Today, I(Steph) thought I would spend some time on one of the questions we received for the “you ask” segments Janet has been working on. We decided it was great information and probably something others have wondered about. We also thought it would be a great addition to our “Just for Beginners” section. Here’s the question:
Can you please create a mini-tutorial on how to crop a photo without losing quality? I’m not necessarily wanting to crop to a specific size like: 4×6 or 8×10, but more to use the same rectangle shape as the original and just crop for a better composition. I just don’t get pixels vs. resolution, etc. Thank you very much.
First off, I found a great article that explains the relationship and differences between pixels and resolution at PhotoshopTutorialsPlus. They compared the relationship to tiling a floor and I am going to expand on that as it relates to digital scrapbooking.
If you have a scrapbook page (or a room) that is 12×12 and you want to tile it with 300 tiles per inch, then you will need 3600×3600 tiles (I would hate to be doing the tile on the floor in that room..haha). If you have the same 12×12 room and want to tile it with 200 tiles (or dots/pixels) per inch, then you would need 2400×2400 tiles. The total amount of tiles needed is the resolution, but that number alone doesn’t tell us much. A 2400×2400 layout could equal 8inx8in if it is at 300 dpi or it could be a 12inx12in layout if it was at 200 dots per inch or pixels per inch.
When you need to crop a photo that you want to use on a layout, the best way to do this without losing any of your pixels per inch, is to put the photo on your actual layout BEFORE cropping. By putting the photo on your layout, as long as you don’t stretch it or make it larger (trying to cover a larger area with the same amount of tiles), then you won’t lose any dots or pixels per inch. The resolution will change because you are changing the size of the photo, but it won’t become pixelized or fuzzy as long as you don’t make it bigger.
There are many ways to crop a photo once it is on a layout. I typically use the method I talk about in this post for rounded corners. You don’t have to use a rounded corner rectangle, you can use any shape you want. You can also adjust the transparency of the photo temporarily (make it see-thru) to get perfect placement and then once the photo is cropped, put the transparency back to 100%.
Hopefully, this is a little helpful in understanding the relationship between pixels and resolution AND how to crop a photo on a layout without making them pixelize at all.
First of all great post, I went back your tip for cropped corners, how easy!! Thanks, I didn’t know how to do it before! And then I can use your stroke tip to create a border…I ♥ this site!
I also have a question for your “you ask” segment…occasionally when I’m scrapping, I’ll open a blank document to start my layout, and when I try to drag something onto it, I get the message that the destination source has a lower resolution than the file source(or something to that effect. Why am I getting this message, and how do I fix it?? When I open my document, my file is 12×12, 300 pixels/inch, RGB colour 16 bit (should it be 32 bit?), transparent background. Thanks!