straightening, select Image > Crop to Content. If a photo has
been badly framed when it was taken, you’re into the realm of
correcting errors, and the end result won’t be ideal because
you’ll lose pixels. Sometimes a small degree of framing can be
used to good effect, perhaps to eliminate some unwanted
object near to the edge of the picture, or just to get a tighter
composition. Alternatively, perhaps you want a different
aspect ratio from the 3:2, 4:3 or 16:9 aspect ratio that’s
supported by your camera.
First of all, select the Crop tool, which is the icon that looks
like a picture frame in the toolbar, and make sure the Tools
option tab is displayed. If you want to keep the aspect ratio
the same as the original photo, ensure the box against Fixed is
checked and that the Fixed option is ‘Aspect ratio’. You won’t
need to alter the actual aspect ratio because, by default, it’ll
be set to the original aspect ratio. There are also various
composition guides, such as ‘rule of thirds’ you can choose.
Now, starting at one corner of the area you want to keep,
drag a rectangle to surround that area. If you’re cropping
immediately after correcting the horizon, make sure that your
selected area doesn’t include the shaded region around the
actual image that appeared when you straightened it. When
you’ve done that, if you want to fine-tune the positioning, just
click inside the rectangle and drag it to its new position. When
you’re happy with it, just click inside it and release.
Print preparation
The methods we’ve investigated so far are by no means the
only ways of improving a photo, but they are a good start and
will often be the only edits you’ll decide to make for viewing
on screen. However, if you want to print your photo – either
using a photo-quality printer that’s attached to your PC or a
professional photo print service – there are a few additional
steps you might like to consider. The important subject of
colour matching – including profiling your monitor so the
colours you see will be the same as on the printed image – is a
complex subject that’s too involved to get into here, but we
will present a few other useful tips.
As the first step, we’re going to consider sharpening, but
before doing that it’s a good idea to down-sample it first. This
is because an automatic down-sampling will take place during
printing if you supply too high a resolution image, which
might effectively undo any sharpening. You should do this
separately for each print size, but generally speaking you’ll
need to resample so that the pixel resolution is 300dpi (dots
per inch) at the final size of the print. So, for example, for a
8x10-inch print (yes, print sizes are usually expressed in
inches), the resolution should be 2,400 x 3,000 pixels.
However, be careful not to distort the image by resampling
toa differentaspectratioif thepapersizehasa different
aspect ratio from the image. Resampling is carried out by
choosing Image > Scale image.
Printed images often look smoother than they do on
screen, so it’s sometimes a good idea to add a bit of
sharpening to ensure the end result looks crisp. Be sure
not to go too far, but bear in mind that an ideal image for
printing might look a bit oversharpened when you view it on
your monitor. Select Filters > Enhance > Sharpen (Unsharp
Mask). You’ll eventually get a feel for the options in the
dialogue box, and you might need to try out a few test prints,
but the default values are a good starting point.
Finally, you might want a border. Although this option will
probably be available in your printer driver or when you order
a print from an online service, for maximum flexibility we
suggest that you add the border yourself in GIMP and then
choose borderless printing. There are several ways to add a
border, but the method we’re describing is the easiest. Go
to Filters > Decor > Add Border. Now, in the ‘Add border’
dialogue, select the width of the border against ‘Border x size:’
and ‘Border y size:’ and choose the border colour. Note that
the effect of adding a border in this way is that a new layer is
created, so be sure to remember our advice on saving and
exporting when using layers.
As a final comment on editing for printing, don’t make
the mistake of making all these changes to your only edited
copy of a photo. Instead, once you’ve finished the various
edits that are not specifically concerned with printing, save
an edited copy that you’ll use for on-screen viewing. Next,
edit that version with the additional print-related changes,
and when you’re done, save another copy that you’ll use
for printing, or perhaps even several copies for different
print sizes.Sharpening can be used effectively before printing, but it can’t bring detail to an out-of-focus or blurred shot.
“Don’t make
the mistake of
making all
these changes
to your only
edited copy of
a photo. Save
a copy that
you’ll use for
on-screen
viewing”
Although cropping throws away pixels and resolution, used modestly it can
improve the composition of a photograph.Explore
Photo editing in GIMP
March 2020 | |^47