Photo size help

[Marley]

Hi,
I am fairly new to Elements 5 and have been reading lots and lots on the forums. I have enjoyed looking at the galleries too! There are some very talented people out there.
I am trying to make a 12 x 12 album page. Everything goes fine until I try to bring in a picture. If I pick my pictures from the browser and as soon as they are in the editor, I use Image>resize>image size to set the size to be 6x4.5 inches, (rulers and bottom of picture confirm size) However,when I select it to bring on my 12X12 canvas, the size changes to something totally different something like 6.5 X4 7/8. Another time I wanted a 10X7.5 image yet when I bring it over it is only 6.5 x 5.....What am I missing?? I know I can just use the free transform to resize it but there must be something I should be doing to correct this.
If I change the photo to the size I need then save it in My Pictures, then use the Place command, the size stays correct. This has me going crazy. Any help would be appreciated
Thanks,
Marley.

[PattyD]

I set my page to 12 x 12 with 300 resolution.
If I want a photo an exact size I go to the crop tool (c) and put the dimensions I want the photo there and I'm sure to enter 300 resolution. I use the move tool (v) to drag the cropped photo onto my scrapbook page.
That does it. There are also other ways to do it too.
If it doesn't work for you let me know

[GaryK]

Hi Marley

Welcome to the forums.:)

This is definitely a resolution issue. Your background 12x12 album page is a different resolution than your photo that you are bringing in.

Just make sure you have a copy of the original if you are going to resize as Patty suggested. That way will add or subtract pixels from your photo depending on which way it sizes.

It does work, and in some cases that is the way to go (especially if you want a certain size). I just prefer the free transform as your original stays untouched.:rolleyes:

[TonyW]

Just to add to what the others have said. When you copy, paste you are copying and pasting pixels so the resolution has to match for the size to come out right. Place is different - it's designed for vector images and, when you use it, it brings in the image and adjust the resolution to match the document you are bringing it into. For vector images that fine as they are scaleable. For jpegs that can be a problem if you try and place a low resolution image into a high resolution document because Elements has to add pixels and that can cause the image quality to deteriorate. Small resolution differences aren't going to be noticeable but large ones will be.

Tony

[Wendy]

Hi Marley ...

... and welcome to the forum :)

Do make sure that your 12 x 12 is at 300 resolution if you want to print it out ... I used to change the resolution and sizing of images I added to my layouts but in the end I just switched to using transform as it is a lot easier :)

Wendy

[cats4jan]

Screwing with resolution issues - until you are really good at it - is truly a lesson in frustration.

When you are in a hurry and don't feel like fooling around - make a copy of your photo - WORK ON ONLY COPIES so your original doesn't get ruined - crop off the excess - then move your cropped photo onto your project and resize with the bounding box/move tool. While resizing with the bounding box, hold the shift key to keep the photo from skewing.

[Marley]

Thanks to everyone. It was definitely a resolution issue.
The crop would work too but I didn't want to remove so much of the overall picture.