SRIJAN ROY CHOUDHURY
ANNWOY ROY CHOUDHURY
This is one of those surgery tutorials (of images) you should try at your own risk. Our beloved BWS or us, will not be responsible for the result. After reading the violent title and the stern legal disclaimer, if you are still interested in getting on with it, be our guest!
As you are all well aware, BWS has taken the initiative to create a not-so-dry database of birds and the obvious juice to that database is your beautiful and colourful photographs. Sadly, we don’t have all the bandwidth and all the cloud space in the world, hence it is necessary to perform some surgery on your photos and then deliver them to us. This will ensure that our resources are optimised. So, you need to snip your photos and size them up which in photographers’ language are cropping and resizing images.
So here is a small “guide” to introduce you to the world of cropping and resizing. After reading this, it would be a breeze to crop and resize the image to the desired ratio of 4:3 (1024×768).
Let’s start by understanding the basics of cropping and resizing images. These two techniques serve different purposes and are essential for effective image editing:
CROPPING IMAGES
What is Cropping?
- Cropping involves “cutting off” a portion of an image to achieve a new size or shape.
- You can remove unwanted or distracting elements by cropping.
- It’s like trimming excess from the edges of a photo.
Visual Difference: After cropping, your image will look different.
Why Use Cropping?
- Refine composition: Adjust the framing to emphasize the subject.
- Remove distractions: Crop out unwanted background or clutter.
Example: A common scenario for all nature photographers, is in the image the bird becomes too small relative to the environment. The way out in this case is “cropping”. This brings the viewers’ attention instantly back to our feathery friends.
RESIZING IMAGES
What is Resizing?
- Resizing adjusts the dimensions and file size of an image.
- It doesn’t alter the content; it maintains the entire image.
- Useful for making images compatible with different platforms (web, print, social media).
Visual Difference: In most cases, resizing won’t change how the image looks.
Why Use Resizing?
- Optimize for web: Reduce file size for faster loading.
- Fit specific dimensions: Ensure images meet platform requirements.
Example: Resize a high-resolution photo for a blog post or social media profile picture.
To make this article comprehensive, it is laid out in three parts, cropping, resizing, and doing both together. If you are interested in simply cropping your images to the desired dimension and sending them to us, feel free to skip to the 3rd (though we may ‘bear our teeth’ at you for not paying attention to the sweat of our labor and appreciating those!).
For anything we do on a computer, we must have software, in this case, we need one too. The method as described below is more or less similar for all image editing software, from very basic to pro (like Photoshop, Lightroom, etc.). Still, for the sake of illustration, I have chosen a freeware named “FastStone Image Viewer”, which is a very small lightweight program but packed with a lot of features including cropping and resizing images.
Disclaimer: We are not associated with the developer/s in any way, so from here on, you are on your own.
Before you begin: Download and Install FastStone Image Viewer:
Visit the official website and download the software. https://www.faststone.org/FSViewerDetail.htm
Install it on your computer.
PART 1: CROPPING IMAGES
1. Open FastStone Image Viewer: Launch the FastStone Image Viewer on your computer.
To the left, the window pane marked as “1” is where you need to locate your image. To the right, the window pane marked as “3” shows you all the image thumbnails available in the folder that you chose in “1”. Whichever image you click on in “3” will be displayed in a large size on window pane “2”.
2. Select Your Image: Navigate to the folder containing your image using the window pane marked as “1”. Double-click the desired image shown in “3” to open it in the full-screen view.
3. Activate the Crop Tool: Right-click anywhere on the image to bring up the context menu. Select Edit and then Crop Board. Or, you can simply press “X” on your keyboard to activate the crop tool (my method of choice)
4. Adjust the Crop Area: A cropping frame will appear on your image. At the bottom-left corner of the window, look for the three fields as highlighted in the previous screengrab.
5. Click on the arrow beside “Paper Ratio” and choose “4:3” and then at the two fields above “” type “1024” in the left box. This will automatically change the value in the right box to “768”. In case you are working with a vertical image, check the “Flip Ratio” box next to “Paper Ratio” box (refer to the screenshot below).
6. This should bring a crop box exactly of the desired ratio and dimension. For aesthetic or other requirements, you can either move the box around just by holding the cursor on it by pressing the right mouse button, or you can resize it using the small white circles on the perimeter of the box. Whatever you do, the ratio 4:3 will remain unchanged. For the BWS Photo project, if the subject is placed well within the box of 1024×768, please avoid enlarging the box. In case the subject is too big for the box, you need to refer to part 2 of this tutorial.
7. Apply the Crop:
- Once satisfied with the crop area, click the Crop button at the bottom right of the Crop Board.
- This will remove the unwanted areas and display the cropped image.
- Press “Enter” from your keyboard, and you will be back to the first screen-grab (step 1).
8. Save Your Cropped Image:
- Click on File > Save As to save your cropped image.
- Choose a location, file name, and format (use jpg/jpeg as format for BWS) for the new image.
PART 2: RESIZING IMAGES
Resizing an image changes its dimensions without cropping.
Step-by-Step Instructions:
1. Open FastStone Image Viewer:
- Launch the software as described in the previous section.
2. Open Your Image and Open the Resize Tool:
- Navigate and click to select the image you wish to resize.
- Then on the Menu bar, go to Resize/Resample.
Alternatively, you can double-click on the image as in the previous section’s step 2, Right-click on the image, select Edit, and then Resize/Resample.
3. Adjust Dimensions:
- In the Resize/Resample window, you can change the image dimensions.
- Enter 1024 as the new width in pixels (marked as 1 and 2).
- Ensure the Preserve Aspect Ratio box (4) is checked to maintain the image’s proportions.
- This will make sure that the box (marked as 3) is automatically assigned the proper value.
4. Apply and Save: Click OK to resize the image. Save the resized image by clicking File > Save As, and choose your desired file location, name, and format (for BWS, please choose jpg/jpeg).
PART 3: CROPPING AND RESIZING IMAGES TOGETHER
Sometimes, you may need to crop an image and then resize it for specific dimensions at the same time.
Step-by-Step Instructions:
1. Open FastStone Image Viewer: Launch the software and open your image. Same as illustrated in Section 1.
2. Crop Your Image: Follow the cropping steps outlined in Section 1 to crop your image to the desired area. Do not close or save your image. As you can see in this case, the dimensions are way larger than the desired 1024×768, though the ratio is perfect, 4:3.
3. Resize the Cropped image: With the cropped image still open, follow the resizing steps from Section 2 to adjust the dimensions. Make sure the “Preserve Aspect Ratio” box is ticked.
4. Save the Final image: Save your cropped and resized image by clicking File > Save As, selecting the location, file name, and format.
In addition…
The following additional information is only relevant for BWS members who are interested to contribute to the BWS Photo Archive.
Please adhere to the following guidelines.
- Send up to 3 photos of one species only per email.
- Please crop and compose your pictures in landscape mode in 4:3 aspect ratio and with maximum dimension (WxH) 1024 pixels x 768 pixels in jpeg/jpg file format.
- EXIF data with GPS coordinates (where available) must be intact.
- Minimal post processing: Only basic exposure adjustment and sharpening with noise reduction. No colour related changes.
- File naming: Species name_photographers name.
- Date and place of photograph in email.
- Mailing Address: bwsbirdsarchive@gmail.com
- Photo Credits will be mentioned whenever published.
- BWS reserves the right to choose and publish the photographs in any of its publication and/ or social media.
Important: Only BWS members to respond against the specific requests that is published from time-to-time. Only contribute photographs taken by the member.
Thank you for being with us for this long. By following this tutorial, you should now be able to crop and resize images using FastStone Image Viewer effectively. This powerful freeware tool makes these processes straightforward, helping you create the perfect image for your needs. Happy editing!