Cropping in Photoshop seems to resize image.

PopeBuckfastXVI

New to Photoshop, and have been cropping some images when I noticed something. I was unable to just input the aspect ratio of the crop, I also had to input the dpi and crop size. Fair enough I thought, I'll just bang in some numbers to make it the ratio I want and then drag the corner to fit the crop to where I want it. That done, I realized it's actually gone and upsized some images, or downsized others, depending on the 'size' of the crop I input.

Obviously this is a problem, because I just want to change the composition, without worrying about what my final print size, pic resolution is like. If I want less or more pixels I'll use 'resize'.

It seems I'm using the crop tool in the wrong way, or the crop tool is not the tool I need to do the job. What do other people use in photoshop to do a composition change crop, without resizing?

magicbastarder

i'm probably doing it in a cack-handed way, but if i want to crop and bring to a specific ratio, i crop to the largest axis freehand with the crop tool, and then use the canvas size tool to bring the other axis into line.

PopeBuckfastXVI

And do you find that the crop tool resizes your image? Like if you had an image of 1000px wide, and you cropped to 6inches at 300dpi would your the resultant image be 1800px wide, no matter what section of the photo you actually cropped. That's what I'm finding is happening to me, it'll actually upscale the picture if it needs to, to achieve the input crop values.

Fionn

this is the way i use the crop tool




if you want the image to be say 6" x 4" input (6 in width & 4 in height) leave the resolution blank, the resolution will be maintained.

you can also choose presets by clicking the dropdown list to the right of the tool in the tool options bar.

Gazmantoo

If you crop anything it is going to end smaller!. If the smaller image is then too small then go back to the original high resolution file and click 'view>fit on screen.
Then crop it while it is at it's highest possible resolution and then resize it to your desired size.

DaireQuinlan

Gazmantoo wrote: »

If you crop anything it is going to end smaller!. If the smaller image is then too small then go back to the original high resolution file and click 'view>fit on screen.
Then crop it while it is at it's highest possible resolution and then resize it to your desired size.

I'm not sure I understand what you're saying here, the size you're viewing the picture at onscreen has really no bearing as to resolution.

Effectively, what Fionn said. If you want to crop to an aspect ratio and you don't want PS to resize the image, leave the 'resolution' blank. It sticks in the resolution automatically though if you hit 'Front Image' to put in the current size to crop and maintain the current aspect ratio, so be careful always to remove it if thats the case.

On a side note, why on earth is it called 'front image' ?? Is it just a typo of 'from image' that's now made its way permanently into the product ?

PopeBuckfastXVI

I think leaving the resolution blank is what I needed. I do want to lock the aspect ratio though.

So if I've understood right, if I put in a width of 3cm and a height of 1cm, and I don't include a resolution, whatever crop I then manually drag will just cut what's outside the crop, and not resize the image within the crop, giving me a 3:1 panorama of the original image data?

DaireQuinlan

PopeBuckfastXVI wrote: »

I think leaving the resolution blank is what I needed. I do want to lock the aspect ratio though.

So if I've understood right, if I put in a width of 3cm and a height of 1cm, and I don't include a resolution, whatever crop I then manually drag will just cut what's outside the crop, and not resize the image within the crop, giving me a 3:1 panorama of the original image data?

yes. And constrain the crop rectangle to the aspect ratio you've chosen.

PopeBuckfastXVI

Thanks all!

Gazmantoo

DaireQuinlan wrote: »

I'm not sure I understand what you're saying here, the size you're viewing the picture at onscreen has really no bearing as to resolution.

Effectively, what Fionn said. If you want to crop to an aspect ratio and you don't want PS to resize the image, leave the 'resolution' blank. It sticks in the resolution automatically though if you hit 'Front Image' to put in the current size to crop and maintain the current aspect ratio, so be careful always to remove it if thats the case.

On a side note, why on earth is it called 'front image' ?? Is it just a typo of 'from image' that's now made its way permanently into the product ?

I see where we're getting crossed-wires now. You're correct the size you view the image via 'fit on screen' has no effect on the resolution of the image because you have made no changes to the image resolution.
But the word 'crop' is causing the confusion. I'd reserve this term only for an event where one wants to remove part of an image, for example an intrusive person just at the side of the image.
Effectively the method Fionn suggests will help you achieve what you want, if that is to change the aspect ration but also keep the content of the image.
Because the word 'crop' has been used though, I assumed you had used the crop tool to remove a part of the image yet still expected the image to be the same size...but if I were to simply adjust the size or aspect ratio of an image I would not use the term 'crop' at all.
This has reminded what a headache it is to learn Photoshop, just like learning a new language, but if you keep at it you come out the other side with a fluent understanding,...unless you end up going mad,

PopeBuckfastXVI

Let me clarify.

I was cropping for composition - removing parts of the image to change the aspect.

In addition to performing the crop - Photoshop was scaling the portion of the image which remained to the input physical size + dpi combination, either adding or removing pixels depending, probably using some sort of interpolation when scaling upward.

Obviously this was undesirable to me, as I just wanted to cut away unwanted portions of the image, without affecting what remained.

According to the posts above, leaving the dpi setting blank should give me what I want.

oshead

It might not be exactly what you need. The image will be resampled if you put constraints on the size. Ie, You might have an image, uncropped with a size and res of 10x12 inch and 300ppi. If you crop to an area of, lets say for argument sake 12x16 and leave the ppi at 300, you in effect increase the size of the image. It may seem obvious and sure it is, but this also counts if you want to crop to say 6x8. Unless you know precisely where the 6x8 is in relation to the original 10x12 you will either reduce or enlarge the image crop with whatever you choose. The only way to have proper control is by using the crop tool with no measurements set in conjunction with the info pallet to get your x/y ratios correct. Though my my personal favourite for cropping is do it in Lightroom.

DaireQuinlan

oshead wrote: »

It might not be exactly what you need. The image will be resampled if you put constraints on the size. Ie, You might have an image, uncropped with a size and res of 10x12 inch and 300ppi. If you crop to an area of, lets say for argument sake 12x16 and leave the ppi at 300, you in effect increase the size of the image. It may seem obvious and sure it is, but this also counts if you want to crop to say 6x8. Unless you know precisely where the 6x8 is in relation to the original 10x12 you will either reduce or enlarge the image crop with whatever you choose. The only way to have proper control is by using the crop tool with no measurements set in conjunction with the info pallet to get your x/y ratios correct. Though my my personal favourite for cropping is do it in Lightroom.

No, if you don't have anything in the 'resolution' column then it will not resize the resulting crop. You can put 140 inches and 81 inches into the width and height, but so long as you don't put anything into the resolution then the ONLY result of this will be to constrain your crop rectangle to 140:81 aspect ratio (and incidentally make your picture worth over 4 million dollars)

oshead

DaireQuinlan wrote: »

No, if you don't have anything in the 'resolution' column then it will not resize the resulting crop. You can put 140 inches and 81 inches into the width and height, but so long as you don't put anything into the resolution then the ONLY result of this will be to constrain your crop rectangle to 140:81 aspect ratio (and incidentally make your picture worth over 4 million dollars)

Thanks, I should really open the app to check before opening my mouth...