Re-Size an image in Photoshop elements 5.

1) Crop the image to the proportions that you want to suit your interpretation.

Select the crop tool and set the Aspect Ratio (look at the top line of the screen on the Left Hand side) to No Restriction. This setting allows you to alter all dimensions of the crop.

In this example try a landscape crop (ie Wider than it is High).

When you are satisfied with the crop press return.

2) Go to Image-Resize-Image-Size.

This screen is the one that displayed at Camera Club last night.

Now - Tick the Resample Image box at the bottom Left!!!

The box now allows you to alter the Width and Height in Pixels.

3) Set the Resolution to 72

Change the Width pixels to 1024 and notice the Height pixels automatically change to a new number.

This new Height number is less than 768 so press OK (if the Height number was greater than 768 then enter the Height as 768 and the Width will probably become a number les than 1024. Remember the objective is to create an image that is no Wider than 1024 whilst also being no Higher than 768. Press OK. The resulting image is 1024 x 528.

The image appears but reduced in size.

Press and hold Ctrl then press 0 (zero), release both keys and the image appears enlarged on the screen.

3) Select Image-Resize-Canvas Size.

Alter the Width units to Pixels and enter Width 1024, Height 768 and change the Canvas Extension Colour from Background to Black by clicking on the Background drop down list.

Press OK and the image will reveal in Elements 5 with black lines pading out the canvas to the size required for the competition.

4) Here are the actions - I had originally rotated the image to portrait style for printing so I had to rotate it back, otherwise there are 3 actions - Crop, Image Size and Canvas Size.

If the image is square, the resizing will result in a 768 x 768 image with black bars on the sides, if it is in portrait orientation the limiting factor is the Height which must not exceed 768 and the black bars will be on either side.

If the image is to be very much enlarged change the interpolation to Bicubic Smoother, if it is to be very much reduced change it to Bicubic Sharper, but look for over-sharpening. If that occurs change back to Bicubic.

Good luck with the competition.

Chris Danzelman.

23/1/09