Re: [Gimp-user] New User Need Help Enlarging/Enhancing Image

[Matthew Woehlke <mwoehlke floss gmail com>]

On 2018-08-15 15:14, nickib wrote:
> Wow - the revision you created is beautiful!  Honestly I don’t understand most
> of your explanation but the end product would be perfect!  Bottom line - how
> large - realistically- could that be made and still look good?

With my version, *as is*, I wouldn't go crazy, but again, that version
doesn't have any 'art filters' applied yet.

I would recommend heading over to Image → Scale Image, punch in 300 dpi
and then your target size (in inches). Then fiddle with Oilify and/or
Gimpressionist. Applying unsharp mask first with a low radius and
moderately high intensity (I used 3.0 and 0.6) will help enhance the
contrast at edges and may provide more "definition" after the art
filter. Anyway, play around, inspect a few areas on your monitor at 100%
zoom and, if they look good, go for it.

You should probably do a test print at a much smaller size to check that
the color comes out acceptably before committing to a large size. You
could also print a cropped area from your target size to get a feel for
what it looks like.

Oilify is okay, but a little plain. I've mostly fiddled with
Gimpressionist. Some settings that seem to work well are:
- paper: low or zero relief
- brush: low or zero relief, crayon08 or play around
- orientation: 30 vars, start 0, span 360, adaptive
- size: use adaptive, play around with the rest
- placement: evenly distributed, crank density to max
- color: center, low or zero noise
- general: keep original, paint edges, not tilable, no shadow,
           no edge darken

This takes a while time to apply... try experimenting on a small area
and go get lunch or something while it works on your whole image.
Really, I'd just encourage you to play around with it and see what you
like. I was going for a more "accurate" look, but there are all sorts of
things you can do if you're willing to sacrifice detail for a more
abstract look. Keep in mind your target size also when picking a brush
size; larger (100 or more) will look more "realistic" and less like a
painting made by an army of ants (i.e. with really tiny brushes).

Honestly, with this approach, I think the real limiting factor is how
big an image your computer can handle. Crank the brush size up to 200
and you could maybe have something that looks good (at 300dpi) even at
8' (96") wide.

-- 
Matthew