Cropping without decreasing photo quality

[iDad]

Oh sure Steve gets all the candy and we get the scrapes lol
J/k ;)

[Steve]

I opened a 4.7MB image. Original Image Size was 3872 pixels (width) and 2592 pixels (height)
After cropping it only by a small amount (i.e. just the outside edges), image size was a much smaller 487 pixels (width) and 417 pixels (height).

p.s. in addition to my original query, how do I change crop so that I can crop shapes other than a perfect square (I tried holding shift but it didn't change anything)

There are boxes on the top of the screen associated with the Crop (C) tool.
Width:, Height:, and Resolution:

For this experiment they all need to be blank, empty.
If you can only crop a square, that tells me you have some values in these boxes otherwise you should be able to free hand crop to any size you want.

That would be the answer to your P.S. too.

Enter a Height and Width in pixels or inches to crop to a specific size, but let's not go there yet.

[Tron]

Try using the Rectangular Marquee (M on your keyboard) tool with feather set to 0, select the area you can to crop to, then choose Image --> Crop.

I agree with Steve you must have some settings on the crop tool that are making it smaller.

[Steve]

Try using the Rectangular Marquee (M on your keyboard) tool with feather set to 0, select the area you can to crop to, then choose Image --> Crop.

Interesting, I never knew that.

[schoelchybear]

Hi Guys,

Thanks to both of you for your help! Tron I tried your rectangular marquee method, and it worked (didn't lose image quality/size) + was easy.

However I still need to figure out this crop tool!. Steve you were right there were figures already placed in the 3 boxes associated with the Crop tool.

Width = 4.123 cm
Height = 3.531 cm
Resolution = 300 pixels/inch

Am I to understand that to fix my problem I need to delete all these figures? Or is there more to it than that?

Thanks again for your help guys. Really appreciate it

Alex

[hawkeye]

I'll jump in:

If you want to free crop, meaning no particular dimensions, leave the boxes empty (hit clear). If you want to crop to a specific size (4" X 6" @ 300PPI for instance) then you enter those dimensions in the boxes on the tool options.

[Steve]

Hi Guys,

Steve you were right there were figures already placed in the 3 boxes associated with the Crop tool.

Width = 4.123 cm
Height = 3.531 cm
Resolution = 300 pixels/inch

Am I to understand that to fix my problem I need to delete all these figures? Or is there more to it than that?

Thanks again for your help guys. Really appreciate it

Alex

Yes delete those numbers if you want to crop free hand or enter specific numbers in inches like 5in by 7in.
Make sure you type inches or in in the boxes.
Use metric if you want but use the right numbers

5in = 12.7cm - 7in = 17.78cm

Right now your 4.123 cm crop is equal to about 1.6 inches

[schoelchybear]

Sweet thanks alot guys. This forum is awesome!

[Steve]

Your welcome.