Post Processing #4 - Cropping

OK, here's my original shot viewed at 16%

We're going to crop some of the ugliness out which will also zoom in a bit to the coyote.


One way to crop is to use the Crop Tool (Holy Cow!) which can be chosen by pressing C or by clicking on the tool on the toolbar:


The Crop Tool is easy - it has little handles on each edge and corner to allow you to move the edges. Put the mouse cursor inside one of those boxes and the cursor turns into a double arrow - now just click and drag the corner or edge. You can drag the crop box around, too - click anywhere inside the box and hold the mouse button down and drag the crop box around. Play with it until you get the composition you wish.


If you care about the dimension, check the Info Palette - over on the right you get the current dimensions of the final image after cropping. You might not want to go below a certain size or you may wish it to be a particular size. I sized it to 1800x1200, since this will evenly resize to 600x400 and the math was easy.


You'll see that I got rid of 3 ugly things - the tree in the upper left corner, the patch of dirt, and the almost overblown patch of grass in the lower left. I dragged the crop box over a bit to get the coyote off-center a bit but I didn't have much room so he's almost centered.

I'm ready to crop, so I can shoose Image... Crop or just double-click anywhere inside the crop box. Yahoo! Done.



OK, here's another way to crop - using the Marquee Tool. It's more difficult but has a couple of advantages. Select the Marquee Tool by pressing M, or choose it from the toolbar:


Just click somewhere and drag until you've got the size you want, and let go.


Well, I didn't get this so perfect. I can drag it around like the Crop Tool, but I can't change the dimensions once I let go. And you can see that this isn't so perfect - I included some of the blown-out grass and some of the dirt pile.

Heck! The Marquee Tool stinks for this!

Fear not - the Marquee tool has some advantages. First, check out the tool bar at the top. The Style is usually set to "Normal" but there are hidden gems under there - namely "Fixed Aspect Ratio" and "Fixed Size"

Are you going to print at 8x10 or 5x7? Then Fixed Aspect Ratio is your friend.


Simply type 5 in the first box, and 7 in the second. Now when you click and drag the marquee it will hold to that aspect ratio.

Oh, darn. I want 5x7 but in landscape, which means I want 7x5 really. No problem, simply click on the double-arrow between the 5 and 7 and they'll switch positions.


IMAGE: http://www.itsanadvent​ure.com/postimages/570​9_aspectflip.gif

Then I can resize it to the final 2100x1500 (7x5 @ 300 DPI) and I'm done.


But how about if you want a very particular size? 5x7 at 300 DPI is 1500x2100, so I want that choice so I don't have to resize anything. Well, "Fixed Size" is your friend!


IMAGE: http://www.itsanadvent​ure.com/postimages/570​9_fixed.gif

IMAGE: http://www.itsanadvent​ure.com/postimages/570​9_fixedselection.jpg

Now I'm cropped to print a perfect 5x7 - OK, 7x5 - at 300 DPI. Bang! One click and I'm ready to print. Woo-Hoo!


When the Marquee has a selection made you can drag it around as I said. Just click inside the box and drag and the selection box will move. DON'T choose the Move Tool or you will drag the selected area around, and you probably don't want that.

When dragging you'll notice that it will become "sticky" at the edges of the image, helping you from selecting "outside" the image, which would really make your image smaller. If you're really finicky you can move the box around with your arrow keys on the keyboard. Each press of an arrow key will move the box 1 pixel, and holding the Shift key will move it 10 pixels. If one of the lines of "marching ants" disappears then you've gone outside the image - use the arrow keys to nudge it back so you can see the marching ants all the way around.

When you're ready, choose Image... Crop to crop the image.


IMAGE: http://www.itsanadvent​ure.com/postimages/570​9_croppedsize.jpg


I like using the Marquee tool. I almost never use the Crop Tool. I like to know the final dimensions for print, and the Crop tool is a pain for that.

However, the Crop Tool has a very handy trick that fixes this:


IMAGE: http://www.itsanadvent​ure.com/postimages/570​9_cropresize.gif

I selected the Crop tool, and entered the important information: 7 in x 5 in (I literally typed "7in" in the first box - typing just a "7" gave me pixels, which is not desired!) and then set the resolution to 300 DPI. When I selected my area the Crop tool kept the 7x5 aspect ratio, and when I cropped it automagically resized it to 2100x1500, or 5x7 at 300 DPI! Ready to print! Cool!

Even better, let's say that I was just posting to the web. I'd enter "600px" in the first box and "400px" in the second. This will give me a 600 pixel by 400 pixel image. The DPI is meaningless for web display, so use anything.

Shazaam! Save this baby, and post it! I'm done!


IMAGE: http://www.itsanadvent​ure.com/postimages/570​9_croptrick.jpg


Alas, it's not always that easy. I personally feel that separately cropping and resizing will give a mildly better image. It's minute, yes, but it's a little better. And I believe that doing each step just a little better yields a better final product. I'd rather do the extra work. That's me.


So, we have several choices:
1) Crop Tool, setting the composition to how we like.
2) Crop Tool, and using the "resize trick" to go right to the final image
3) Marquee Tool, clicking and dragging and hopefully getting it right.
4) Marquee Tool set to a particular Fixed Size
5) Marquee Tool set to a particular Fixed Aspect Ratio

And the pros/cons:
1) Great for perfect composition - the only choice for this
2) Easy as hell, but might not yield a perfect image
3) Pretty useless if you want control over the final size. But the fastest if you just want to get it roughly composed.
4) Great if you want to crop out just a 4x6 or 5x7 portion of the image at a particular DPI, or if you want to crop out just a 600x400 section for web posting.
5) My favorite - because I always go for a Aspect Ratio, whether 4x6 for print or 600x400 for web shots. Probably the most difficult way, really.


Next tutorial, when I get a chance, will be resizing. There's more to cropping than I thought....

Luckily resizing is very easy.

Too Cool!

While browsing around gmitchel's site (http://www.thelightsri​ght.com …kroom/DigitalDa​rkroom.htm) I came across something about Tool Presets that he created for PS 7.0. I'd never heard of these, so I poked into Photoshop CS and these things are darn handy.


Choose your Marquee Tool, and set it to Fixed Size 800x533 pixels:

Now over on the right click on the Tool Presets flyout menu:

Click on the New Preset button (circled in red) and give it a descriptive title, like "Fixed 800x533" and click OK. Now I can just choose the Marquee, click on Tool Presets, choose my "Fixed 800x533" and click in the image and get a set size selection.

Pretty cool, huh?

I added a bunch of common ones that I use:


This is even cooler with the Crop Tool if you like the Crop & Resize trick from above.


Save it to a preset, and it will let you crop what you want (at a fixed aspect ratio) and resize it, just as described above.

When you add it you'll see that Photoshop already has some pre-made ones for prints:



Pretty cool, huh?

Thanks, Gmitchel!