Working with Cropping Photos – Creating an Oval Crop

Here is a scanned photo that i will use. This photo is good because it needs a good oval crop to bring out my daughter in the individual player photo. To do this in CorelDraw requires us to use the powerclip function. We will discuss later how to do this in PhotoPaint.

The step before we get started is to turn off the preset that auto centers a powerclipped image. If you do not do this you will be driven nuts. Go to TOOLS (1) | OPTIONS (2).

To turn auto center off click on EDIT (1). Then uncheck the Auto-Center new PowerClip contents (2) by clicking inside the rectangle.

From the Toolbox select the Ellipse tool (1)

Draw an ellipse with the ellipse tool

Drag the ellipse over the photo. I have changed the line colour to yellow so that you can see it.

Resize the oval so that it incorporates all of the image that you want to keep

Select your pick tool and select the photo. Notice the selection handles around the photo. Note: Look at the bottom of the your desktop and you will see that you have the photo selected as it states it is an RGB Bitmap. If you want to toggle through the objects to select your photo you can press the TAB key on your keyboard

With the photo selected go to EFFECTS (1) | POWERCLIP (2) | PLACE INSIDE CONTAINER (3)

Your mouse changes to a black arrow (1). Click inside the oval with the black arrow

Now you image is cropped as per the location of the oval

We need to get rid of the outline that was around the oval. Make sure that the power clipped image is selected. Right click on the "X" that is located at the top of the colour palette (1).

Now our image has no border around the outside. We have removed this border so that when we convert the image to a bitmap image there is no outline.

If you need to adjust the powerclip do it now. To adjust the powerclip right click on the image (1) and choose EDIT CONTENTS (2). Note it is good practice if you are saving this job to make a copy of the powerclipped image as once I convert it to a bitmap you will loose that ability to adjust it.

Select Bitmaps (1) | Convert to Bitmap (2)

From the command window change the parameters as shown. If you are sending to a laser use a resolution of 150 DPI for sublimation use a resolution of 300 DPI.

You can resize the image to the size that you want via the property bar (1) and (2) – or the Transform Docker.

Typically to print to a laser your DPI should be 100 to 150. For Sublimation this should be 250 to 300. If your image is resized and the DPI is below the numbers you will need to resample the image. To determine if you need to increase the resolution of your image you can look at the Status bar or open the resample command.

In the resample command Check Maintain Aspect Ratio (1). Uncheck Anti-Alias and Maintain Original Size (1). To increase the DPI type in the Resolution to what you want (4) and (5). If you want to make the image bigger from this window type in a new size (2) and (3)

Sometimes it is best to use PhotoPaint to do your crop. This is especially true if we need to do a vignette with a custom shape. Right click on the photo in CorelDraw (1). Select Edit Bitmap (2). This will open up Corel PhotoPaint.

Select the Ellipse mask. To do this we need to hold down on the left mouse button on the mask icon in the tool box (1). Next Select the Ellipse mask tool (2).

When you draw the mask it is the same as you would draw an Ellipse in CorelDraw. The difference is that you do not have the ability to just select the mask and resize it with selection handles as you do in CorelDraw. To resize the mask requires that we select the mask Transform tool

To select the mask transform tool click on the Object Pick tool (1) and hold down the left mouse button and the fly out will show you the Mask Transform Tool (2).

You can adjust the mask via the handles. Just drag a handle to resize the mask

Once you are done resizing the mask you can click on the Object Pick Tool

To see the mask as an overlay select MASK (1) | MASK OVERLAY (2)

The mask overlay allows us to see what is masked and what is not masked. What ever I copy will not have the red colour over it.

To create our cut out go to OBJECT (1) | CREATE (2) | OBJECT:CUT SECTION (3)

Once we cut the object we will have two objects in our Objects Docker. Make sure that the background is selected (it is blue).

Delete the background layer. You can do this by just pressing the Delete key on your key board. You will only see the oval crop. The checker board pattern indicates that the layer is transparent.

Now that we have created our oval cutout we need to send the results back to CorelDraw. To do this click on FILE (1) | FINISH EDITING (2).

To save the image click on Yes (1)

Here is our image in CorelDraw.

The other nice thing about this technique is that the image has a transparent background and you can place a coloured border in the background and not have the white box issue.