Cropping
an image
Earlier we mentioned that
some cameras produce pictures that are HUGE. If you have a 6
megapixel camera they can be astronomically huge. This can work
to our advantage. The problem with the human mind is that it can
focus on one item and not see the big picture (only what it wants to
see). Another thing is that some cameras can't really 'zoom in' to
where the action is. Our eyes will see what they want. Only
when we review the picture later will we see the error of our
ways. Here's an example.
This is Christine looking
regal in the back yard. A very surprising quiet moment. The
problem is my camera couldn't zoom in and get rid of the clutter in the
foreground. By the way, I normally do have grass in my yard but
this photo was taken during the drought. This picture has the
advantage of being 1600 X 1200 pixels (1.6 megapixels, still a decent
size photo). Lets
clean it up and crop (cut out) the excess.
I don't know why, but you
can't find the cropping tool from the pull down menus. But it is
an icon that can be selected. Select the cropping tool will
change the arrow icon to a crop icon.
Next, draw a box around the
part of the picture you want to keep. Let's get rid of all the
clutter in the foreground and background. When you
get the image you want, select "CROP IMAGE" to trim away the
excess. Remember that you can UNDO if you don't like the results.
After cropping the image went
from 1600X1200 to 578X430. That's a lot smaller. Now it's
ready to be printed or put on the web page.
For the final picture I
lightened it just a touch to bring out some detail. Isn't
Christine pretty?
