Resizing Photos

[janneluecke]

I noticed in some of Ro's tutorials she resized pictures and when doing so I think changed the resolution to match.? The majority of my digital pictures come up as W 5.333in. x H 4in. (your typical 4x6 photo I guess) and 1600x1200 pixels at 300dpi. Let's say I wanted to make a picture really big on my 12x12 LO or even fill the whole page- how do I do that and still have the picture look good when my page is printed?The only thing I know for sure about changing the size of my photos is to hold the alt button down on my MAC while dragging the corner of the photo so it doesn't get distorted. Can you resize a photo so it is not proportionately the same as the original (ie. 6x4 to a 12x8) without getting distortion?

When I go into image>image resize I see the pixels and the inches etc. but there is also 'scale styles' and 'resample'(which has its own sub-catagories like bilinear, bicubic, etc.. What is all that? And do I really need to know? Thanks in advance. Judy

[MLLatscrapgirls]

Judy, which software are you using?

 

In Photoshop Elements, there is a way to bring a photo in as a Smart Object. Until you simplify them (which you have to do before cropping them or altering them), you can enlarge them without losing quality.

 

If you want a 4x6 photo to fit a 12x12 page completely, you are either going to have to crop it or distort it. But the way you are describing, to grab a corner and just pull it out, is the easiest. That will give you a photo that is 8x12.

 

Resampling means a permanent change, so be sure you duplicate the photo first. When you use it to make a photo larger in PSE, it is basically adding some pixels to the photo to "fill it in" to be the larger size. Adobe recommends using Bicubic Smoother when you are enlarging and Bicubic Sharper when you are reducing. I have not idea what scale styles are but my reference book says you can ignore them. DO be careful that the Constrain Proportions is on!! Just fill in the longest side that you want and PSE can figure out the shorter side.

 

I hope this helps! I very rarely do it this way, as I usually have the photo on the layout and prefer to enlarge it there so I can see what size is needed.

[Sara Arell]

If you are using InDesign, you simply can type in the size you want or you can click gradually on the up or down arrows on the sizing tool to rezize - I only change the resolution if I am submitting to something that has to have a lower resolution than my camera takes - not sure about other programs. If you crop in InDesign, it doesn't work so well on the image - you have to use the commands or the tools to do it an they are located on the bar at the top. HTH a little bit.

[Sherry Lynn]

Judy I think the main thing here is --- if you tell us what program you are using there will be someone with that software that will be able to help you out --- I'm thinking where you said Ro's tutorials you have either Photoshop, Photoshop Elements or PSP.

 

And if it is Elements then Marylou has already given you some information. Also, like Marylou I bring my photo into my layout and do my resizing there!

[janneluecke]

I am using Photo Shop Elements 6. I understand the constraints porportions and dragging from the corner either in Free Transform or holding the shift key to keep the porportions. I did try changing the Width in inches to 12 and it did automatically change the Height to 9. And I never thought about cropping the photo first-so if I want a photo to be a square I can crop out 4x4 piece and then resize it to any size square up to 12x12. That makes sense. Thanks Marylou. I guess it makes sense that you can't change the W and H unproportionately without distorting the image. I'm learning. If I do resize do the pixels automatically change so the picture will still look good? Should I always make sure the dpi is on 300? What about sizing down like to fit a lot of pictures in a year-in-review or tiled LO template? Just do the same thing in reverse? I'm sure someone out there has put dozens of photos on one LO- I'm wondering how the photos look when printed if they are only about an inch square, especially if you resize your LO to print 8x8?

[MLLatscrapgirls]

Here is an example of one of my layouts with over a dozen photos: http://scrapgirls.com.ipbhost.com/index.php?app=gallery&module=images&section=viewimage&img=100055. I did print it out (it is for a bulletin board at church) and people who have seen it think it looks good. It is an 8x8 layout.

 

I always leave the photos at 300 dpi. I think that for printing purposes you can go as low as 200 and for the web you need to be at 72 dpi.

 

Yes, I do it the same way as enlarging - CTRL T and then pull the corners in.

 

If you resize to make a smaller bigger larger, then the quality of the picture will change. I have much better luck just using the transform on the photo as a layer.

 

Someone else may have some other tips! But I have transformed images larger and smaller, and as long as they are 300 dpi to begin with they are fine.

[Sherry Lynn]

If you resize the photo it will stay as is AND yes you should always make sure to keep the dpi @300.

 

Here are the steps that I use when I resize a photo:

I click on the photo, click up in the corner to bring up the width, heigth, constrain proportions - I usually use the % to increase or decrease the size of my photos. I haven't done a layout with only 1" square photos.... maybe someone else will come along with an answer on that for you.

[janneluecke]

Thanks. That does look good MaryLou. Anyone out there that has a LO using tiles or a year-in-review type of thing with even more photos I'd love to see it. I guess I could go search through the gallery, too.