc: San Luis Obispo County, CA

Yuck, why are you putting a logo / ID / Water Mark right in the middle of an image? It should be in a bottom corner, in this case bottom left where it is mostly dark.

"dpi"? digital resolution is ppi. But I think I know what you meant. How big is your logo / signature in actual pixels x pixels? And in inches x inches?

I'd really like to see someone else's explanation. But I have suspicions that you can not do what you are trying to do the way you are doing it.

One issue. How did you upload your original images to your computer? The only time or when I see 92ppi images from a camera is before they are processed though Adobe Camera Raw. My "copied over" files are all 300ppi be it JPG (8-bit) or RAW (16-bit)(as I usually shoot). My cameras are 14-bit. I've never used a digital camera less than 6.1 MP and they looked pretty good too considering. Certainly not to the huge sizes I can get with my 24MP camera.

rgrenaderphoto Loc: Hollywood, CA

You can decrease dpi when exporting, but if you export at a higher dpi you get the results you saw.

MRHooker2u Loc: Kingston, WA

I put the logo in the middle of the picture so the view could compare the logo versus the clarity of the photo. This photo was shot 13 years ago when 4 mp was pretty standard for a small cybershot camera.

jrm21

72dpi is not a resolution. The original photo is 4MP. That’s the resolution. Unless you up-sampled the photo, changing the dpi from 72 to 300 would have no effect on the photo. It would have the same resolution (number of pixels). DPI (actually, PPI is the correct term) only has to do with output size. PPI is essentially meaningless when discussing resolution.

A 300px x 300px image should print out as 1” x 1”. Change the setting to 72ppi and it will print out at 4.17” x 4.17”. It will have the same number of pixels, only the larger 72ppi version will appear less sharp as the pixels are larger/spread out more. On a computer screen, this a largely irrelevant as the image will be resized regardless of the ppi setting.

What matters here is:
1. What is the size (in pixels) of the original image
2. What is the size (in pixels) of the logo

A 4MP image is roughly 2400x1600 pixels or about 8” x 5.5” printed at 300ppi. You cannot insert a 100x100px logo into that image and expect it to be sharp if enlarged to be 1” x 1” in that printout. You also cannot take that 100x100px logo and change the setting to “300ppi” and expect it to be sharp. You need the pixels in the original image.

There are two items which are probably the cause of your problem. First, you logo image is small and you enlarged it resulting in a pixelated image. Second, you saved it as a jpeg. Depending on how much compression you used, it likely further reduced the quality of the already degraded enlargement.

Grahame Loc: Fiji

rehess Loc: South Bend, Indiana, USA

Can you post the two original images you combined to make this one?

MRHooker2u Loc: Kingston, WA

Thanks for clarifying the dpi versus the ppi. I will take that into consideration and look at how I created the logo. I inserted it as a .png so it would overlay the photo.

As I pointed out in my post: "My understanding is that On1 does not just increase the size of the photo or increase the resolution by adding pixels but uses algorithms and fractals to increase everything as if the scene was photographed at the desired resolution." I'm still learning about On1.

rlv567 Loc: Baguio City, Philippines

Inasmuch as you're using ON1, why don't you use ON1 to apply the logo??? It's very quick, super easy and produces a great finished product (given, of course, that you start with a good logo).

Loren - in Beautiful Baguio City

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

As you can see by the responses, this is confusing. You might be better off asking how to make a certain image into logo or icon. Starting from scratch is often easier than making corrections. We will have to know how large, in pixels, you want to logo to be.

rehess Loc: South Bend, Indiana, USA

That is why I suggested posting original image and original logo before attempted merge.