What better time than Thanksgiving, when the
harvest is in, to discuss the crop? Photoshop offers several
ways to resize a picture, and we'll start a two-part look with
the Crop Tool and Crop command.
Sometimes we must re-compose an image, whether
for artistic reasons or because of space limitations, and
Photoshop offers numerous ways to do it. In addition to the
Crop Tool, we can use the Crop command. And Photoshop has some
other tricks hidden up its sleeve, too (which we'll look at
next week).
When changing the size of an image while
retaining the content, we have the command Image> Image Size
available. (We'll explore resizing with this command in a
later column.) But often we need to delete some of the image's
area to make it fit a certain space or to improve the
appearance of the image. Let's look at some of the options.
The first tool that usually comes to mind is
the Crop tool. To crop an image, in its most basic form, is to
remove part of the image area, discarding it forever. The Crop
tool works on a basic principle: You position a marquee so
that it includes the area you want to keep, accept the change,
and anything outside the marquee is eliminated from the image.
The image's pixel dimension are reduced to those of the
marquee. The tool does have several options that make it more
flexible, including a few new features in Photoshop 6. The
Photoshop 5.5 Options palette for the Crop tool is shown in
Image 1.
• Fixed Target Size: This option let's
you specify the width, height, and resolution of the resulting
image. The image will be resampled to match the dimensions you
have input. Note that you can input both width and height or
just one. If, for example, your image must fit in a 240 pixel
wide space on a Web page, but the height can be flexible, you
can type in a width and leave the height blank. The marquee
can then be adjusted as you wish. When both width and height
are specified, the marquee's shape is, of course, constrained.
(It can, however, be dragged to increase or decrease the
amount of image enclosed.)
• Front Image: Clicking this button automatically inputs the
dimensions of the front-most image open in Photoshop. It is
only available when Fixed Size is selected. If you have two
images that should match in size and resolution (to composite
or collage, for example), this option can automatically set
the specs that you need.
In addition to the options above, Photoshop 6
has a couple of others. In Photoshop 6, the Options palette
has been replaced by the Options Bar. When you first click on
the Crop tool, the Options Bar shows the same basic choices as
the earlier Options palette, with one exception. As you can
see in Image 2, there is also now a button labeled "Clear."
(The Options Bar has been cut and stacked in order to fit on
this page.)
• Clear: The Clear button is the
equivalent of unchecking the Fixed Size box in Photoshop 5.5.
When the width, height, and resolution boxes are empty, the
Crop tool functions in the Normal mode. The marquee will not
alter resolution or resample the image, simply delete any
pixels outside the marquee. Also note that, while Photoshop
5.5 had a drop-down list of measurement units, Photoshop 6
allows you to add them in the field. This is explained more
completely below in the "Six Shooters" section.
Once you've dragged a marquee with the Crop
tool, Photoshop 6'x Options Bar changes. The secondary options
are shown in Image 3. (The Options Bar has been cut and
stacked in order to fit on this page.)
• Shield Cropped Area: This option masks
the part of the image to be deleted. By default, a 75% gray
overlay is applied, but Photoshop allows you to change to any
opacity or color.
• Perspective: The Perspective option allows you to adjust the
cropping marquee to correct perspective errors. This is
essentially an extension of the capability to rotating the
crop marquee to correct the horizontal/vertical axes. It is
designed to work primarily with architectural photography, and
will be discussed separately (and at length) in the second
half of this two-parter, next week's column.
• Cropped Area: The option of hiding the cropped area rather
than deleting is not available when the image consists of a
background layer only. When hidden, the cropped area remains
part of the image. The Move tool can be used to reposition a
layer to change what area is "cropped." Remember that this
capability is lost when the image is flattened, and until
flattened, the file size is not reduced by the crop. (Later in
this column, in the section "The OHidden' Crop," I'll shows
you how to do something similar on a temporary basis in
Photoshop 5.5.)
To the far right of the second Crop tool
Options Bar (shown in Image 3 at the bottom) are the Accept
and Reject buttons. These are equivalent to, respectively,
Return/Enter and Escape.
In both Photoshop 5 and 6, you can rotate the
cropping marquee prior to the actual crop. Position the cursor
slightly outside of the marquee and it will change to show a
curved two-headed arrow. Drag to rotate. Among other uses,
this technique can correct crooked scans.
In addition to the Crop tool, you can crop
images using the Rectangular Marquee tool and the menu command
Image> Crop. In Photoshop 5.5, you must have a perfectly
rectangular selection of the command will be grayed out. (If
you can't get it to work, check to see if there is a value
other than zero in the Marquee tool's Feather option.)
Photoshop 6 allows you to use any selection as
a crop marquee. You can even drag the Lasso tool around for a
highly irregular selection and the menu command Crop will be
available. Will you get an irregular canvas? No, you won't.
Photoshop creates a rectangular grid of pixels that includes
the entire selection. All Photoshop files must be rectangular.
THE "HIDDEN" CROP
Photoshop 6 allows the choice of deleting or hiding part of an
image being cropped. A similar effect can be accomplished in
any recent version of Photoshop, by rescaling outside an image
larger than the canvas. Image 8 shows the set-up. The window
has been enlarged to allow the transformation bounding box to
be dragged past the canvas. This, in effect, enlarges the
image as shown in Image 9.
Once the image is enlarged and the change
accepted, the additional image data remains available, just
not visible. As you can see in Image 10, dragging the picture
within the window shows that the excess background was not
deleted, simply hidden.
Note, however, that the image will be cropped
to the canvas size when closed. You can reposition the layer
to show the "hidden" part of the image as long as the document
is open, but once it's closed, the hidden data is lost.
SIX SHOOTERS
• Did you know that you can input any unit of measure into
appropriate fields in Photoshop 6? Rather than being stuck
with the preferences specified in Units & Rulers, you can use
any Photoshop unit by typing it into the box along with the
number. Let's say that your rulers are set to inches, but you
need pixel dimensions. Simply type the letters px after the
number. Photoshop knows what you mean. You can even type
equations, such as 2 in + 24 px.
• Still can't find the Measure Tool? Look under the
Eyedropper.
• You can still edit a gradient. Select the Gradient Tool in
the Toolbox. In the Options Bar, to the left, you'll see a
representation of the gradient. If you click on the arrow next
to it, you'll open the Gradient Palette and can select a
different gradient. The pop-out menu in the upper right allows
you to create a new gradient. But to edit? Simply click once
on that picture of the gradient in the Options Bar. Not on the
arrow, just to the left on the gradient itself. The Gradient
Editor window opens right up.