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Before you start working on any
photo think about the purpose and your intended use. In this case you are
featuring a llama and want the focus to be on the animal.
Look at the area surrounding your
photo and decide what can be removed so the focus is on the animal and there is
less background distractions. This serves 2 purposes, 1st by eliminating some
of the unnecessary background you will be able to have a larger photo of the
llama and help keep the file size to a minimum. 2nd you can have more photos on
each web page that will load faster for your visitor.
Step
1 |
Open your photo in your
graphic program. Remember this tutorial is written for people using Paint Shop
Pro but you should find similar tools on any graphic program you are using.
Notice the tool bar on the
left with the orange/red arrow
pointing to the tool that is a rectangle box with dotted lines. This is the
Selection Tool designed to allow
you to select a portion of your picture in several different ways.
Click your mouse on the
selection tool to activate the feature and you are ready to go on to step
2. |
Step
2 |
Once you choose you
Selection Tool you have an option
to choose how you want that tool to select a portion of your photo. When
working with llama photos you are going to want to select the
Rectangle Tool. This will cut out
a portion of your photo and still have the same look and dimensions of your
original photo.
Under the
Selection Type you are given
other options as to the type of cut you want to make such as a circle, rounded
rectangle etc. You also have a choice to Feather, this is an option to make the
outer edges of your photo slightly blurred and transparent. You would not
normally use this feature in the process of cropping a simple feature. The
Antialias option is for keeping your edges clear and straight. |
Step
3 |
To make your selection
place your mouse pointer in the upper left hand corner as shown in the photo
using the red/orange pointer.
Starting at the lowest upper point where you want to have the new top of your
photo. Drag the mouse over to the right side of the photo where you want to
end, continue down until you have the entire area covered that you want to
crop. |
Step
4 |
The Selection Tool has been applied to this
photo, noticed the dotted lines highlighted in
blue around the llama. This is the section of the photo you
want to save. In this photo we are removing a lot of space wasted on the sky
and some surrounding landscape. |
Step
5 |
Once you have the area
selected that you want to crop, go to the "Image" menu and choose "Crop to Selection" |
After |
Here are the results of
cropping the photo. We have used a small photo for this demonstration but this
process will work on any size photo. Remember the reason for cropping is to
eliminate unnecessary background and resulting in a larger photo and with a
smaller file size. |
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