Cropping dimensions..advice please?

I'm sure this is SUCH a newbie question, but what is your crop method in PS? I usually type in my dimensions 4x6 and 300 dpi, but I'm sure that's not the best way. Especially, if I eventually want something bigger. I usually print off most pictures 4X6 for my family albums, but how should I crop if it's a clients pics?

Well you could still crop it but save the original in case they later want something different. You could also go to print, select your media and dimensions and move the image around at different scales to fit how you want, but that could be very time consuming.

I always leave the original intact. I will crop and resize and save under a new name. You never know when you will want a different size. I do it just like you explain most of the time. Type in the dimensions and then manually crop. I like the exacting control that this gives you. If I have alot of images to do and I am resizing without cropping, I either have or create an action to do this and then batch it.

I use the rectangular marquee tool to create my crops in the desired aspect ratio - use the "Fixed Aspect Ratio" option.

If I am working from a Photoshop file, I use the option in the Paths palette to create a work path from the selection, I then drag the work path to the new path button, and name it, for example, 3:2 crop. Using paths I can save crops of various different aspect ratios in my files without taking up much space.

To crop to one of these paths, I load the file, and use the New button in the History palette to create a new file (which stops me inadvertently saving a cropped file over the original version). I then right click on the path, Make Selection with a 0px feather, and Image -> Crop.


It sounds complicated, but when you're used to it, it's really very simple.

David

This is a very efficiant method. I like this method because it not only saves space but you can have alternate 4:5 crops of the same picture. Going from 3:2 to 4:5 can dramatically change the composition.

I had posted the method before, and nobody picked up on it. I think it's probably the most powerful way of storing crops in Photoshop files; they're very compact and, as you say, alternate crops are easily created and added to the files, adding no more than a couple of KBytes each.


I'd say that paths are probably a very under-used feature of Photoshop, but they provide a lot of power, too. Paths are particularly of importance when working with InDesign, as you can set up the clipping path for an image in Photoshop before linking the Photoshop file to an InDesign document.

However, I find myself using paths for other tasks as well - possibly because I'm familiar with the way paths work in Illustrator and Corel Draw. For example, when masking certain shapes with a fairly regular border, I've found myself turning my selection from my favourite selection tool (be it the Lasso or something like GrowCut) into a path via Make Work Path From Selection (if you hold down Alt when clicking the option you can choose the accuracy, which tunes the number of control points) and editing the path to a finished selection using the Direct Selection tool.

Indeed, if you're working in a path based mindset, you use the Pen and Freeform Pen tools instead of the Lasso, because they can create paths directly. Unfortunately there's no Magnetic Pen equivalent of the Magnetic Lasso, which is useful sometimes.


Another potentially underrated feature is layer effects, but that's a whole other story (apart from noting its use for framing and framing scripts - Mike's Framer makes heavy use of layer effects).

David