Cropping

[Tina B.]

Regarding this article about cropping (http://www.damiensymonds.net/2011/09/cropping-tutorial.html), what does this mean,  " The difference between raw cropping and Photoshop cropping is that Photoshop cropping is permanent.  Once those pixels are discarded, they’re discarded!  So choose your crop wisely," 

Are you referring to cropping in ACR vs. Ps?  Cropping is confusing to me as I have not practiced enough with it to know what I'm doing...so I have avoided it.

[Damien Symonds]

Never crop in raw.  Never crop while editing in Photoshop.  That's all you need to know.

Only crop when you're ready to print, or other form of output.

[Tina B.]

Forgive me for asking.  Can you explain what it looks like to "crop only when ready to print (or other form of output")?    For example...I took one of my raw edited images and posted it for my family to see.  I  took the image from raw, brought it into Ps and I cropped it.  I saved it  "save as."  That is all I did.  I did not change ratio, or make it FB quality.   Based on what I described, have I done something wrong ?  Because, I am not understanding what "only crop when you're ready to print..." looks like.

[Christina Keddie]

You never ever ever crop your master file.  You create disposable JPGs for every single output use (showing to a client, posting online, prepping a specific print size, etc.), which you crop and resize for the specific output use, but you never ever crop a pixel off of your master PSD file. 

More reading: http://www.damiensymonds.net/2010/02/trash-those-jpegs.html

[Tina B.]

I didn't create a PSD file from my raw image.  I took my raw image from ACR, clicked "Open Image" and cropped it in Ps.  Saved it as a "save as" jpg.  Should I have brought it into Ps from ACR and created a PSD first and then cropped it?  See, I am in the raw class and the levels class and still reading the levels class.  I have NO idea how to do levels and such just yet.  So, I am not yet in the process of making PSD's and all the extra editing that I don't yet know how to do.  For the purpose of posting an image of my daughter to my photography page (not business) so my friends and family can see, I cropped it for that purpose.  Nothing special did I do...didn't change ratio or anything.  I'm just feeling anxious that I might have ruined my raw image when I cropped the image in Ps.  I didn't make a PSD first.

I will read the article you posted.

[Samantha LaRue]

If you haven't done any editing in PS then you don't need a PSD. 

Each time you will want to print this image or use it in a different manner (ie. A different output), you'll need to open the raw file again and send it to PS and create a new crop for the specifications required for your intended use. Don't reuse that jpeg you made the first time.

If you *did* have a PSD, then you'd just open the PSD file up, crop and "save as" jpegs without saving over the PSD again.

[Tina B.]

I understand!  Thank you.  I needed to SEE it.  Ugh.  I will learn.  I'm learning...slowly.