Increase Your Image Size

Welcome to this Photoshop Tutorial. This tutorial covers both Photoshop CS and Photoshop CS3 I will be showing you how to increase the size of your image by ten percent. And while we are about it, we will be creating an ACTION to make this task quick and simple, so one press of a button and it is automatically done for you. Ok then, lets get to it….

STEP 1

Firstly, open an image you want resize by 10%, or just any old image to practice on.

STEP 2

Now that you have opened your image, we will create an ACTION to automate the task of resizing the image, so if in the future you wish to apply the same technique to a different photo, you can simply do so at the touch of a button…. makes life a tad easier.

OK…so to create an action, open the ACTIONS PALETTE. AT the bottom of the palette, click on the create a new action button (second from the right, next to the trashcan!!)

STEP 3

This brings up the NEW ACTION window. Give the action a name that you can easily remember and recognize amongst the list of other actions that you will make in the future. I named mine, Resize image +10%, but anything will do just as long it makes sense to you later on…

Next thing is to allocate an ‘F’ key, (the ones at the top of your keyboard), or a ‘Function Key. you can use the keys between F2 – F12. with an option of using the shift and/or the ctrl keys in conjunction with the allocated ‘F’ key. On my pc it’s shift+F3.

And once you have given your action a new name and have allocated an ‘F’ key for the task, click RECORD on the right.

STEP 4

Ok, so now we have started to record the process to resize an image by +10%. Now we must go through the steps to do just that, so that Photoshop can record our steps one by one in the exact order that we perform them, so be fore-warned, making a mistake during the recording process will have to be undone later, and is a pain in the neck, so try to be careful.

We want to open the IMAGE SIZE window, you can do this by going to IMAGE–Image size, or use the keyboard shortcut, ALT+CTRL+I (CS3 ONLY)

STEP 5

In the IMAGE SIZE window, under Document Size, we must change the unit of measurement for the width and height values to PERCENT. Some of you may have photoshop set to centimeters or maybe inches, but no matter, you still change to percent!!

STEP 6

When you change the units to percent, the numeric values will change to 100 ( one hundred ). Select either width or height, and change the value from 100 up to 110. But make sure that the CONSTRAIN PROPORTIONS box is checked. Also select BICUBIC SMOOTHER from the bottom of the window. As you type in the higher value for either the height or width, the other should automatically increase by the same amount. When you have done that, click on OK on the right.

STEP 7

So now you have resized your image by +10% and at the same time have been recording your every move, that i am sure you have been ever so careful not to make a bugger up, and all that is left to do is bring a stop to the recording process, otherwise we’ll end up with endless amounts of recorded steps while we’re happily ensconced in the wonderful world of photoshop. So now open the ACTIONS PALETTE and click the STOP button right at the bottom on the left…way over on the left…thats it, the little square one!!

STEP 8

Congrats, you have just created an action to resize you images by +10%. So in the future, you can apply the same action to any image with the same results, weather it be a portrait layout or a landscape orientation, it make no difference, because the increase is constrained to the photo’s proportions. And another cool thing about this action is that you can apply it to the same photo a few times to make a poster size image. I have applied this technique to images up to ten times with negligible loss in image quality. Best thing would be to experiment and see how big you can get your photographs while maintaining a high quality in the image’s detail.

Well, that’s all for now folks. I hope you learned a new trick to add to your work flow, perhaps it’ll make your job a little easier. I know it makes a difference for me, and have been using it for years…

I hope to see you all back here soon as there is a new tutorial to be posted here soon.