Melissa Keeney

This has always eluded me and I can't seem to find any straight answers. I know why when you increase the size of a photo greatly it deteriorates in quality. But I also notice that when I try to make a large file small, it also looks awful and pixely. But I don't really know why or how to keep that from happening. I've been using the "image size" feature in photoshop. I also notice that when I take the same large photo and go to print it and tell it to fit the photo to the ( much smaller) media or send it to be printed at a company on smaller paper, the quality is perfectly fine even though that's also shrinking down the photo. I feel like I'm missing something glaringly obvious that everyone knows except me. lol Can you help?

So in a nutshell, you're saying it's more of a matter of time savings, rather than one technique producing better results than another?

I have seen several methods of dodging and burning out there. There's the 50% grey layer where you can either use the dodge and burn tools or a white and black brush. Then theres the soft light layer, using the black and white brushes. And the last method I've seen is using two curves adjustment layers and masking in dark and light where needed. Up to this point I've been using the 50% grey layer with the dodge and burn tools. While I almost exclusively leave the settings on midtones, I've always wondered if this method had an advantage because you could choose between highlights, midtones, and shadows. But I'm not really sure. What I would like to know is if one method has an advantage over the others and why? Or if certain methods are better for certain situations and what those would be?

I know this is god awful quality. Not only is it from a store security camera, but it's also a picture of a screen that my sister in law from Florida took. She was robbed in a store and this is one of the better views of the girls who did it. She was wondering if the picture could be improved at all for IDing purposes. I already asked her if she could get an actual screenshot from the video instead of just a picture of a screen, but she said no. She apparently was lucky that she even got these. I only know how to do basic sharpening in Photoshop, nothing drastic. Is there anything that can be done?