# Crop question



## Roscoe17 (Mar 18, 2012)

Couldn't figure this out in LR3, was hoping Adobe would fix this in LR4 but apparently not.

I'm trying to crop a photo down to a specific size (2048px wide) so that when shown in my yet-to-be-purchased iPad it will show with no resizing (and therefore no resolution or sharpness hits).  I can not figure out how to do this.  I can drag the corner, but the number (width x height) doesn't update until you let go, so it's a guess, plus it jumps too much to get it exactly tight.

Anyone have any ideas on how to crop to a specify size?

Thanks!


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## clee01l (Mar 18, 2012)

Adobe has a philosophy that pixel dimensions are not important but aspect ratio is.  The aspect ratio of the new iPad3 is still 4:3 the same as the old iPads.   When you crop to that aspect ratio and specify on export a resize long dimension of 2048 pixels, LR will produce an exported image that exactly matches your iPad.

Take a look at Jeffrey Freidl's Blog post on "From Lightroom To iPad — Take Two —"
http://regex.info/blog/lightroom-goodies/ipad-howto2

It should be very helpful. 

If you are using iCloud to get your photos to your iOS devices, you can set a Publish Service up in LR that points to an alias of the "/iPhoto Library/Auto Import/" folder and iPhoto will distribute the LR published images to iCloud and all of your iOS devices.


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## Roscoe17 (Mar 18, 2012)

I understand that Lightroom can export to any size I want, but if I'm cropping something that will end up real close to the native resolution of my device, then it's much better to go exact than to have to resize, because that hurts resolution and sharpening.  So, while the info is useful, it doesn't answer my question.

Thanks.


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## Hal P Anderson (Mar 18, 2012)

You can't do it in Lightroom. I also suspect that you won't be able to see the difference between "original pixels" and "resized" ones. And it seems to me that cropping to an original pixel constraint will in almost all cases produce a final image that is aesthetically inferior to one produced by cropping to an aspect ratio.

There's a link to the Adobe feature request site at the top of the page.

That said, you'll have to use a pixel editor to do what you want. 

Hal


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## Jim Wilde (Mar 18, 2012)

I 'maintain' a couple of digital photo frames, so same 'challenge'. I routinely crop to the aspect ratio (16:10), then resize on export (hard drive publish service) to the appropriate pixel dimensions. No issues at all. I probably could not bother resizing on export and let the photo frame do the downsizing, and I doubt I'd notice much, if any, difference.


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## clee01l (Mar 18, 2012)

While I think the OP has a valid point about pixel interpolations to a final resolution from crops the are near but not quite correct, I don't believe Adobe will change their philosophy anytime soon. 

When cropping to a desired pixel size,  sometimes you are able to hit the magic numbers.  What I've done it to save these in a special collection. If I need a crop that is exactly 2048X1532 pixels, I go to that collection and copy crop settings from the image that has that precise crop and paste it into the image that needs it.


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## Roscoe17 (Mar 18, 2012)

clee01l said:


> While I think the OP has a valid point about pixel interpolations to a final resolution from crops the are near but not quite correct, I don't believe Adobe will change their philosophy anytime soon.


  I find that very unfortunate.  As to other posters, I never said anything about aspect ratio.  In fact, I try to keep it to standard ratios.  When I say specific pixel dimension, I mean along a side.  



> When cropping to a desired pixel size,  sometimes you are able to hit the magic numbers.  What I've done it to save these in a special collection. If I need a crop that is exactly 2048X1532 pixels, I go to that collection and copy crop settings from the image that has that precise crop and paste it into the image that needs it.


 I did happen to get lucky on one...never thought of that.  Even better idea, save that as a preset.


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## Roscoe17 (Mar 18, 2012)

Rats...can't save crop settings as a preset.  How annoying.


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## clee01l (Mar 18, 2012)

Roscoe17 said:


> Rats...can't save crop settings as a preset.  How annoying.


Now you know why I have the special collection


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## Mark Sirota (Mar 19, 2012)

If you're looking for unresized pixels, one more thing to be aware of -- don't use any distortion correction in the Lens Correction panel (auto or manual), because those also cause pixels to be stretched or squeezed.


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## Hal P Anderson (Mar 19, 2012)

Also beware of any rotation that is not a multiple of 90 degrees.

Hal


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## Roscoe17 (Mar 20, 2012)

Mark Sirota said:


> If you're looking for unresized pixels, one more thing to be aware of -- don't use any distortion correction in the Lens Correction panel (auto or manual), because those also cause pixels to be stretched or squeezed.





Hal P Anderson said:


> Also beware of any rotation that is not a multiple of 90 degrees.



Both understood...but always a good reminder


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