Beginner tackling fuzzy edges

[tr0j]

Hi, mucking about with contrasts and b&w I notice some diagonal edges are fuzzy. Original and blow up, below. Can these be removed in pp?

Cheers,
Justin

[OzzieTraveller]

G'day Justin

To my knowledge mate - no ... there is no way to completely remove these 'fuzzy edges'
What you are seeing is the horizontal rows of pixels picking up the colour change between a "dark bit" and a "light bit"

The more pixels the sensor has, the finer are the pixels and the less pronounced visible effect - sure, but when you mix howizontals with diagonals, you'll always get this effect to some degree
Whether you can -or need to- remove it via pp, I think the answer is 'no'

Regards, Phil

[kiwi]

These are called jaggies and are often due to over sharpening

[ricktas]

If you print you will not notice these unless you have tried to print to big. Print ink 'bleeds' and merges with the droplets beside each other and they will not appear in a print generally. If they do you are printing to big for the size of the image.

[tr0j]

Thanks Phil, I shall watch my diaganols & howizontals. : )
Thanks Kiwi, will re-visit the sharpening. That explains why my cat's whiskers became 'jaggies' in another shot.
Thanks Rick, good to know. May be a while before we get to printing anything, but I'll cut & paste that to the book-of-secrets.

[arthurking83]

That enlarged view looks to be more than 100%(zoomed in) view.

When pixel peeping it pays to never go beyond the 100% view point.. there is simply no reason to do so.

When editing, there is an advantage in zooming in deeper.. as deep as 2000%, to get fine detail edited the way you want it to be, but for viewing, the effort is wasted.

so, if this closeup is a 400% view, then what you see is simply normal stuff, and no cause for concern.

if you want more detail, use a longer focal length or get closer. If you want a larger print, use a larger(more Mp) camera or create a stitch/pano montage.
When you hear or see the term 3x digital zoom in a P&S camera, this is basically what it is and does.

[tr0j]

Thanks arthurking83, I notice the fuzziness looking at pic #1 and I find it distracting. image#1 is at 50mm, cropped slightly. image#2 is highly enlarged but not for any other purpose than to highlight what I perceive as a problem in #1. I realise I am too picky. And image#1 is not something I'd print, as it is an exercise in contrasts, CPLs and B&w. As a beginner I hadn't heard of jaggies before. In computer games one can overcome these jaggies with anti-aliasing. I had hoped there might be a simple CS5 tool that anti-aliases (for the want of a better word).
Since medium format is not within budget in my pre-lotto period, I shall try out the longer fl as you suggest or get a ladder. : )
Much appreciated advice nonetheless.