I have another exhibit of my electron micrographs coming up over the summer (more details soon). The museum wants to display the attached image printed around 4' wide. The original is only 5 MP (hey, what do you expect in a $1M microscope?), but I have successfully upsampled these images for other exhibits before--some to even larger sizes. This time, I am going to take this image that was on the journal cover and completely fill in the background with black. As you can see, I've done this before to a smaller version (attached one is actually downsampled from 3000+ px wide). However, given the size of the print, I want to re-do this so it is as close to perfect as possible. I basically do this all by hand with the paintbrush tool in Photoshop Elements 13. (I put the black on its own layer). Of course, I have played around with the magic wand tool, but I nearly always have to come along and touch things up, and in the end, it doesn't save me much if any time. Yes, it is painstaking work and is hard on my eyes, but I actually really enjoy it--it has sort of a meditative, (zen, if you'll pardon the cliche) quality to it.
Anyway, I am currently using LR4 and PS Elements 13. The last version of PS I had was CS4, and I do not feel I need the full version right now. BAsically all I need is the ability to create more complex masks than in LR, to use layers, and to work on images quickly without having to import (an annoying shortcoming in LR, IMO). Nearly all of my workflow for most of my images is in LR.
Anyway, here is what I have in mind for the image:
1.) Import into LR and do all tonal adjustments, sharpening, noise reduction, and up-sampling.
2.) Export as a TIF file
3.) Open TIF file in PS Elements, Create a layer for the black fill. Create a copy, flatten.
4.) Re-import into LR for soft-proof, and export with output sharpening appropriate for paper type (unsure right now)
The museum will do the printing, so I am just sending them the file. I will find out about ambient light, glass type, ink set, paper type and all that as well.
Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated. This museum is a very interesting venue, and I will have more details later! Thanks.
