Technical data

28 Manipulating Images
Cropping the image
Cropping is one of the easiest ways to improve the appearance of a
photograph—by creating a more pleasing composition of its main
elements. In this particular photo, there’s just one main element, and it
fills the whole image! However, there are a couple of problems with
leaving the image uncropped. One is the rather boring curtain in the
background; the other is the large blurry tail in front. So let’s crop away
everything except the cat’s face.
PhotoPlus offers two basic ways of cropping an image. You can either
select a region of pixels, using any of the various selection tools, and
then use the Image/Crop to Selection command. We’ll cover this
method later in the chapter. If you’re cropping to a rectangular shape its
generally easier to use the Crop tool.
q Choose the Crop tool from the
Tools toolbar and drag out a crop
selection around the cat’s head, as
in the illustration. Start at one
corner and drag to the other. Once
you release the mouse button, you
can adjust the selection rectangle by
dragging its edges or corners, or
from the center to move it.
q Once you’ve selected the correct
area, double-click within the
selection rectangle to complete the
cropping.
By the way, if you make a mistake, don’t worry. Most actions in
PhotoPlus can be undone using Undo from the Edit menu, the Undo
button on the Standard toolbar, or the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+Z. You
can even undo an “undo”—use Redo on the Edit menu, the Standard
toolbar, or with Ctrl+Y. (The File/Preferences... dialog lets you set
options for the Undo function.)
Adjusting brightness and contrast
You may have noticed that this image is a little dark. No problem.
We’ll use one of the PhotoPlus image adjustment filters to improve it.
q Choose Adjust>Brightness/Contrast… from the Image menu to
open the Brightness and Contrast Filter dialog.