Photoshop Elements (Mac) question
 

I'm trying out Photoshop Elements for Mac before I buy it, and I have a question. Can I re-size an image by changing either the number in the Horizontal or Vertical field, without the other field automatically updating?

Here's an example: in the regular Photoshop for Mac (CS2), I can take a video still that's stretched horizontally and re-size it to look normal, but adjusting the number in the Horizontal field (or box) without the Vertical field's number changing. But in P.S. Elements, as I adjust the number in one, the other adjusts, too.

So, how can I turn that feature off?

Thanks,

Heath

ps-I don't do much work with Photoshop yet (still waiting to buy a Canon Rebel XT), so Elements seems fine to me.

I hate to admit it, but I am using Photoshop elements and so far have not seen a compelling reason to spend the additional $$$ on the full version for my kind of work. Before that I used Photoshop LE which was the predecessor.

I'm running Elements 2.x on the Mac, there may be a newer version. But in this (and all previous) versions it's very easy to do what you want. See the attached example. If you don't check the resample box then the number of pixels in the image will remain constant, so changing one of the width, height or resolution parameters will cause a change in the other two but won't change the pixel dimensions above.

If you check resample then more options are available. The default is to constrain proportions, but for what you want to do just uncheck that box. Now you can change any of the fields to any desired value and the pixel dimensions will be modified as needed. So for example, if you had an HDV frame at 1440x1080 and wanted to make the proportions correct you do the following:

1. check the resample box
2. uncheck the constrain box
3. enter 1920 in the pixel dimension width
4. leave the 1080 pixel dimension height alone
5. If desired (for printing) change the document size parameters

It's best to decide whether you want to resample and constrain when you first open this dialog box, then check those options accordingly before changing anything else. This will make things a little less confusing.

Now that I can do that, I'm going to buy P.S. Elements, thanks as always, Boyd! Your advice always hits a homerun!

heath

I have Elements 2 for XP, and you can resize as you're asking.

Another cool feature in Elements is the batch convert. This was real handy when I converted 500 PowerPoint slides. Just enter the size and format settings, throw your files at it, and away it goes.

Yes, that is a pretty powerful feature for a budget priced application. I use it all the time to resize/recompress batches of photos on our website.