How to maintain 4R paper ratio during cropping? (Photoshop)

[Canew]

Hello everyone,

I sometimes do cropping on my photos. However, I would like to maintain a 4R paper print ratio after the cropping process so that I will be able to fill up my 4R paper during the print out later.

Q: How do I maintain the 4R ratio when I am using the crop tool in Photoshop? Is there such a thing such as holding a key while doing the cropping in order to maintain the lenght/width ratio?

TIA.

[n0d3]

If your existing photo is already in the ratio you want, select the crop tool, click on "Front Image". It'll crop and scale the image up to that size. Then you can downsize it if you want. Thats how I do it at least.

[judeseah]

assuming u r using 350D(avatar pic),
ratio is 3:2.
when u crop,
hold on the shift ket and ratio will remain the same.

jude

[Clockunder]

Originally Posted by Canew Hello everyone, I sometimes do cropping on my photos. However, I would like to maintain a 4R paper print ratio after the cropping process so that I will be able to fill up my 4R paper during the print out later. Q: How do I maintain the 4R ratio when I am using the crop tool in Photoshop? Is there such a thing such as holding a key while doing the cropping in order to maintain the lenght/width ratio? TIA.

I don't know all and I've been learning Photoshop CS2 for only 3 months but here's what I've been doing and also I think also what I read from photoshop help previously :

Specify your width and height in inches in the options (circled in red in the picture below) and leave the resolution empty (i.e. if you don't want any resizing). For e.g. If I want a 3:2 ratio with the width 2 vs height 3, I would specify as shown in the picture below. You may also use 4 inches as width and 6 inches as height to have the same ratio and it doesn't matter as long as you don't specify the resolution. If you want to resize as well, then you would need to specify both exact width and height and resolution and the computer will resample to down size or upsize, depending what you've selected for crop and its original resolution vis-a-vis what you have specified in the options.

This way, the crop rectangle will always maintain that ratio when you left click and drag your cursor over the picture to crop. You can then pull the corners to adjust the width or height to have the crop you want. As the ratio is maintain, the height will change accordingly when you left click on and drag a corner to adjust the width and, width will change accordingly when you left click on and drag a corner to adjust the height. You can also reposition the crop rectangle by left clicking in the crop area and then drag it to move the rectangle to cover the position you want.

Goto photoshop help and read up on "crop". All the info are here.

Warning : The above info may not be 100% correct or full but just what I know.

[raptor84]

An alternative way is to use the retangular lasoo tool by selecting the option of Fixed aspect ratio from the drop down menu.



After doing that select image --> crop form the menu bar.

This is how i normally do it.

[Canew]

Wow! Thanks for all the responses guys. I will try out all the tips given by all and see which suits me best!

Once again thanks to n0d3, Jude, Clockunder and raptor84.

Jude, yes, I'm using the 350D.

[shocky]

im using the same thing as clockunder

[ortega]

Originally Posted by shocky im using the same thing as clockunder

me too

[Canew]

Thanks, shocky & ortega.

GONG XI FA CAI.

[mudsalleh]

both techniques mentioned by clockunder and raptor are not exactly similar. i use both for different purpose.

clockunder technique is a straight crop. u will get what u set. meaning it dependant on ur width, height and resolution settings. this is useful if u know what's the final output/limitation for width, height and resolution.

raptor84 technique on the other hand actually answered the initial question posted. this one mainly use the fixed aspect ratio irregardless of the width and height. the only drawback is u can't change the resolution setting here. so u might want to change resolution 1st before crop.

but then again, this is only my opinion.

[theRBK]

Actually, by not setting the resolution while using the crop tool, as mentioned by clockunder, you can still crop without knowledge of final size as no information is lost, i.e. the resolution will be adjusted by PS such that the final amount of pixels within the cropped area is neither diminished or increased...

Also, another tool, if anyone is interested, is to use the Rectangle tool, set to paths, with constrain to proportion... drag out the rectangle as the area to be cropped, select all four anchor points, set points to "subtract", and then fill shape with black... this way you have marked out an area to be cropped without actually changing the image, save the 'crop' into you file, and by selecting the anchor points, you can adjust the crop even a few days later... to crop, just select the transparent area and select crop from the Image menu... good for when you only want to output the file to a certain size but not saving for long time archive... also good when you have a finicky client...

[Canew]

Thanks, everyone for the feedbacks. So far, I am comfortable with the technique mentioned by Clockunder.

[unseen]

Try this..
use the crop tool..
1. select the entire picture. Photoshop will snap the edges for you.
2. select the corner, and hold down shift and drag. the aspect ratio will be maintained.
you can crop to the size you like visually, and you can drag the crop area around by click and hold and move the mouse.
3. double click to confirm crop

[taipankid]

I am using raptor's method. works fine for me