Yes, Patti, I do understand what you’re asking, but I can’t give you directions until you provide more information. Open up the picture, then go to Image>Resize>Image Size and copy down what you see. There should be a size given in pixels at the top, then there should be a size given in inches, and you should also see a box that gives the resolution. Write all of that down and post it. Somebody will give step by step directions.
Patti,
If you would take a digital camera image to a photo lab and get 4X6 prints, they would crop some off the image because normal digital images are not in proportion to that size.
Pete
Patti, the ‘normal’ dimensions of a picture from most digital cameras would translate into a picture that’s 4 1/2 inches by 6 inches, so you would have to crop a half-inch one side to make it fit. I’ve decided that I really don’t need 4×6 prints; why not 4.5×6 instead? If I were going to mat it, I could recut the mat or use the precut mat to crop the picture. I’m guessing that one of these days, precut mats will appear in 4.5×6 proportions…maybe a commercial opportunity for someone!
Ok Beth, here they are: Under pixels, it reads 1496, 1328; under inches it reads 4.987, 4.427; resolution 300. I know the picture will further away by making it smaller, and that is okay, I just want to be able to get the whole body in a picture. Thanks.
I was just playing around and ran across resizing the "canvas size". Is this what I want? But still I just want the whole picture – no cropping, but the image can be smaller.
If you can blow up a picture to an 8×10, shouldn’t you be able to shrink it down to a 4×6?? This is what I want to do.
OK, Patti, the first thing I see is that your original image is much closer to being square than rectangular. I made an test image the same size as you’ve described, and I had to take the resolution down to 240ppi in order to get a side that was at least 6 inches long. The actual dimensions of my test image wound up being 6.125 X 5.533. You will definitely have to do some cropping in order to maintain the correct aspect ratio for a 4 X 6 image. There just isn’t a way to do it without distortion otherwise.
Open the image on your desktop, and then go to Image>Resize>Image Size and change just the resolution of the image to 240ppi – and do that with Constrain Proportion CHECKED and Resample NOT CHECKED. Once you’ve done that, click OK, and then go back to the Tool Bar and select the Rectangular Marquee tool. Once you’ve got it, look in the Option Bar, set the Style to "Fixed Size" and type in the width you want your picture and the length – I’m assuming you want it 6 inches wide and 4 inches high. Once you’ve done that, click on the image and you’ll get the marching ants outlining an area exactly 4 X 6 inches. By clicking somewhere inside the line of marching ants and holding down the button on the mouse, you can move that outline around on your bigger image. Hopefully you’ll find a spot where you are getting the part of the picture you want to keep inside the lines. If so, go to Image>Crop, and the extra parts of the image will be deleted.
Now, if by doing it the way I’ve described you’re not able to get the part of the picture you want, you might have to reduce the resolution of the image even further, so the whole thing gets bigger, then try the 4 X 6 crop again.
I don’t happen to know how the photo finishing places work with these images, but there’s just no way that you can get an even sized 4 X 6 picture out of what you’ve got without cropping something off – it’s just simply the wrong shape. We’ll work through it, though, until you get something you can live with.
Patti,
I think I know what you want. As mentioned previously by someone in reply to your question, there is no way to get a 4.5 x 6 proportioned original to print to a 4 x 6 dimension without cropping out the extra 1/2 inch on the 4.5 inch side. But it sounds like your wish to not crop out part of your subject overrides your wish to print to the edges of a 4 x 6 photo paper. Assuming I am reading you correctly, the following is a short cut to properly scale your picture that doesn’t involve actually resizing your image:
1) Load the image to the work space.
2) Go to print preview in the files menu.
3) Click on the page setup button and change the paper type to "index card (4X6 inch)". (This is the setting you would use for Kodak 4×6 picture paper, which I use. If you are using HP 4×6 printer paper, then select "photo 4×6 inch with tab".) Make sure the applicable orientation is selected (portrait vs. landscape) then click OK to leave the page setup box.
4) At this point, you are back at the print preview dialogue box and you see a preview of your picture, blown up. Check the "scale to fit media" check box. That should shrink your picture to fit on the 4×6 photo paper. Now you will see that you will have two white borders along the short sides of the picture, which is a consequence of the original dimensions of a digital camera picture not being in the same proportion as 4×6. If that doesn’t bother you, you are done! Just load your photo paper in the printer and click the print button. You just trim the white edges off your final print.
If however, you decide you need an actual 4×6 dimension in your printed photo (for example to fit a 4×6 frame without those white parts showing) then you have no choice other than to "lop off" a part of your picture. Again, there is a short cut way to do this without actually using the cropping tool. From the same print preview window (after you have selected the 4×6 paper as described above) do the following:
1. Un-check "scale to fit media", check "show bounding box" and uncheck "center image".
2. In the "Scaled Print Size", change the larger of the two dimensions (height or width) to 6 inches. This will automatically change the other dimension to 4.5 inches.
3. Now you will see your picture scaled down to a smaller size in the preview box. However, it may not be positioned the way you want it to print. Put the cursor over the picture in the preview and it will turn to a crosshairs. Now move the picture around by dragging it (hold down the left mouse button to drag.) When you have it positioned to where the least objectionable part of the subject is cut off, let go. Now you are ready to print.
I hope this helps. It took me a while to figure this out on my own and through reading a couple of books, but it is almost exclusively the way I print. I therefore don’t mess with resizing my photos, although I do use the crop tool when I have a photo that was just poorly framed to begin with.
Good luck.
Luis,
I tried what you said and it just printed out a 4 1/2 by almost 41/2, I just want a shrunken version of the print. Like zoom out and then get a 4×6. I tried your second idea of unchecking the scaled print size and all that. When I put the larger of the 2 dimensions to a 6, the other side went to 5.323, not a 4. I change the resolution, but it keeps popping to another size when I put in the dimensions. Is there anyway I can send you the picture and you can tell me what I am doing wrong? Thanks.
5.323
Patti, you’re not doing anything wrong; what you want to accomplish just isn’t possible without giving something up! The original image just isn’t the right shape to produce a "perfect" size print without some cropping somewhere. The world of digital imaging just don’t work like that! 🙂 Take almost anything that’s a square and try to make it into a rectangle, and you’re either going to stretch one side out or squish another side down. It’s like a piece of paper, if you try to stretch a piece of 4 inch paper out to 6 inches or smash a 6 inch piece down to 4, you’ll ruin it.
If you really think the neighborhood photo place can accomplish what you want, I suggest you take it to them and ask them how they’re doing it. I suspect you’ll learn they really are cropping something somewhere.
Okay, what I want to do is to shrink down the total image so that when I crop it, I won’t have to crop off so much. Right now the picture is a closeup of my grandson. Can;t I make it so it isn’t so closeup and then crop that? Wouldn’t I then be able to get his whole body in the 4×6 or close to that?
Patti, why does this HAVE to be a 4 X 6 print? Couldn’t you just work with what you’ve got, which is a print that’s really 4 X 4?!
Have you ever heard the expression "You can’t put a square peg in a round hole"? Well, you’re trying to do the equivalent. A square picture just ain’t going to become a rectangle without losing part of the picture.
What you could do is crop off just a little bit of your original image (still at the 300ppi you started with) to make it an even 4 X 4, then File>New, size a new blank canvas to 4 X 6 and 300ppi and then move the 4 X 4 picture on the new one. You’ll have white space on both sides, but you’ll have almost all of your original picture in the middle.
Patti, a night’s sleep is sometimes "inspirational". It dawned on me this morning that images taken directly from a digital camera are usually different than what you describe yours as being. First, they don’t download and open in Elements at 300ppi, and, second, what you’re now working with is an extremely strange aspect ratio that I’ve never heard of coming from a digital camera. Are you giving information about the original image or something you’ve already worked on? If you’ve already worked on this image – especially if you’ve already cropped it, that could be what’s keeping you from being able to create a rectangular shaped picture like you want.
Go back to the original image that came from your camera, make a copy, and then open the copy and post the physical size and resolution of it.
Beth – you were so right – I found the original and it worked great. Thanks.
