Full Version: Constraining crops in Photoshop
Hi, wonder if anyone can help me. I'm producing a fair number of individual/group photos of children in a school event. Most need cropping from landscape originals to portrait. Because this is a voluntary thing I'm only giving a choice of one paper size (A4) with a wide border. But I want the border width and proportions to be consistent. Is there a way of setting cropping parameters so that they will give a specific proportion, so that, once resized in PS, the borders are consistent across all the photos? I'm looking for way that doesn't involve a lot of work as I need to get these out of the door as quick as I can
QUOTE (NigelC @ Jul 4 2009, 08:12 AM) 
Hi, wonder if anyone can help me. I'm producing a fair number of individual/group photos of children in a school event. Most need cropping from landscape originals to portrait. Because this is a voluntary thing I'm only giving a choice of one paper size (A4) with a wide border. But I want the border width and proportions to be consistent. Is there a way of setting cropping parameters so that they will give a specific proportion, so that, once resized in PS, the borders are consistent across all the photos? I'm looking for way that doesn't involve a lot of work as I need to get these out of the door as quick as I can
Use the rectangular marquee tool select your crop: You can set it to a fixed ratio in the options bar.
After making the initial crop selection I'd suggest using a recorded action to crop, deselect, save as and close the image.
You could then run a batch action on the cropped images to resize, convert to profile, sharpen etc.
Good luck.
Graeme
QUOTE (DiaAzul @ Jul 5 2009, 11:20 AM)
Nigel
The workflow that David suggests in the linked thread is smarter than mine.
Regards
graeme
Hi
I'm afraid my knowledge of photoshop is very hit and miss. I thought I could use the marquee tool, with a fixed aspect ratio like the crop tool - i.e. just press enter and only the bit within the marque is saved! What I really need to do is crop with fixed aspect ratio, but that tool doesn't exist - can anyone help - I've got a lot of these to do so something fairly quick or can be saved as an action is what I need - (also not sure how to save an action!)
I'm afraid my knowledge of photoshop is very hit and miss. I thought I could use the marquee tool, with a fixed aspect ratio like the crop tool - i.e. just press enter and only the bit within the marque is saved! What I really need to do is crop with fixed aspect ratio, but that tool doesn't exist - can anyone help - I've got a lot of these to do so something fairly quick or can be saved as an action is what I need - (also not sure how to save an action!)
QUOTE (NigelC @ Jul 7 2009, 10:00 AM)
Hi
I'm afraid my knowledge of photoshop is very hit and miss. I thought I could use the marquee tool, with a fixed aspect ratio like the crop tool - i.e. just press enter and only the bit within the marque is saved! What I really need to do is crop with fixed aspect ratio, but that tool doesn't exist - can anyone help - I've got a lot of these to do so something fairly quick or can be saved as an action is what I need - (also not sure how to save an action!)
I'm afraid my knowledge of photoshop is very hit and miss. I thought I could use the marquee tool, with a fixed aspect ratio like the crop tool - i.e. just press enter and only the bit within the marque is saved! What I really need to do is crop with fixed aspect ratio, but that tool doesn't exist - can anyone help - I've got a lot of these to do so something fairly quick or can be saved as an action is what I need - (also not sure how to save an action!)
If you want to use the marquee tool to crop:
Make your selection with the marquee tool
Click on 'Image' in the menu bar
Click on 'Crop' in the drop down menu.
Graeme
PS. LuLa may be the wrong forum for you - posts like the above often get an 'RTFM' response.
"RTFM"?
QUOTE (NigelC @ Jul 7 2009, 11:10 AM)
"RTFM"?
I think I know what three of the letters mean.
Read The Manual. The "F" has me stumped ...
Andrew
QUOTE (AndrewKulin @ Jul 7 2009, 09:55 PM)
I think I know what three of the letters mean.
Read The Manual. The "F" has me stumped ...
Andrew
Read The Manual. The "F" has me stumped ...
Andrew
"Fershlugginer?"
I do read the "manual" and various other tomes, but silent on this one - not as helpful as this forum anyway! - thanks for solution, graeme
QUOTE (NigelC @ Jul 7 2009, 07:00 AM)
Hi
I'm afraid my knowledge of photoshop is very hit and miss. I thought I could use the marquee tool, with a fixed aspect ratio like the crop tool - i.e. just press enter and only the bit within the marque is saved! What I really need to do is crop with fixed aspect ratio, but that tool doesn't exist - can anyone help - I've got a lot of these to do so something fairly quick or can be saved as an action is what I need - (also not sure how to save an action!)
I'm afraid my knowledge of photoshop is very hit and miss. I thought I could use the marquee tool, with a fixed aspect ratio like the crop tool - i.e. just press enter and only the bit within the marque is saved! What I really need to do is crop with fixed aspect ratio, but that tool doesn't exist - can anyone help - I've got a lot of these to do so something fairly quick or can be saved as an action is what I need - (also not sure how to save an action!)
FWIW, you can also use the CROP tool with a fixed aspect ratio... Set the width and height to your desired aspect ratio, then leave the pixel box blank. Any crop you drag will be your aspect ratio at full pixel dimension for the crop you outlined, no resizing. (If you enter a pixel resolution, it will then resize on the crop.) You can even save that tool and name it for future use.
An advantage with the marquis is you can set a fixed dimension too, but then it's not drag-adjustable. Different tool for different purpose.
Cheers,
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