Resizing your digital images

26/09/11

Projected images for use in club competitions should be horizontal format and measure
1024 by 768 pixels.
Often the best results are achieved by placing (and resizing) your image onto a black background of 1024 x 768 pixels. To do this:-

1. Start by checking that the background colour in Photoshop is set to black. Look at the bottom of the left-side tool bar. The small squares should be black and white, with the white one on top of the black one. If they are the other way around, click the double-headed arrow to swap them over

2. Create a template in Photoshop (you can then use this again and again) -
- Select File, then New, then Blank File.
- Give it a name like 'Projection Template'
- Make the width 1024 pixels and the height 768 pixels.
- Set the resolution at 300 pixels/ cm
- Set the Color Mode to RGB Color.
- Change the Background Contents to Background Color.
- Change the metadata
Select File, then File Info. Set your name to be your membership number. This will then be used for every image that you save using this template.
- Save the file

3. To use the file, open the new template in Photoshop
- Select File, then Open and navigate to the location you have saved the template
- Select the magnifying glass tool from the left-side tool bar
- Hold down the Alt key and click inside the template to shrink it down to the size of a large postage stamp
- Now open the image file you want to use. Make sure that all adjustments have been made, and then merge all layers (right-click on the background layer and choose Flatten Image)
- Now click on the move tool at the top of the left-side tool bar
- Click inside your image, hold down the left mouse button and drag the image across to drop it on the template.
You will probably find that your image is bigger than the template
- Move the mouse pointer to one of the corners and watch for when the pointer turns into a diagonal arrow
- Hold down the Alt key and the left mouse button and drag the corner of the image until it fits on the template.
- Click the green tick.
- Drag the window containing the template to be as big as possible.
- Select the magnifying glass tool and enlarge the template to nearly fill the window.
- Select the move tool again, click in the layer containing your image and drag the shape around until it fills the template either vertically, horizontally, or to your taste.
- Flatten the image, using Layer, then Flatten Image
- Save the template with a new name using File then Save As.
IMPORTANT - you must use 'Save As' - if you use 'Save' you will have overwritten your template and will need to create a new one for any future images.
Close by selecting No to saving changes to your template or original image.