New Auto Crop Q & A

Check your email inbox. There is new information from Ruby Lane regarding the Auto Crop feature, including a link to shops that are currently using it. Also information on GIMP, free image editing software, and tutorials on GIMP.

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Permalink Reply by Pearl's Parlor on June 8, 2012 at 3:42pm

I downloaded GIMP awhile back but find it a little difficult to use, compared to Picasa. I still would like to see a tutorial from Ruby Lane on using their photo editing tools, especially an easy way to make a photo a perfect square.

Permalink Reply by The Old Grey Mare on June 8, 2012 at 4:10pm

Good information Carol, thanks. Since I use both Picasa and Photo Shop, I was wondering about downloading and learning yet another photo program. Today I cropped some pictures, using Picasa, until the dimensions were as close to square as I could get them, while retaining the entire image of the item. When uploaded, they were still cut off somewhere, either sides or top. Did they show as nicely as other photos I've cropped? No. But acceptable, people viewing them will just think I need a lesson in editing and cropping.....Thus far, I haven't tried RL's photo cropping tool, because I don't want to mess up a photograph of something already in my shop, and then have to remove the item and retake the photo. Their instructions say we may be able to recrop, as long as there is sufficient area around the item. Which I won't have, as I have always tried to crop as tightly as possible. Don't we all think "how amateur" when we see an item in a sea of background? To me, the problem is that not everything we are offering for sale is square. I have a trophy in my shop, in the form of a basket, with a tall handle, and I cropped and recropped the image on my computer yesterday, spent about an hour on it, and finally give it up. I'm sorry, but seeing just the basket isn't nearly as enticing as seeing the entire image, with the tall, graceful handle, it takes away from the effect. At this point, I'm really not going to worry about it until next year, although I'll play with it as time goes along.

Permalink Reply by Mainely Glass on June 8, 2012 at 4:38pm

My shop is listed. I had turned it on to see what the photos looked like, and make a note of which ones to work on first. You may want to use mine as an example of what NOT to do. LOL. I have quite a few vases, goblets and other tall items that need the photos reworked.

Permalink Reply by Ruby Lane on June 8, 2012 at 4:43pm

Hi Dexter, You beat me to it - posting the message about the email.

If you are worried about losing your photo just download the one you have in your shop to your computer before you crop it. You have to be signed into your shop and then right click on the photo and save. Every once in awhile it is finicky and won't bring it the right box which has the 'save' command, if this happens you will need to sign out of your shop and sign back in. The crop tool also allows you to cancel your changes at any time.

We do hope the list of information we sent out today will answer some of questions folks have.

Carol

PS If anyone needs a copy of the email or wants me to post it here then let me know.

Permalink Reply by Pearl's Parlor on June 8, 2012 at 7:18pm

I think I'll have some difficulty with postcards and square photos. I notice in the shops the newsletter mentioned, some had postcards. They all just show the center of the postcard, so maybe there is no good way to take a square scan of a postcard. How do you like Photo Shop Dexter? I use either Picasa or the Nikon editor that came with my camera. I also have a Dell photo editor. I looked at the videos and have looked at GIMP but I think it's above my level of understanding on photos. There are very long instructions that you can download that will explain GIMP.

Permalink Reply by Waalaa on June 9, 2012 at 12:32am

I know a lot of folks use GIMP and love it, but I did not find it as user friendly as I liked. I loved Picnik, which is gone. I am now using another free program, PhotoScape, which is wonderful. If you go the Crop tab and scroll down, it has the option of cropping at all different ratios, including a 5 x 5 square, which I use for my photos. Some of you might check it out - it is very user friendly :)

Permalink Reply by Marni Bakst on June 9, 2012 at 2:04am

Dexter,

1. Open your photo in Photoshop

2. Activate the Crop tool by clicking on it, hover over the tools on the tool bar to see which one that is if you don't know. It may also be hidden behind the Slice or Slice Select tool... you can find hidden tools by clicking on the little triangle at the bottom right of the individual tool icons.

3. Set the aspect ratio in the Width and Height boxes at the top... use 1:1 for a square. You can also set your resolution to 1024 in the Resolution box - this works best when you've used a high pixel resolution when shooting and will be scaling down, if you've shot at a low pixel resolution (640 x 480 for example) it's better not to set it to 1024 or you'll lose clarity.

4. Drag the tool over your image to create an approximate crop which will be a square since you've set the aspect ratio (width and height). You can drag and drop the square you create until it's exactly where you want it.

5. Crop by going to Image at the top and selecting Crop from the drop-down.

6. Save it wherever you want by going to File > Save or File > Save As. If you use the Save As option, rename it or put a 1 after the name and you'll still have the original unedited version.

The Old Grey Mare said:

Good information Carol, thanks. Since I use both Picasa and Photo Shop, I was wondering about downloading and learning yet another photo program. Today I cropped some pictures, using Picasa, until the dimensions were as close to square as I could get them, while retaining the entire image of the item. When uploaded, they were still cut off somewhere, either sides or top. Did they show as nicely as other photos I've cropped? No. But acceptable, people viewing them will just think I need a lesson in editing and cropping.....Thus far, I haven't tried RL's photo cropping tool, because I don't want to mess up a photograph of something already in my shop, and then have to remove the item and retake the photo. Their instructions say we may be able to recrop, as long as there is sufficient area around the item. Which I won't have, as I have always tried to crop as tightly as possible. Don't we all think "how amateur" when we see an item in a sea of background? To me, the problem is that not everything we are offering for sale is square. I have a trophy in my shop, in the form of a basket, with a tall handle, and I cropped and recropped the image on my computer yesterday, spent about an hour on it, and finally give it up. I'm sorry, but seeing just the basket isn't nearly as enticing as seeing the entire image, with the tall, graceful handle, it takes away from the effect. At this point, I'm really not going to worry about it until next year, although I'll play with it as time goes along.

Permalink Reply by The Old Grey Mare on June 9, 2012 at 3:18pm

Thank you Marni! I really appreciate the detailed instructions for Photoshop. Seriously good advice, very understandable, thanks for taking the time to explain it. I did the square on Picasa, and played around with that for a while, with some success. We're off to Sapphire Valley for the week, I'll give it a try when I get home, going to try to put work and Ruby Lane out of my mind. Well, except for hitting every antique shop I pass.....You're the best! Have a great weekend!

Permalink Reply by Ornaments on June 10, 2012 at 9:21am

When I crop a picture I always save the cropped version under a new name so that I can go back to the original if I need to for some reason.

I have been using free photo editing software called Photo Pos Pro which I like pretty well. I find it to be fairly user friendly so it might be an option for people who don't like GIMP.

Permalink Reply by Pearl's Parlor on June 10, 2012 at 9:41am

Thanks for the tip. I'll download and try Photo Pos Pro. Like I mentioned, I found GIMP a little too advanced for my photo knowledge. I do like Picasa and find it user friendly. Have you been able to easily crop something in a square with Photo Pos?

Permalink Reply by Pearl's Parlor on June 10, 2012 at 9:52am

Just noticed Waalaa's post about Photo Scape. I'll look into that one too. I'll try what you suggest of 5x5 size because your photos are square and look great.

Permalink Reply by Ornaments on June 10, 2012 at 11:15am

I don't worry about getting my pictures exactly square since they seem to work fine in the new format as long as they are 'more or less' square. Cropping in Photo Pos Pro is very easy. There is a cropping tool and you use the mouse to draw a square around the item. Then under the Image menu you select Crop Selection.