cropping etc. to get regulation size 2"x2" passport sized image

[T***@adobeforums.com]

hi,

i've done this once before but can't recollect the magic formulae.

as my heading would imply, i'm trying to get a passport size image to send to the us passport office with my upcoming renewal. if i can avoid the 'professional' photographer and their fee so much the better.

now that i have a couple of candidate images uploaded onto my desktop, what next?

ted

ps: in case the following details bear mentioning, i'm running adobe photoshop elements 2.0 on my gateway desktop w/ windows xp on board.

[K***@adobeforums.com]

This topic was discussed recently on the forum at your request:
<http://www.adobeforums.com/cgi-bin/webx?7@@.2ccecad6/2>

[T***@adobeforums.com]

kenneth:

your dead right and i'm glad for it.

with best regards,

tv

[T***@adobeforums.com]

y'know, i don't exaclty overuse this product...

so allow me to chime in with a question or two about the way it's going since i tried reprising the suggestions of chuck snyder's back in dec of '03.

first i create a duplicate image of the photo i want to use. then i go to new and create a new blank 8" wide by 10" high (300 dpi) image onto which the final 2x2 passport photo'll be move onto. then i go to image|resize and attempt to configure these parameters. if i set the width to 2", the height chosen is 1.5" (72 pxl/inch) - on the other hand, if i set the height to 2", the width that it sets automatically for me again is 2.667 -- even if i chose 250 ppi and retry this again afterwards.

can somebody tell me what's going on?

[C***@adobeforums.com]

Ted, I'm not sure what I said back in December 2003, but here's how I would
do it now.

1. Create a new blank 8 by 10 by 300 ppi (same as before).
2. Open up the picture I want to use.
3. Choose the Crop tool. Set the length and width to 2 inches,
respectively, and the resolution to 300 ppi. Using the tool, draw the
square over the portion of my picture that includes head and shoulders; hit
Enter or click on check mark to complete cropping.
4. Do a Select>All and Edit>Copy.
5. Switch to blank canvas; do an Edit>Paste.
6. Repeat 4 and 5 as many times as needed to get number of copies desired.
7. On separate layers of what was the blank canvas, use Move tool
(4-pointed) arrow to position pictures so they all are visible.
8. Print.

Hope that's better than whatever I said last year!

Chuck

[K***@adobeforums.com]

Ted,
Following up on Chuck's post and the one by Dick Smith, you might try the following:
1. Open your image, duplicate your background layer in the layers palette, shut off the visibility of the background layer. Now select the crop tool and select width=2", height=2", resolution=250px/in.
Draw your selection outline by holding down the mouse button, then click on the check mark upper right. Flatten the image. Minimize the image.
2. You are still in Elements. OK? Go to File>new and in the box type in WI=8, H=11, Res=250, contents=white.
3. Adjust view of this by clicking on 2 overlapping squares in upper right. Now bring in to vies your 2"x2" picture, again with the 2 overlapping squares. You should see both the blank white page and your picture.
4. Drag the picture over using the move tool. Do it twice and you will have two pictures that you can cut out for your purpose.
Ken

[T***@adobeforums.com]

Hi Chuck,

You pretty much replicated your Dec's suggestion (which I sort of have to figure worked out because I managed to make a decent passport sized photo of/for my 'subject') and the US Passport Office approved (or at least did not dis-approve) it.

The hang-up is that when I try to perform the Image|Resize function that the 2"x2" dimensions are not getting into PE. As I mentioned in my query this time, it's taking 2" of the first one I would input and setting the 2nd one to something other than 2". Weird.
So, I guess I'm kind of curious to try Kenneth's algorithm and see where that gets me.

[C***@adobeforums.com]

Ted, I think the problem may be that you're trying to create a 2 inch by 2
inch picture without first cropping it to be square. If your picture is in
a ratio of long side to short side of 4 to 3 (most digicams) or 3 to 2 (most
SLR's), you're going to have one side longer than the other until you crop
it square. A square crop can be made with either the Crop tool (easiest) or
the Rectangular marquee with the ratio set to 1 to 1. Does that address
what you're seeing?

Chuck

[C***@adobeforums.com]

Hi, Ted, glad you came back!

The Crop tool resides in the Toolbox on the left side of your screen that
has four groups of icons. The one for the Crop tool is the third one down
on the right; looks like a square with a couple sides extended and a
diagonal line through it. Anyway, when you click on it, you should see a
new toolbar appear at the top of the screen with the same icon on the left
of the toolbar. The fill-in boxes on the toolbar are for width, height and
resolution. If you put 2 inches in each of the width and height and 300 in
the resolution, then whatever you draw with the tool on your open image with
the left mouse button held on will be a square and will print at a size of 2
inches by 2 inches. Once you've drawn out a square on your image, you can
move it around and make it bigger or smaller with the handles at the
corners; but so long as you have 2 inches and 2 inches in the width and
height, it will always stay square.

Give that a try and see if we get there!

Chuck

[T***@adobeforums.com]

hi chuck,

remember (i know it's hard to) but i hardly ever use this software; i keep telling myself i'm going to read the "...for dummies" book i picked up months ago but.....

let's see, if i am correct, then the stumbling block resides in the fact we need to have some ratio set to 1:1. how'dya do that and where i guess'd be the $64 question we need to get past next. am i wrong?
if i used the crop tool, that's the thingee with the floating dashed lines that you surround whatever you want to 'crop' isn't it -- if so, then how do you guarantee that that's truly 'square'?

[B***@adobeforums.com]

Ted, you most likely assigned the 8 to width and the 10 to height. That's the default "portrait" mode on most printers, so most of us use it unless we're printing something that needs to be in landscape mode (or rotated before printing.) Just remember to set it up as if you were printing a standard letter.

[T***@adobeforums.com]

hey chuck,

i'm really glad you found time to write with the method. yes :-)
it does the job and i remembered that once i get the image 'right' that i'm supposed to move it onto the pre-created 8x10 blank image that i created to hold the 2x2 image. one thing, in setting up the dimensions of the 8x10 which which is which? i must've done something right, but in future i'm not quite certain whether i assigned the height to 8 or to 10?

with best regards,

ted

[T***@adobeforums.com]

much obliged to you for the helpful orientation, beth :-)

with best regards,

ted