Method of standardising image size with border

[swmcl]

Hello again,

I think my post will be similar to many others I haven't used the best search terms so I'll post.

What I, like all of us, have is a bunch of 4x5 negs. When scanned, they are all roughly the same size because my first scan is a high resulution scan that includes the outer edges of the neg for identification purposes. They are not exactly the same size though. Nor are they centred.

How do I place a 'layer' of white like a card with a known cutout over the neg ? I would then have a composite which would have an identically sized image in the centre.

It would be the digital equivalent of moving a white card over the image till I was happy with the composition and then taking a photo of it.

The result is a known image size.

The other way to do it would be to get a specifically sized crop tool and, like a cookie cutter, wave it above the image till I was happy and then cut the image out. I would then need to take the same cookie cutter to the next image ...

If someone could point me to a Photoshop tutorial, an add-on to Photoshop or maybe they have prepared a pdf of this process themselves that they'd share ...

TIA,

Steve

[Jac@stafford.net]

Photoshop's crop tool allows you to set specific pixel sizes for L & W, and optionally resolution. Create your ideal as an action an go to town.

It might help to establish a personal standard for size in your scanning.
.

[swmcl]

Jac,

The crop method requires me to get the first click right in the first place doesn't it ? And if I don't click it exactly right I need to repeat...

I'll give that a go. I've not heard of 'actions' so there's something new for me ...

Cheers,

[Jac@stafford.net]

The crop method requires me to get the first click right in the first place doesn't it ? And if I don't click it exactly right I need to repeat...

No. It floats the marquee above the artwork, and you can move it around until clicking to crop. There are other ways. I did some very large production tasks of thousands of images a day using actions.

[Preston]

Steve, you didn't mention which version of Photo Shop you are using. Some of the options for the crop tool have changed over the years, so it's helpful to know the PS version

The following are for CS6...

When you click the Crop Tool you can select Unconstrained, a specific crop ratio; square, 4x5 (8x10), etc., or you can set L & W dimensions. In the tool bar there is a gear (settings icon). Set it to Classic, and Enable Crop Shield. The Crop Shield shows the area that will be cropped.

It floats the marquee above the artwork, and you can move it around until clicking to crop.

You can nudge the crop marquee for precise positioning using the arrow keys on your keyboard.

--P

[Tin Can]

After crop extend canvas to add any size border.

[Jac@stafford.net]

You can nudge the crop marquee for precise positioning using the arrow keys on your keyboard.

And like many PS tools, using SHIFT-ARROW moves it farther. Very useful.

[swmcl]

Sorry Preston,

CS6.

Although I've owned PS for a number of years I must've only spent about 3 hours using it in total. I'm trying to use it more and I'll look into 'actions', it sounds as though it is what I need.

Cheers,

[swmcl]

OK...

Jac, my first scan of a negative is larger than the image data so that 1. I get everything in the scan and 2. the filed notches in the film holder are also scanned thus identifying the image. Although I pfaff about with the image on the scanner trying to get it perfectly vertical, it is off by an amount. As I don't plan on scanning the image too often I like to think I need only do it once.

So I created an 'action' with the crop tool (not the rectangular marquee tool!). And sure enough I opened an image and away it went and cropped it.

I see when I click the arrow on the action it gives me details about the action. Specifically that I cropped to a rectangle with top, bottom, left, right etc. OK.

So I assume it will crop with reference to the top left pixel and the result after the crop will be an exact size to a 4x5 ratio.

I want to not crop referring to a top left pixel but to where I click the mouse ... or better, I want it to give me a known crop-box floating above the image and when I click the mouse it cookie-cutters the image. At this point all my scans would need to be very similarly sized which they may not be.

Is this possible ?

TIA.

[swmcl]

If someone could offer an opinion ...

It looks as though a product called Photoshop Elements has a cookie cutter whereas Photoshop CS6 does not.

Would my workflow be enhanced by passing the original scan through Elements before going on to Photoshop ? Can Elements do a batch of images or does one still have to do them one-at-a-time ?

Here I was thinking I would only need to save for the top-shelf product coz it would do everything the lightweight products did and do it better ...

I have a pet hate for Microsoft, Adobe, Symantec, McAfee etc. so I'm not doing well here ...