Hello Dopers, can anyone recommend a (hopefully free) program to manipulate a large number of digital photos I have taken?
They are all 4288x3216 jpg images of about 7MB and I want to modify them for display on a 1920x1080 PC monitor.
I want to draw a rectangular selection box, drag the edges of the box and move the whole box around the image. Once I have selected the part I want, I would like to copy just the selection to a new image and have it resized or cropped in height or width to best fit the monitor resolution without affecting the aspect ratio.
If I use “Windows Photo Viewer” I can sort of get the effect I want by zooming in and out of the image with the mouse wheel and dragging the zoomed image about to centre the interesting bit. The only thing missing is the copy to new image and resize.
I use a Windows 7 PC and have tried Photoshop CS2 and Paint Shop Pro 7, I have previously used GIMP but can’t recall that it had this sort of feature. I expect PS can do it but don’t really know where to start, just selecting part of an image and copying it to a new image seemed overly difficult.
Really the zoom and crop bit is most important, I can do a batch resize separately afterwards if necessary.
So over to the superior collective, can anyone help me with this please? Many thanks, MC.
I should have added, the image programs I have tried let me draw a selection rectangle, but the thing is fixed once drawn - I would like to drag it about and expand or contract it before hitting “copy to new image”. Thanks.
Photoshop allows a resizable crop frame as well as cropping to a marquee frame, and allows half a dozen alternate ways to get from here to there the way you need to - including a couple of types of automation. I don’t usually care for such things, but you can download a fully-functional trial of PS if your needs are limited to this one project.
ETA: Just reread your post. If you don’t know how to do it in PS and haven’t bothered to read the help or look it up on the plethora of help sites, I’m not sure what tool you’re looking for or will be capable of using. (No diss intended, but RTFM would go a long ways here.)
I see nobody’s mentioned this:
In PS, select the marquee tool (M)
On the top, there should be a drop down box with “fixed aspect ratio”. Set it to 16 by 9.
Click and drag a bit, it doesn’t matter where
Press and hold the spacebar
Now, move the selection rectangle to one corner that you want to start selecting from
Release the spacebar
Drag to the opposite corner
Go to Edit>Copy then File>New. Accept the default size
Go to Edit>Paste
If you want to, you can go to Image, then resize
Save your file
There might be a easier way if you use the crop tool, that lets you freely move the selection before cropping.
I answered your question by referring you to a tool you said you already had but did not know how to use. I am puzzled how you will use ANY tool to do what you want if you are unwilling or unable to learn how to use it. I can’t think of a single tool that will automatically or intuitively do what you’re seeking to do; as you have on hand the single most capable image manager ever coded, suggesting that you learn how to use the features that will get you to the result you want can hardly be considered an insult.
Lighten up. (That’d be under Image | Adjustments | Brightness/Contrast, or about six other tools, by the way.)
(missed the edit) Photoshop will let you get your selected crops to the image size you want about ten different ways, with differing levels of effort and result. While AaronX has outlined one (slightly complicated) method, you might find any of several other techniques easier or giving you a better result for your needs. Reading the help or help-site information on “how to crop images” will give you a choice of answers, methods, options and potential results.
An “easier” tool will just limit your choices and still require learning how to use the crop feature. My suggestion boils down to using a better tool you already have, even though it may take some time and effort to get the first satisfactory result.
It’s complicated, but you can use it for selecting as well, and most importantly, by cropping the picture you are one Save (not Save As) away from wrecking your file. Hope you have backups!
Ok stupid me for completely ignoring the last part of your post and suggesting a program you’ve already tried. But if you have Photoshop CS2, that’s going to do everything you need.
I agree that cropping is much easier, as long as you make sure to save it as a new file name and not accidentally save over the original. But AaronX’s way works too. A couple of keyboard shortcuts makes it even quicker.
Ctrl-C to copy, Ctrl-N for a new, Ctrl-V for paste and he forgot to mention you need to do a Ctrl-E to merge the layers so you can save the new file as something besides a .psd.
Also, when you have a selection, you can use the arrow keys on your keyboard to move it around the image. If you want to make larger movements, just hold down shift as you press the arrow keys.
I use Paint.NET and Photoshop depending on the needs. For a quick edit like you want, Paint.NET is much simpler to use. Open your picture in Paint.NET. In the tool toolbox, click on the top left ‘box’ icon to enable the selector. Drag and drop your rectangle. In the toolbox, click on the 2nd row right icon (clear arrow with plus). This allows you to move and resize your rectangle. When ready, click Ctrl-C to copy and Ctrl-Alt-V to copy into new image. Then you can resize, manipulate, add, whatever. You’ll notice in the top right that you now have the original and the new image. If you want to do another copy, click on your original image and repeat the above steps.
The simplest way is to set the Crop tool to 1920x1080, then drag and adjust the rectangle until it contains the part of the picture you want. Double-click to crop, Ctrl-Shift-S to save under a new name that won’t overwrite your original file. The Crop-to-size function will resize the image from whatever area is selected (in pixel dimensions) to the specifed size.
You can save the renaming trouble by creating a complete duplicate folder of the image files, or by creating a hard archive copy on CD-R or DVD-R. Optionally, use a global rename tool if you want to change all the file names from the icky default camera names to something more sensible (“SouthAmerica2012_nnnn.jpg”). Then you can just Ctrl-S to save, F4 to close the file, and move on to the next file. If you open five or six photos at a time and close each as it’s finished, you can move pretty quickly. The Crop tool will hold the size setting until you clear or change it.