# Measuring contents to produce accurate crop



## baxterbradford (Feb 15, 2017)

I think that I'm going to need to do this in Photoshop but wondered if I can achieve accurate crop in Lightroom. I'd like to create a diptych with the two photos attached. It's a small section of a yacht rudder shot from each side. I have tried by eye to get the size of the brass section the same but want to get it precise. I cannot see a way of doing this, other than counting squares of the overlay!

I'd like to have shown a mock up, but PS has decided to mess me about & can't rectify as yet. It creates black file when I specified white background. Then when I pasted files on this, they didn't show...

So unless I can measure in LR, I think that I'm going to have to paste one image onto a layer in master file in PS, then the other on another layer, which I then overlay and use Transform commands to get it right, then crop then position it.

Idea is to have the files opposite way round from how they appear here i.e. brass sections on the outside. 

If the LR measuring is a non-starter, am happy to listen & learn any more PS elegant methods!

Many thanks
Bax


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## baxterbradford (Feb 15, 2017)

I managed to sort out 'Black screen' issue with PS so have been able to show rough mock up of what I'm trying to achieve. As you can see, the brass and hinge section aren't same size or aligned. The colours aren't identical yet, but wanted to progress the methodology of presenting identical sizing before fine-tuning the colours.


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## Ian.B (Feb 16, 2017)

how about exporting at a set size ?


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## baxterbradford (Feb 16, 2017)

Thanks, but I do that Ian, these are both 800 pixels. 
It's the size of the image content that matters, otherwise everything comes out relatively sized. Thus I want to be able to set the height of the brass bar so they are equal at the raw stage in LR before exporting. This will make the compositing easier. Better still, if it were possible, then I could print directly from LR with double layout on one sheet of paper. 
PS has a measure tool & search of Adobe help hasn't shed any light.


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## Deleted member 39308 (Feb 16, 2017)

Maybe try this. From Lightroom select both photos and select Edit In > Open as layers in Photoshop

Once in Photoshop lower the opacity of the top layer e.g. to 50% so you can see both layers are now visible.

Select the layer that has the largest of the part you are trying to make the same size, select the transform tool and reduce the size so they are a match. Then crop to the same size.

Another way to using Transform would be to try using content-aware scale in Photoshop:

Content-aware scaling in Photoshop

check out how to specify content to protect when scaling which should be useful in your example.

Once finished return the opacity of the top layer to 100%


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## baxterbradford (Feb 16, 2017)

That's cool, thank you Ad. I'll give it a go tomorrow. Off out to see some live music now. There's no hurry to get it finished, it's just that having had the idea, I want to bring it to fruition. Your idea ought to yield quicker results than my proposal.


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## Ian.B (Feb 16, 2017)

baxterbradford said:


> Thanks, but I do that Ian, these are both 800 pixels.
> It's the size of the image content that matters, otherwise everything comes out relatively sized. Thus I want to be able to set the height of the brass bar so they are equal at the raw stage in LR before exporting. This will make the compositing easier. Better still, if it were possible, then I could print directly from LR with double layout on one sheet of paper.
> PS has a measure tool & search of Adobe help hasn't shed any light.


I understand the drama now ---- my thought only sets the size and not the actual crop. Was thinking it was too simple

interesting image / concept BTW . I used to do framed "panoramas" in film days like that however it worked best with border scenes / subjects likes this 2009 digital one of the hay plain in new south wales (australia)


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## Hoggy (Feb 17, 2017)

Another thought..

In those images, there appears to be a slight perspective difference..  So you may also be able to try the manual transform controls in LR, also paying attention to the 'scale' slider.

Maybe you already tried that, but just checking..


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## baxterbradford (Feb 17, 2017)

That looks great Ian. Very effective indeed. 
Thanks Hoggy, you're quite right. I haven't used them on this yet, I'm a fan of them since they offer so much control. It was very much at concept stage when I pushed these out to ask for advice on what I saw as main hurdle. The perspective and size are slightly out since I didn't measure everything precisely when switching sides of the yacht.
Am hoping I can dedicate enough time to it over the weekend. Think I've got enough to go on to get it cracked now.


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## Victoria Bampton (Feb 17, 2017)

Ian.B said:


> interesting image / concept BTW . I used to do framed "panoramas" in film days like that however it worked best with border scenes / subjects likes this 2009 digital one of the hay plain in new south wales (australia)View attachment 8974


Oooooh I like that!


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## baxterbradford (Feb 17, 2017)

All done and relatively painless thanks to helpful advice above. Perspective was corrected in LR's 'Transform' panel. Output full res files (I only wanted to fiddle once!). Altering opacity worked, 75% seemed optimum. Then to get it looking like this I positioned on layers, but there was unsightly extra image sections. These were removed by cropping the whole image, then increasing canvas height to create equal looking border. I had to then flatten to get white border all round ('save as' has ensured I haven't lost images on layers in case I need to do more work).
Thanks once again - I've learned lots from this. It also showcases the need to have PS in conjunction with RAW developer.
Edit: I realised after posting the image here that it still wasn't fully symmetrical. I've now corrected using ruler in PS and transform. Now the RH image is same width.


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## Deleted member 39308 (Feb 18, 2017)

Photo looks good, glad you managed to get the end result you were looking for.


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## Ian.B (Feb 19, 2017)

Victoria Bampton said:


> Oooooh I like that!


Thanks --- not even sure I had LR then ------- How I did survive (just read your LR history lessen)


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