Cropping (and also Collages)

I am fairly new to Photoshop and I am using PS CS. Tell me if my thinking is correct in regards to cropping.

I am processing an image from my 4MP digital camera at full resolution. I bring it into PS and use the crop tool. I enter 7in by 5in for the dimensions and blank out the resolution field. I then crop to 7 x 5. When I look at the image data, the size is 7 x 5 and the resolution is over 300.

The image has not been degraded because no pixels have been added or removed. Correct? It is now formatted for the exact size I want the print to be.

When creating collages, what is the best method to use for copying individual images to the collage image I want to create? How do you get the individual images the right size to fit into the collage without degrading the individual images? I have been copying the individual images to the collage image and then using Free Transform to resize the image in my collage image. I suspect that this method degrades the image, however. I then crop to remove extraneous pixels from the image and reduce the file size.
Is there a better way to get individual images to the correct size to fit into the collage without degrading the images?

Hans wrote:

I am fairly new to Photoshop and I am using PS CS. Tell me if my thinking is correct in regards to cropping.

I am processing an image from my 4MP digital camera at full resolution. I bring it into PS and use the crop tool. I enter 7in by 5in for the dimensions and blank out the resolution field. I then crop to 7 x 5. When I look at the image data, the size is 7 x 5 and the resolution is over 300.

The image has not been degraded because no pixels have been added or removed. Correct? It is now formatted for the exact size I want the print to be.

When creating collages, what is the best method to use for copying individual images to the collage image I want to create? How do you get the individual images the right size to fit into the collage without degrading the individual images? I have been copying the individual images to the collage image and then using Free Transform to resize the image in my collage image. I suspect that this method degrades the image, however. I then crop to remove extraneous pixels from the image and reduce the file size.

Is there a better way to get individual images to the correct size to fit into the collage without degrading the images?

You are mentioning two basic techniques: Cropping and Resizing. What do you actually use. Cropping leaves the resolution intact, you’re just cutting away a part of the image. Resizing has influence on the resolution per inch.

Try us again:)

steg

steggy wrote in
news::

Hans wrote:

I am fairly new to Photoshop and I am using PS CS. Tell me if my thinking is correct in regards to cropping.

I am processing an image from my 4MP digital camera at full resolution. I bring it into PS and use the crop tool. I enter 7in by 5in for the dimensions and blank out the resolution field. I then crop to 7 x 5. When I look at the image data, the size is 7 x 5 and the resolution is over 300.

The image has not been degraded because no pixels have been added or removed. Correct? It is now formatted for the exact size I want the print to be.

When creating collages, what is the best method to use for copying individual images to the collage image I want to create? How do you get the individual images the right size to fit into the collage without degrading the individual images? I have been copying the individual images to the collage image and then using Free Transform to resize the image in my collage image. I suspect that this method degrades the image, however. I then crop to remove extraneous pixels from the image and reduce the file size.

Is there a better way to get individual images to the correct size to fit into the collage without degrading the images?

You are mentioning two basic techniques: Cropping and Resizing. What do you actually use. Cropping leaves the resolution intact, you’re just cutting away a part of the image. Resizing has influence on the resolution per inch.

Try us again:)

steg

I am using the cropping toolbox, but the options bar allows you to enter a value for resolution as well as height and width. I leave resolution blank and thus it changes from 72 to 300 after I crop to 7 x 5. I pretty certain that the image is not degraded when this procedure is used.

As far as using Free Transform and adjusting the image size with the handles, I think that this resamples the image and I am looking for a better way to copy and resize individual images and create a collage image.