I knew I'd forget something! Crop using the the crop tool. Make sure Width, Height and Resolution are blank. Click somewhere on the photo and drag the cursor to open a crop box. Don't worry about being accurate at this point. By clicking and dragging the edges or corners you can make the selection you want. Click and hold inside the box to move the entire box. If you get one that's close to what you want but it needs some super fine tuning, use the arrow keys on your keyboard to move the entire selection into place. Hit enter to complete the crop. ________________________________ From: kjchilds <kjchilds@xxxxxxxxx> To: TN Moths <tn-moths@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>; "ncsc-moths@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <ncsc-moths@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Sunday, June 5, 2011 1:13 PM Subject: [ncsc-moths] Photoshop rotating and cropping These are instructions for Windows users. If you're using a Mac, the keyboard commands may be different but not very different. I think Macs use a command key instead of a control key. Open an image in Photoshop. I just use Windows explorer to organize my pics and Windows Photo Viewer to look at them. The easiest way for me to open a photo is to right-click on a file or on the open photo in Windows Photo Viewer and select open with/Adobe Photoshop. If necessary, rotate the image so the moth is facing basically the way you want it to be by using image/rotate canvas. If necessary, fine tune by selecting the image (ctrl+a) and then use 'free transform' (ctrl+t) to rotate it into place. Move the cursor to somewhere outside the photo and a curved double arrow will appear. Click and hold to rotate it into place. Once you're happy with the orientation, hit enter and deselect (ctrl+d). If it's a shot from above, I like to have the moth pointing towards the top and if it's a side view, I like to have it facing to the right. This makes it easier when trying to ID the moth because most of the pics on MPG are oriented these ways. If you have a side view facing towards the left and you want it to face towards the right, select image/rotate canvas/flip canvas horizontal. Crop using the the crop tool. Make sure Width, Height and Resolution are blank. Click somewhere on the photo and drag the cursor to open a crop box. Don't worry about being accurate at this point. By clicking and dragging the edges or corners you can make the selection you want. Click and hold inside the box to move the entire box. If you get one that's close to what you want but it needs some super fine tuning, use the arrow keys on your keyboard to move the entire selection into place. Learning the keyboard shortcuts can save a lot of time. Another huge time saver is setting up actions for groups of commands you use a lot. I'll go into detail on this another time. I have it setup in Photoshop where it takes less than 1 minute to do a basic edit. I've never used Photoshop Elements but it should have all these basic tools although the commands and location may be different than what's in Photoshop. If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask. I'm no Photoshop expert but I know enough to do a decent basic edit. I plan on going into things like cloning, lightening/darkening, color correction, resizing, sharpening etc in the near future. If you're serious about nature photography, please visit http://www.birdphotographers.net . The critique forums are a fantastic place to learn about what to do in the field and during editing. Even if you just lurk and never post a photo for critique, you'll learn a lot from reading the critiques of others photos.