[Cowtown_Camera_Club] Cropping for print.

[Chad Fenner]

At the last print competition, a couple of you were having print issues 
where you'd send off a non-standard sized image to Costco (or wherever) 
and the printer would end up cropping the top and bottom (or sides) to 
make the non-standard sized image into a standard sized print.  Not good.

Here is one way to solve that problem using Photoshop.

So let's assume you are in Lightroom with a clearly non-standard sized 
image:



If I wanted to print this as a 12x18, and all I did was export it and 
send the image to Costco, Costco would cut off Julia's head and boots to 
get the right height to width ratio. Not good.  I want all of Julia.

Let's go. (wink wink)

First off, assuming you are using Lightroom, export your image to Photoshop.



Next, under "Image", choose "Image Size":



You'll see a window like this:



Let me point out that we are not actually going to physically change the 
image here. All we are going to do is change the size parameters.  The 
relationship between pixels and inches is wrapped up in the resolution.  
Change the resolution without changing the image and the "calculated" 
size changes.  But to make sure we don't actually change the picture 
itself, MAKE SURE THE RESAMPLE BUTTON IS UNCHECKED.  That will lock the 
relationship between the width/height and the resolution.  Change any 
one and the other two will automatically update.  In our case, we want 
the height to be 18 inches, so . . . change the units of the height to 
"Inches" (I have my default units set to "Pixels" - yours might be 
different), make sure the "Resample" button is unchecked, and type in 
"18" in the height field.



Did you notice that as soon as you click OFF the "Resample" button, the 
"lock" symbol extended down to resolution.  That means all three are 
locked together.  Change any one and the other two update on the fly.

Also note that the new width is less than the 12 inches we want. 
Perfect.  If it turned out that the resized width was too wide, then 
we'd change that to 12 and see a smaller height value automatically 
calculated.  In any case, Photoshop calculates the perfect resolution so 
that all your pixels are used to make the height we want.

Click "OK" and it looks like nothing happened.  Well, deep down, nothing 
did.  Your image is unchanged from before.  All we've done is change 
some arbitrary parameters so that our height comes out as 18 inches.

Now select "Canvas Size", again from the "Image" Menu.



And look at the window that pops up:



In my case, the default units is still Pixels, so I change either of the 
units to Inches, and the 18 pops up in the Height field. We want to 
change the Width to 12, but before you do, make sure "Relative" is not 
checked.  Photoshop likes to assume that you want to stretch the image 
proportionally in both directions, but we don't.  We are perfectly happy 
with our height; we just want to change the width. That means we need to 
turn off "Relative".



This time we are physically changing your image, but we are doing so by 
adding new pixels to pad out the width so that our height and width are 
a perfect 18x12 ratio.  Photoshop assumes that you want your new pixels 
evenly distributed around the image, but personally, I want all the new 
pixels added on the same side - since I'm going to have to physically 
cut them them out, I'd rather just have to do one cut instead of two.  
To make this happen, click on the anchor button to show you want the 
anchor stuck to the left, and all the new pixels will go on the right. 
Hit OK and . . .



Now the image is your original image unaltered with some new pixels 
added to one side to force a ratio that is perfect for printing.

Now close this and save it and you'll now see two versions of your image 
in Lightroom, the original, and the new one with white space added.



Now when you export it and send it to Costco, the ratio will be perfect 
and no cropping by the printer will be done.  You, however, have to clip 
off the extra space on the right (at least, I'd hope you do!).  All of 
you might not have paper cutters big enough to cut this, but I happen to 
know that Costco does, and if you ask nicely, they'll let you use it and 
get your image perfect right there in the store.

I know of another technique that involves printing to a file from the 
Lightroom Print module, but I'll not overwhelm you with too much 
information all at once.

Please let me know if that was helpful.

Thanks
CF

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