Cropping Tutorial
Hello! =) I have come to help you all with the art of cropping! =) This is my first tutorial, so please be kind =)
First off we start with a picture. I am going to use this picture as an example.
I have no idea where I got this picture, so please don't ask.
Now we need to crop it. People often make the mistake of cropping a picture like this:
Now this is ok if you don't want to add text, but if you do, there's not much room to do so. It's also not very interesting.
So, a general rule to go by here is the rule of thirds. Imagine your picture has lines going across it, dividing it into thirds horizontally and vertically. The points at which the lines intersect, are generally where you put the most important part of the picture. Here is a rough diagram I drew up for you.
It's not important to live and die by this rule... we all know rules are made to be broken. When you know the rule and break it, you do it well and it looks good. When you don't know the rule and break it, it shows, and it generally doesn't look good.
So now let's try cropping our picture using this new rule we have learnt. =)
I always use the Rectangular Maquee Tool set to a Fixed Aspect Ratio of 100 x 100. This way you'll get a nice even square, and you won't mess up the image proportions. When I've selected the area I want to use I copy (control +c) and paste (control +v) it into a new area (control + n). This is what I've got so far.
The height and width of the new area will be the same as the height and width of the area you've copied. Now, I find that for some reason, it makes the outer row or two of pixels around the edge slighly transparant, so I take about 5 pixels off the height and the width, and then click ok.
You should now have this:
Now click image--> image size, and resize your image to 100x100 pixels and click ok.
Then to get rid of that line of transparant pixels around the edge, click the move tool (it's an arrow) with a little cross arrow thing next to it, and hit up and left once or twice on my keyboard.
Your picture should now look like something like this:
Here are a few others that I did with the same picture.
Granted, these aren't the best crops I've done, but they look much more interesting than cropping it so that the picture is centered. And not only that, but it leaves plenty of room to add text! So have a play around, try rotating the picture, and don't be afraid to not put all of the person's face or the object in the picture. From ther you can sharpen the picture if it's too fuzzy and add text, brushes etc etc.
I should also probably point out that with the rotated ones, I used the smudge tool to get rid of the background colour in the corner of my selection. You'll know what I mean when you try it! =)
If you have any questions, feel free to ask =)
Happy Cropping!! =)
I apologise if any of the pictures do not load. Photobucket seems to be playing up lately.
EDIT: I forgot to mention yesterday that this is a Photoshop tutorial... I was too busy stressing about photobucket!! sorry!
xposted to my icon journal
tiny_wanderer
First off we start with a picture. I am going to use this picture as an example.
I have no idea where I got this picture, so please don't ask.
Now we need to crop it. People often make the mistake of cropping a picture like this:
Now this is ok if you don't want to add text, but if you do, there's not much room to do so. It's also not very interesting.
So, a general rule to go by here is the rule of thirds. Imagine your picture has lines going across it, dividing it into thirds horizontally and vertically. The points at which the lines intersect, are generally where you put the most important part of the picture. Here is a rough diagram I drew up for you.
It's not important to live and die by this rule... we all know rules are made to be broken. When you know the rule and break it, you do it well and it looks good. When you don't know the rule and break it, it shows, and it generally doesn't look good.
So now let's try cropping our picture using this new rule we have learnt. =)
I always use the Rectangular Maquee Tool set to a Fixed Aspect Ratio of 100 x 100. This way you'll get a nice even square, and you won't mess up the image proportions. When I've selected the area I want to use I copy (control +c) and paste (control +v) it into a new area (control + n). This is what I've got so far.
The height and width of the new area will be the same as the height and width of the area you've copied. Now, I find that for some reason, it makes the outer row or two of pixels around the edge slighly transparant, so I take about 5 pixels off the height and the width, and then click ok.
You should now have this:
Now click image--> image size, and resize your image to 100x100 pixels and click ok.
Then to get rid of that line of transparant pixels around the edge, click the move tool (it's an arrow) with a little cross arrow thing next to it, and hit up and left once or twice on my keyboard.
Your picture should now look like something like this:
Here are a few others that I did with the same picture.
Granted, these aren't the best crops I've done, but they look much more interesting than cropping it so that the picture is centered. And not only that, but it leaves plenty of room to add text! So have a play around, try rotating the picture, and don't be afraid to not put all of the person's face or the object in the picture. From ther you can sharpen the picture if it's too fuzzy and add text, brushes etc etc.
I should also probably point out that with the rotated ones, I used the smudge tool to get rid of the background colour in the corner of my selection. You'll know what I mean when you try it! =)
If you have any questions, feel free to ask =)
Happy Cropping!! =)
I apologise if any of the pictures do not load. Photobucket seems to be playing up lately.
EDIT: I forgot to mention yesterday that this is a Photoshop tutorial... I was too busy stressing about photobucket!! sorry!
xposted to my icon journal
tiny_wanderer