# Explain Cropping Please



## dicklaxt (Jun 2, 2005)

I have read several accounts and still don't undertand if the dog is black or white.

Heres a copy of the last I read.

*Cropping:

*In the digital world that we live in, 100% crop means viewing an image or part of an image at the original resolution, (1:1). Let's use my picture that was taken with a Pentax K20D at the full 14.6 megapixels resolution. The image contains 4672 pixels on the horizontal plane and 3104 pixels on the vertical plane. Now, when viewing the image on my monitor screen, it has to be reduced in size _(by interpolation)_ in order for the whole image to show on the screen. In the examples above, I used a Viewsonic monitor set at 1440 x 900 pixels resolution. Using Adobe Photoshop Elements 6, _(other software may use different terms)_ in the view command, I can display the image to "Fit on Screen" or to "Actual Pixels". When looking at the image at actual pixels, you see only portion of the image, but what you see is actually at 100% crop, (1:1).

You may want to crop a particularly detailed section of the image to see what it looks at 100% crop. In that case, still using Elements 6, select the Marquee tool. Set the "Mode:" to "Fixed Size", the width at 900 pixels and height at 600 pixels. _(I chose 600 x 900 because my monitor can show that 100% cropped image)._ Click on the image. A bounding box appears. Locate it where you want to do the crop. Click on Image in the toolbar then on crop in the pull-down menu. Voila&#8230;you have a portion of the image with a 100% crop. You can save it as a new image.

Now if I studied this explanation for a couple of hours I might get a bit of understanding but if they said now you do it at 50% crop that would blow me clear out of the water.


dick


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## Gator_Nutz (Sep 27, 2006)

What software do you use when editing your photos?


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## MT Stringer (May 21, 2004)

With all of what is stated above, I don't pay any attention to it.
With my image displayed on the screen, I click the cropping tool and place it on the image. I click on the handles to drag the box until I have it just like I want it to look. Most of the time, I am cropping an image to improve the compostion.
Once satisfied, double click the image and the remaining part of the image will disappear leaving only the part you cropped. Use the "Save As" tool to save thie image with a new file name (of your choice) so the original doesn't get modified.

I use Paint Shop Pro, but you can use PE Elements or whatever software you have available.

Hope this makes sense. Have you tried it?
Mike


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## dicklaxt (Jun 2, 2005)

I have Elements 7 now,have used others,and I know the mechanics of how to crop, save etc but am not understanding the % values when used in text and if I say I cropped an image 50 %,75% or 100% does that mean anything to anyone else in viewing that image,,,,,,it sure doesn't mean anything to me. I like your explanation Mike but I still don't have a grasp for it, in total.

dick


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## Pocketfisherman (May 30, 2005)

Before it makes sense, you have to know if you have "resampling" enabled or not. IF the answer is no, then when you crop, you are just keeping the original pixels and not changing them. When you resample, you make the pixels fit the cropped dimension by the software interpolating and either creating or removing pixels to fit the space you are cropping too.


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## dicklaxt (Jun 2, 2005)

Okay,now what did you say???

dick


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## sandybottom (Jun 1, 2005)

Pixels are the dots in your image. When you crop/cut the picture to a smaller size your changing the dots. That is why when somebody crops too much you'll see the picture on the internet all fuzzy. I try not to crop too much and leave the picture original most of the time. But if I do have to crop I'll only cut a third of the picture.
That is my simple blonde way of explaining it.


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## sandybottom (Jun 1, 2005)

Now does Photoshop 6 have resampling? I'll have to check this one out. Because if I can make a picture sharper by resampling I'm doing it.


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## sandybottom (Jun 1, 2005)

So somebody please tell me when you click "fit onto screen" PS does it for you? I have ps6.


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## Gator_Nutz (Sep 27, 2006)

Yes. Clicking "Fit on screen" does just that. It downsizes your image so it fits on your screen. It does it proportionally, both horizontal and vertical, so it looks normal and not all stretched or squeezed. It does not change anything in your original image, it just downsizes it for proper display.

If you open an image in Photoshop or in Elements, the original is a particular size, depending on what size sensor your camera has. My D3 for example generates a RAW image that is around 2832 pixels by 4256 pixels. This equates to a picture that is around 11.8 x 17.7 inches in size at 100% of the original size. It is too big to display the entire image on my screen so I use the "fit on screen' function in Photoshop and it downsizes it correctly so the entire image fits on the screen. The original image is not changed. It still is the same size as it was to start with.

Now if I want to show someone a particular portion of the image as a 100% crop, what that means is I will use the "actual pixels" function under Image tab in photoshop. The picture will now be displayed on my screen in its 100% true size. I will have to scroll up and down and left and right to see the entire image. Now if I take the crop tool I can select a certain portion of my image with that tool and after setting the desired size of the crop area, I hit return and the crop takes place. All that is left is the portion of the image that was inside the crop rectangular area. That is what people mean when they say a 100% crop of a photo...usually. It's a portion of their image that is "blown up" if you will, to the full 100% size of the image. As long as you stay at 100% you are ok. If you go up beyond 100% then you start to see the graininess or pixelation in the image that I think Sandy may be referring to. Now, after doing all of that, as long as use "save as" and give the file a different name, my original image is still left intact without anything being changed. (FYI, you can crop your image first and then use the "Actual size" function, it does not matter in what order you do that)

Cropping and resizing are two completely different things. When I resize an image, for whatever reason, I always use the Image Size function under the Image tab in Photoshop. I can't swear that Elements is the same but I believe it is similar. I always have the boxes that say "Scale Styles", "Resample Image", and "Constrain Proportions" checked so that when I change the horizontal pixel size for instance to something else, the verticle pixel size setting is changed automatically and proportionally so that the resulting image displays correctly and not all wierdly stretched or squeezed like I talked about before.

Does this help at all? I hope so.

James


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## dicklaxt (Jun 2, 2005)

Yes it is helping but I'm still digesting some of it so no doubt will have more questions. A couple right now then would be how do you know when you are at lets say 50% crop and is that a larger or smaller image on the screen.

dick


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## Gator_Nutz (Sep 27, 2006)

In Photoshop, if you go to the Image tab and then click on Image Size, this is where you can resize images. It gives two choices for sizing your images...pixels or percentage. Select percentage and then enter 50% or whatever size you are wanting.


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## dicklaxt (Jun 2, 2005)

I'm learning ,thanks

dick


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## stargazer (May 24, 2004)

Dont worry Dick, it taks a bit of rereading to digest it, I know it did for me, LOL.
It will come to ya.


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## sandybottom (Jun 1, 2005)

Thanks for taking the time out to explain this in detail. I'm understanding it much more thanks, James!!!!! OOOXXX!!!


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## dicklaxt (Jun 2, 2005)

oooxxx now I wouldn't go that far,:headknock:headknock:headknock:work: LOL


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## Gator_Nutz (Sep 27, 2006)

XXXOOOXXX


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## sandybottom (Jun 1, 2005)

:an2::an2:You crack me up!


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