DIY Network

Digital Darkroom: Zoom and Crop From "The Whole Picture" episode DTWP-108

Erin shows her student how to "zoom in" by using the crop and re-size tools on a computer.

In this episode of DIY's The Whole Picture, host Erin Manning explains how to use your camera's zoom features the right way and explains the important differences between optical and digital zoom. In this final lesson on zoom and telephoto photography, she demonstrates tools for cropping and "zooming in" on a picture that's already been taken using photo editing software.

Materials used in this episode:

Digital camera with zoom function
Camera owner's manual
Tripod
Computer with image-editing software installed

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Most digital cameras are equipped with some degree of optical zoom as well as an additional feature called digital zoom. However, what is termed "digital zoom" is really little more than the camera enlarging the captured image and cropping to give the appearance that the subject was closer. Unlike optical zoom (magnification based on the lens optics), digital zoom can diminish the quality of your pictures and result in distortion, blurring or pixilation.

And if you're planning to transfer your pictures to your computer anyway, and you have image-editing software available on that computer, there's little or no reason to use your camera's digital zoom. You can achieve the same (or better) results after the picture is shot, and likely with a wider and more sophisticated range of options and greater degree of control, on your computer--as opposed to with the digital zoom feature of your camera.

Here are the basic steps for electronically "zooming in" on a desired portion of a picture by cropping and re-sizing a selected portion of the image.

Note: Different image-editing software packages will have different features and menus, but most are functionally similar. These are the steps we used cropping an image using a program made by Adobe®.

	Figure A
	Figure B
	Figure C
	Figure D

• Once you have taken all the photos you want, upload them to your computer.

• Select one you like but want to zoom into a bit more. Open the image in your computer's image editing program (figure A).

• Select the CROP TOOL from the tool bar.

• This editing program offers a contextual menu specific to the crop tool. From that menu, we chose a print-out size at 6x4 inches. We set resolution of 300 dpi for good print-out quality.

• Click on the photo and drag the cursor, diagonally from left to right, across the portion of the photo that you want to be included in the final picture. The tool will draw a box around the portion of the image you drag across.

• By using the crop tool to select a particular portion of the image, you can designate a larger or smaller amount of the image to be included (figures B and C). By selecting a smaller portion of the image, and cropping out the rest, you are essentially "magnifying" the selected portion of the image.

• Tip: After drawing the box you can adjust the location or size of the area using the arrows that appear at the edges of the box. In this particular program, by single-clicking in the selected area, you can then drag the box around to move it where you want.

• When the selected area is just where you want it, double-click on the image. This will yield the cropped image (figure D).

• Under the SAVE AS menu, save the file under a new name. In this way, you are archiving the intact original, and saving your edited version as a new copy. In this program, a dialog box offers options for file-format and quality. We chose the default settings, saving the file in JPEG format (a very widely used image format) at a high quality setting.

• With the changes saved, you can go ahead and PRINT a copy. Since this picture was shot horizontally, we made sure that the print setting was for LANDSCAPE (for horizontal orientation) before selecting OK to print.
  

RESOURCES :

PC Photo magazine
Website: www.pcphotomag.com
Online version of the magazine devoted to digital photography and related technologies.

The Complete Idiot's Guide to Digital Photography
Model: 002864235X
Author: Steven Greenberg
Order this book from Amazon.com.
Prentice Hall
Paramus, NJ 07652

Digital Photography For Dummies
Model: 0764506463
Author: Julie Adair King
Order this book from Amazon.com.
Hungry Minds, Inc.

Complete Digital Photography
Model: 1584500077
Author: Ben Long
Order this book from Amazon.com.
Charles River Media
Website: www.charlesriver.com/