Cropping

[Jackie Matthews]

My RAW files are 5474 x 3648.  I've recently been accepted to Shutterstock and I can't get my head round cropping and file sizes and when to do what -

if I have an image which needs cropping to place items in the frame to look better, should I crop first and resize the image afterwards?  I've been resizing to 3000px x 2000px (my choice of file size not theirs) for files that don't need cropping so I don't have a problem with that but for those that need cropping how would I go about that to maximise the pixel quantity please? 

[Samantha LaRue]

I would crop them first, without resizing, so that you know your desired crop gives you at least 6 megapixels to work with. 

Or you can use the method Damien describes here to determine the megapixels and then crop and resize in one step:  http://www.damiensymonds.net/2014/03/how-aggressively-can-i-crop.html

[Jackie Matthews]

Thanks Samantha