Cropping for better composition
Now that we have set up the Editor and have a good idea of how to open and save our files, it’s time to start making some meaningful edits. One of the first things I like to do is crop my images to help the composition and improve the overall aesthetics. Cropping is a very powerful function because it lets you determine what information will be left in the photo and what will be excluded. You can get creative by simply moving the crop window around on your photo and finding what works best. It’s almost like working with the camera again, giving you a second chance to re-frame things for the perfect look.
In Figure 5.11, I had too much blue sky in the top of the image. The area near the top of the sky was a little boring and distracted from the main subject: the sandstone arch and mountains. By cropping with the same aspect ratio (4×6) as the original, I was able to remove the boring section of sky and keep the more interesting clouds (Figure 5.12). I used the rule-of-thirds crop overlay to position the crop to the left for more emphasis on the sandstone.
With the Crop tool, it’s easy to find a new photo inside an existing image. I took the photograph of this bakery sign with a horizontal camera position (Figure 5.13). At the time, it looked to be the best angle. After I opened it in Elements, I was disappointed with the way the sign was leaning over to the right. The first thing I tried was rotating the entire image counterclockwise by choosing
Figure 5.11
There was too much boring sky in the top of the image.
Figure 5.12
After cropping, the composition is greatly improved, putting more emphasis on the arch.
Image > Rotate > 90° Left (Figure 5.14). This was an improvement, but the fire escape was still cluttering the top, so I clicked the Crop tool in the toolbar and drew out a crop over the image (Figure 5.15). I rotated the crop guide by putting the mouse cursor on a corner of the crop and dragging it a little to the left (Figure 5.16). Finally, I clicked the check mark at the bottom of the crop window to finalize my crop selection. You can see in Figure 5.17 that rotating and cropping transformed the image into something better.
FIGURE 5.13
The original image suffers from poor composition.
FIGURE 5.14
Image rotation tools can be found in the Image menu.
FIGURE 5.15
After rotating, a new crop was created for the sign.
FIGURE 5.16
Dragging a corner of the crop guide allows the crop to be rotated.
FIGURE 5.17
A completely new and much-improved image, thanks to the Crop tool.
Figure 5.18
The Remove Color Cast tool is in the Enhance menu.
Figure 5.19
Click a neutral-color object to remove an unwanted color cast.
CORRECTING COLOR
A very common problem found in photos is color cast. A color cast normally occurs when there is an overall hue shift that is created by atmospheric conditions. For example, if you photograph something that is in the shade but there are blue skies overhead, you might see a slightly bluish cast to your photo, even though you had the white balance set correctly. It’s not something that you normally see while shooting, because your eyes adjust for it. If you do have a slight color cast, you can use the Remove Color Cast tool to neutralize it and shift all the colors back to their normal hues. This tool works best if you have something in your image that is neutral and gray, but black or white can work if they are not clipped. Choose Enhance > Adjust Color > Remove Color Cast (Figure 5.18). A small helper box will pop up, and your mouse cursor will turn into an eyedropper icon (or a small crosshair if you changed the preference to the Precise option). Simply click it on neutral areas around your photo until you are happy with the color adjustment, and then click the OK button (Figure 5.19).
