when to crop

[purple007]

Question from a beginner .. I am using Paintshop pro x2 .. and I was wondering when is the best time to crop an image .. do you do it first or last when editing a photograph ...

ohh and I have another question .. I also use DPP to process my raw images .. whats the best format to process in jpeg or tiff .. right now I am processing them as jpeg full resolution ..

Thanks
Rick

[djwixx]

With cropping it shouldn't matter when you do it, but sharpening should always be the last thing you do. I tend to do all my adjustments then crop then sharpen.

With regard to format type, ultimately the answer will be dependent on what you are doing with the results. If you are only viewing them on your PC or putting them on the web then jpg is sufficient. If you're sending them to be printed at a standard size then jpg again should be fine as long as it's saved at 300DPI. If you're looking to supply prints professionally then tiff is the way to go, assuming you can afford the space it takes up, i.e. the tiff will be up to 10X the original image size!!!!!

[purple007]

Thanks great advise ... I was sharpening early in the process .. I will keep that for last from now on ...

Rick

[soenda]

I like to crop early in the process. As a matter of fact, it's the third thing that I do.
1. convert from high quality jpg to psp file
2. adjust horizon if necessary
3. fine tune the composition by cropping
4. resize for the net (I'm not much of a printer)
Save
5. Create duplicate layer for working on color balance, contrast, etc.
6. Do layer work if desired.
7. Clone out any dust spots or unwanted flotsam
8. Merge layers
Save
Save as jpg
9.Sharpen, usually with unsharp mask
10.Add copyright text
Save
Post on Pbase

I hope that's helpful. I'm very pleased with PSPx2.