Nocturne

Tools / Upscale Crop

Toolbar tool

Upscale Crop

Enlarge a crop 2× — and see, side by side with your original, exactly what enlarging changed.

Upscale Crop comparing the original Elephant's Trunk crop with its 2x enlargement side by side, the navigator showing where the view is
The original crop and its 2× enlargement at the same size, moving together as you zoom and pan — the stars on the right drawn tighter. Click to enlarge.

What it does

Takes a crop of your finished image and makes it twice as large, for a tighter view of a subject that is small in the full frame.

It is not a plain resize. Nocturne separates the stars from everything else, enlarges the two apart, draws the enlarged stars a little tighter so they stay points instead of growing into discs, and puts them back together.

How to use it

  1. Stretch your image, then click Upscale Crop in the toolbar.
  2. Drag the crop box around your subject — it opens on Free — or pick a Shape: Original, 1:1, 5:4, 4:3, 3:2 or 16:9, and Portrait to turn it tall, for a picture headed for a particular place. The panel shows the size it will become.
  3. Click Upscale 2×. Separating the stars takes a moment; Cancel stops it.
  4. Judge the result: your crop, Before, on the left — at 100% each of its pixels is a 2×2 block — and Nocturne's enlargement on the right. Zoom or pan either and the other follows. Wipe lays them on top of each other with a divider you drag.
  5. Adjust Star tightening until the stars look right — the view updates as you move it.
  6. Export the result, or Open as copy to keep editing it as a new project.

Upscaling cannot invent detail that is not there. It is for framing tight on a subject, not for rescuing a soft image.

What to expect

Limits

How large it can be depends on your computer's memory. Enlarging needs working room — about 160 MB for every megapixel the enlarged picture has — so Upscale allows itself up to 40% of the installed memory and leaves the rest for your system and other apps:

  • 8 GB of memory: up to about 21 MP
  • 16 GB: up to about 42 MP — enough for a whole S30 Pro or S50 Pro frame, which becomes 33 MP
  • 32 GB: up to about 85 MP
  • More than that: 100 MP at most

The window shows your computer's limit. A crop that would come out larger is refused, with the reason beside the button: choose a smaller crop or a shape.

Noise is enlarged too. Run Noise Reduction first — enlarging makes noise twice as visible, and Nocturne reminds you when it has not been applied.

Tips

A small text file saved beside each export records the crop, the scale and the star tightening, so you can make the same picture again.

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New to Nocturne? The guide walks through every step in order.