Is there an easy way to crop a certain resolution out of my pictures?

What I mean by my question is, say I have a picture that is 3872 x 2592 and I would like to just crop and keep a section of it. But, I'd like the resolution of the section I keep to work out to be say, 1920 x 1200. Are there any programs that can do that easily? I have Photoshop 7.0 and what I've been having to do is use the cropping tool to drag across the picture. And I have to little by little eliminate more and more of the picture until I get it to the correct resolution for the section I want to keep.

It would be nice if there was a program that would just put a box on your screen that is the correct resolution and then you could just move it over which area you'd like to keep. Maybe Photoshop has a feature like this. But, there are so many things in Photoshop it's hard to find little things you're looking for in the help sections. I have looked around, but there is so much it's kind of overwhelming so I thought I'd ask here first. Before I go on a several hour long searching process.

I use Photoshop 7.0 as well and there is a definite easier way than how you are doing it. Try this:

1. Select your crop tool
2. At the top you'll see a spot where you can enter width and height. This is where you enter in the proportions of your crop. Now my camera shoots at a resolution of basically 3000 x 2000 pixels. Say I want to do a 16 x 9 pano crop. Enter 16 for the width and 9 for the height.
3. Now crop out the desired section. You will notice that it will crop in the proportions you enter in step 2.
4. Go to the Image drop down menu and select "Image Size"
5. Now enter in your desired width or height output and make sure "Constrain Proportions" is checked off so that you don't loose the proportions of your crop.

There may be an easier way to do it but, I'm by no means a Photoshop expert, this is just the method I use. Hope this helps.

Aaron

Easier still:

Go to the Square Marquee tool and select "fixed size" from the top menu bar, typing in your desired dimensions.

Make your selection, and copy it to the clipboard (Cmd-C)

Go to File> New, and click OK. Photoshop automatically sets the size of the file to the dimensions on the image on the clipboard.

Paste the image into the new file (Cmd-V)

I use this method because it's not only quick and easy, but it lets you keep the original image, if desired.

- Joe U.

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This is the way I would accomplish the task:

1. Open the image size dialogue box by clicking on Image > Image size.
2. Un-check Constrain proportions.
3. Set resolution to desired amount (ie: 72 for web, 300 for print)
4. In the top section under Pixel Dimensions set your desired width and height (your example would be 1920 width and 1200 height)
5. In the lower section under Document Size make a note of the width and height dimensions
6. Click on CANCEL to close the box - DO NOT click OK!
7. Select your crop tool, set the width, height and resolution to the noted sizes and crop.

This may seem like a lot of trouble, but it only takes about 30 seconds to complete all seven steps. Hope it helps....