There’s no need for any magical formulas to accomplish this. After you have selected the crop tool, you will have a couple of dialog boxes near the top of your screen where you can enter the dimensions for your picture. I usually put "8 in" & "10 in" in the appropriate boxes, and then I set the resolution at 200 or 300. Then when I crop the image Elements will automatically size as I have specified.
Another way to crop, which some of us prefer, is to use the Rectangular Marquee Tool. The Crop Tool also has an option for setting resolution. For me it’s just one more thing I have to remember to check before using the tool, so I stay away from it. The Rectangular Marquee tool doesn’t effect the resolution setting of your image at all.
To crop to a specific size using Rectangular Marquee, select the tool, and then in the Option Bar choose Fixed Size and set your dimensions. Once you click on your image, you’ll get the marching ants in a perfect 4 x 6, 5 x 7, etc. You can slide them around until you’ve got them surrounding the area you want to keep. Then go to Image>Crop.
Just another way to accomplish the same thing, but some people like one way better than the other.
Whatever. I’m sorry, but I just don’t get your rationale for using the marquee tool. Furthermore, I really don’t care. I get the results I’m looking for from my method and I’m going to keep using it. You talk of one more thing to have to remember, but the way my workflow is designed I have to remember more things using your crop method than I do using mine.
Thank you for understanding the point of my post. 🙂
I’ll second Beth’s motion on using the Rectangular Marquee tool for cropping as an alternative to the Crop tool. My biggest beef with the Crop tool is that it surreptitiously (!) resamples the image whenever you put in a height or width in inches and/or a resolution. I like more control over my final image properties, so I crop using the Rectangular Marquee tool at either Normal or Fixed Aspect Ratio settings, then use the Image>Resize>Image Size dialog to set inch dimensions and desired resolution. Any resampling will be my choice in the latter dialog.
Chuck
Jim,
There are as many ways to accomplish something in the program as there are personalities, so happily…one can lock onto the particular method which one favors. Right or wrong are not key words here, what works best for you is absolutely the way you should keep working. Beth’s post was to give forum members one of the alternative cropping methods. I think knowing one’s options is a good thing and what suits one person will not another, as you just professed.
On another topic…
I don’t think I have seen a Challenge from you, are you interested? The more participants the more the variety.
Nancy
Well, Beth, I liked your method and thank you for the tip.
wrote in message
Thank you for understanding the point of my post. 🙂
Being somewhat of a beginner, I try things several, yes, several different ways, then I choose the best result.
I watch how everybody does a function here, and follow their instructions. This is a wonderful versitile program, and I sure enjoy playing with all the options. The more the merrier, and learning fast and loving it,,,,,,,thanks to you all,
Jane
It sounds as if I have been challenged to either put up or shut up. My photography is rather boring. And since I really have nothing to contribute in that way, I will now graciously fade away into cyberspace. Goodbye all.
Jim,
"Put up or shut up"????? Where did you get that? I’ve never interpreted anyone’s post that way – nor any other sort of ultimatum.
I hope you’ll re-read the posts in the thread because I truly believe there must be a misunderstanding.
Byron
Hello Jim, I didn’t read it that way either. If any of this is directed towards me I only meant that we are all here to learn and share any knowledge we may have. I am glad I have 3 top notch programs to use and between the 3 at least 4-6 ways to accomplish any task.
A quote from another newsgroup:
The real art of conversation is not only
to say the right thing at
the right time, but also to leave unsaid
the wrong thing at the
tempting moment. (Dorothy Nevill)
—
Have A Nice Day,
jwh 🙂
My Pictures
http://www.pbase.com/myeyesview
This is the same person who began a thread a week or so ago with the sentence copied below. I don’t really think it was anything said in this thread that generated his final post. Rather, perhaps, all that wasn’t said.
"I have decided that it is time to start a major debate that will show a lot of disagreement among us."
?
Jim, no one is asking you to put up or shut up. We’re all simply exchanging information and trying to learn the program. I’m sorry you’ve chosen to take offense at the constructive exchange, but, yes, goodbye.
wrote in message
It sounds as if I have been challenged to either put up or shut up. My
photography is rather boring. And since I really have nothing to contribute in that way, I will now graciously fade away into cyberspace. Goodbye all.
Beth – I’m back. I tried the marquee tool and got the ants marching around in various dimensions, but when I try to slide them around, I get a screen full of strange lines. I can’t get the boundary box to move. Any suggestions?
wrote in message
Another way to crop, which some of us prefer, is to use the Rectangular
Marquee Tool. The Crop Tool also has an option for setting resolution. For me it’s just one more thing I have to remember to check before using the tool, so I stay away from it. The Rectangular Marquee tool doesn’t effect the resolution setting of your image at all.
To crop to a specific size using Rectangular Marquee, select the tool, and
then in the Option Bar choose Fixed Size and set your dimensions. Once you click on your image, you’ll get the marching ants in a perfect 4 x 6, 5 x 7, etc. You can slide them around until you’ve got them surrounding the area you want to keep. Then go to Image>Crop.
Just another way to accomplish the same thing, but some people like one
way better than the other.
Beth Said:
Rather, perhaps, all that wasn’t said.
James Replies:
The art of conversation….etc……etc…..
You are so right Beth.
—
Have A Nice Day,
jwh 🙂
My Pictures
http://www.pbase.com/myeyesview
Jim,
I apologize if I have offended you in some way, it was certainly not my intention, nor was I criticising you. Perhaps my writting skills are sadly lacking in being able to convey my thoughts. You obviously feel hurt and I would like to try to make you feel welcome here, which you are. I, for one, will miss your presence here if you don’t return. Tomorrow, I hope things will look better to you.
The "Challenge" I mentioned, is this one…
<
http://www.cavesofice.org/~grant/Present/index.html>
It doesn’t require photographs. This is the weekly thing where an image is posted and one may edit it as desired. Some people, like myself, sometimes incorporate images from the internet or some of my own on CD, but it is not a requirement. I can’t draw 🙁 —so I often use photos. But just changing lighting, coloration, perspective or anything you can imagine is entirely permissible. I have had a lot of fun working on one each week and it improves my skills. Seeing what everyone else has done is often inspiring. Anyone can ask the creator how they accomplished a certain "look" and a reply will ensue. I hope you think about it. (there is also the "Photo" thingy going on, but my mention was of the Challenge at the above link)
Nancy
Hello all. I’m a reader to this forum, and have been fascinated with the knowledge contained herein. I am a true beginner, haven’t learned layering yet, but that is the next lesson on my agenda. I have a 3 megapixle Olympus, and both Elements and Album. Last month I took a journey to the Grand Canyon, Vegas etc. Took a lot of pictures that turned out well. I would like to post one as a challenge to see what non novices could do with it. My experimentation has been a real enjoyable hobby. Creativity seems to reside in us all. I don’t have the internet at my home, but will be able to burn a photo onto cd to post here. How do I go about posting one? Do I log on and some how attach the photo to the board?
Thanks in advance for the many hints from you all.
–Badger
Check a thread on this forum that’s about sending e-mail to Grant, and then contact him. He’s the one who graciously hosts the Challenge entries. He’ll give you the information you need about submitting a photo for a challenge.
Nancy,
If anyone should apologize, it is me. I was rude and inconsiderate. I had had a difficult day and took it out on a number of people from whom I have gleaned a lot of good information. Will you ALL please except my apologies so that I can feel good about participating in the discussions again.
Jim
Jim, feel good! You’re a real contributor to the discussions here and that should continue – for everyone’s benefit!
Chuck
Jim,
No bad feelings here…the whole thing is forgotten.
Jim,
What Beth is saying is that with the Crop tool, you have to be careful how you use it if you don’t want the image resampled. Generally, I only resample as a last resort, because it tends to downgrade image quality.
If you use the Rectangular Marquee tool with Fixed Size selected,as Beth describes, you can immediately see what portion of the image will be included, and then you can even adjust the resolution somewhat to enlarge or contract the included area. I used to use the Crop tool, but I am a "convert" to the RM tool. It just works better for me. I particluarly do NOT like the fact that when you use the Crop tool, it is not always obvious that the image is being resampled.
Bert
Bert, I finally got around to reading this thread myself a little while ago. Wish I had of been here sooner as well. Oh well, I’m OK with reading your thread no matter how ‘redundant’ you claim it to be. No such thing 😉
I’m afraid there’s something here that I’m just not getting. Okay, if I use the rectangular marquee tool it seems to me that I cannot move that selection. And another question I have is after you have selected the area, then what?
What I have been doing recently is just resizing my image that was downloaded from the camera, constraining proportions, but disabling resampling. I have been getting a 9×12 inch image at just over 200 PPI that I can then work with. Is there something wrong with that? I really would like to know. I’m not trying to be funny or anything. There’s just something about this process that I don’t understand.
Jim,
To move the rectangular marquee make sure in the options, far left above image, the selection for the single box is selected (it is the lefthand one). They look like tiny boxes made of dotted lines. There are several boxes there, like for adding, subtracting or intersecting.
Sounds like you are resizing properly. Just keep that resample unchecked as you are doing. This way you are not degrading your image in any way. Wayne Fulton has an excellent website called
<
http://scantips.com>
He does a wonderful job of clearly explaining topics such as yours. I heartily suggest you have a looksee there, you will find excellent information about all aspects of digitial imaging. Happy Turkey Day!
Nancy
Jim,
I forgot,
….after you have the marquee placed where you want it, then go to Image>Crop. You can set the marquee to any size you want if you would like to crop to an exact size, like a 9×12. Look above the image, middle of the screen, click on the dropdown arrow where it says "Normal". If you chose "Fixed" from the list, just type your desired dimensions in the boxes.
Jim, first re the Rectangular Marquee: once you’ve created your rectangle and released the mouse button, you can reposition it with the arrow keys. Once you have it sized and positioned, you do an Image>Crop to get it to do its thing. Sorry we left that out earlier
Re your resizing to 9×12 at ~200 ppi with resampling disabled: there’s nothing wrong with what you’re doing. Basically, what’s happening is that you’re downloading the image with certain pixel dimensions, then using Image Size to tell you how large a printed image at a given ppi you can create using the downloaded image. So long as you don’t turn on resampling, the pixel dimensions will remain unchanged from what you downloaded. On my 4 megapixel camera, those dimensions are 2272 pixels by 1704 pixels; your camera’s dimensions will vary. Inside Elements, your picture is basically pixels; it’s only when you go to print that the inch dimensions and associated ppi become important.
Chuck
Jodi,
Thanks. I try to read through a thread completely before posting anything…I just goofed on that one.
Bert
