Cropping, Resizing, and Creating Cutouts

The Crop or Rotate menu item in Picture It! offers the following choices:

  • Rotate ” Although this feature provides essentially the same functionality available in the My Pictures interface or in the Windows XP Explorer window for My Pictures (see Chapter 19), it does so with an enhanced, easy-to-use thumbnail view (see Figure 20.5).

    Figure 20.5. From the Rotate menu, Picture It! displays three small thumbnails, offering previews of how the photo will look after it's rotated .

    graphics/20fig05.jpg

  • Crop Canvas ” A very useful tool missing from the basic photo-enhancement options covered in Chapter 19, the Crop feature lets you pare away the extraneous portions of your image to emphasize the subject. You can drag a rectangular shape over the photo to indicate how you want it cropped, or choose another shape, such as a heart or a star (see Figure 20.6).

    Figure 20.6. Simple cropping can emphasize the subject and trim away unwanted portions of your image, or you can crop using one of almost 70 shapes .

    graphics/20fig06.jpg

  • Create a Cutout ” Want to get creative? Try using the cutout tool to trim away the background. Then insert a new background photo, or create a shape to place behind your cutout. The only limit now is your imagination !

tip

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You may want to use the Soft Edges effect (see "Adding Edges, Frames, and Mats") in conjunction with the cutout tool to subtly blur the edges and produce a better blending effect in your final image.




Absolute Beginner's Guide to Microsoft Windows XP Media Center
Absolute Beginners Guide to Windows XP Media Center
ISBN: 0789730030
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2002
Pages: 159
Authors: Steve Kovsky

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