:Use Photo Ratio" aspect on Crop tool problem

[alibony]

I'm wondering if this is expected cropping behavior or if something is wrong with my PSE 6. It seems really weird to me... I expect the Use Photo Ratio aspect ratio to constrain the width and height to the proportions of the original photo and adjust the resolution as needed. It doesn't do that.

When I select the Use Photo Ratio aspect ratio, the original image's proportions and resolution are displayed in the options bar.

Then, I draw a crop box around a portion of the image; however, when committed, the cropped area is resized to the exact same width, size and resolution as the original. This causes the cropped area to degrade in quality because it is upsampled.

Note: If I change any of the options (width, height, resolution), the aspect ratio type changes to "Custom" and I've lost the photo ratio.

Thanks for any enlightenment!

Karen
Alibony Web Design and Graphics
http://www.alibony.com

[dj_paige]

You have discovered what I think is a devious behavior on the part of Crop tool. If you want to use the photo aspect ratio and have your cropped photo smaller than the original, then you need to remove whatever is in the Resolution box (make it blank).

Now when you crop, you get the proper aspect ratio, a smaller image, and no upsampling. You get the exact pixels you selected via the Crop tool.

[alibony]

Thanks, Paige. It's even more devious than I thought.

In order for it to work, you have to draw the crop box with the original width and height shown in the options bar. After the crop box is drawn, you can remove the width and height and leave those fields blank. (You can't remove the resolution, but you can change it.) Then, it works as expected.

If you select Use Photo Ratio and remove the width and height before drawing the crop box, the aspect ratio changes to No Restriction and you aren't constrained to the desired proportions when drawing the crop box.

Karen

[dj_paige]

I think you are making this more complicated than it has to be.

Here's my steps:

1. Click on the Crop Tool
2. Select Use Photo Ratio
3. Blank out the Resolution field (leave height and width untouched)
4. Actually do the crop

[alibony]

Hi Paige,

I tested your steps and still ended up with an upsampled photo. The original photo is 640x480 px at 180 ppi. Here's what I did:

1. Select the crop tool with Use Photo Ratio.
2. Delete the resolution to leave the Resolution field blank.
3. Draw the crop.

The resulting cropped photo is still 640x480 px at 180 ppi.

What works for me is to delete the height and width after cropping.

Karen

[TonyW]

I think you'll find that it's because you're cropping to a pixel size and not to units like ins or cms. When you use Photo Ratio the units are set by whatever you have the Ruler units set to in Preferences (or if you have the ruler showing just right click on it to change it). Then when you use Photo Ratio to Crop with the Resolution Box blank it should crop to the ratio without doing any upsampling.

Tony

[cats4jan]

I don't use the crop tool - I use the marquee tool

I draw my box - I use Grant's tools to tweak my selection

I use control j - to put that selection on it's own layer

Then I turn off the original layer using the eyeball in the layers palette -

and there it is - my "cropped photo"

I resize using the move tool and the bounding box

Now - my question is - am I doing any degrading this way???

[TonyW]

Yes - doing it that way potentially degrades the image. It's the last step that's a problem. When you resize you're adding pixels that weren't in the original image and that isn't a good thing to do unless you really have to.

Tony

[dj_paige]

Originally Posted by cats4jan

I don't use the crop tool - I use the marquee tool

I draw my box - I use Grant's tools to tweak my selection

I use control j - to put that selection on it's own layer

Then I turn off the original layer using the eyeball in the layers palette -

and there it is - my "cropped photo"

I resize using the move tool and the bounding box

Now - my question is - am I doing any degrading this way???

This is a very complicated method of "cropping", involving a lot more steps than simply using the Crop tool. Is there something about the way the crop tool works (or doesn't work) that led you to this procedure?