This is giving me a headache

[mythlady]

I'm getting things together for my show in two weeks, and I've been doing this so long today I can't even think any more. Here's my problem: I found a really cool frame that is very wide and narrow, and already has 7 mat openings cut into it, side by side. They're pretty small, and because they weren't used for photographs, they are an odd aspect ratio -- 4.125" x 5.14", is what I need the pictures to be.

So, I want to put a different flower picture in each opening, and I've picked out a bunch of pictures, and of course none of them fits that particular opening. In the case that is currently causing steam to come out my ears, there is no way I can crop the particular photo and have it look nice in those dimensions. So my idea is to somehow fit the picture as it is (or almost as it is) onto a blank canvas I've made to 4.125 x 5.14, and clone some kind of border around it that will fill up the empty space (is this crazy?). It's a textured picture, so cloning stuff around it isn't a big issue.

So I make a plain canvas and resize the picture to make it smaller, keeping the resolution. But when I try to move the picture onto the canvas, even though it says they're pretty much the same size, the picture is way bigger than the canvas, and when I make it smaller to fit into the canvas, it gets all pixelated.

What am I doing wrong?? I think I'll go back to the original RAW file and see if there's a way to crop the original so it will work, but in the meantime, if somebody can give me a clue as to why this is not working, I'd appreciate it.


Edited to say I went back to the RAW file and see that I didn't crop the original at all. Drat.

[MiniChris]

Are you using the crop ratio guides in the crop tool? You should be able to set each image for the desired size. I do know one thing for sure, if you are at wit's end, stop, take two deep breaths, scream at a passing bird, then start over. When the first one makes sense, the rest will easily follow suit.

[mythlady]

Thanks, Chris -- I think I've solved the problem by deciding to do something else with that picture . I have a cool old Victorian looking frame I picked up at a garage sale, and if I can figure out how to fill in the couple of chips in the wood (I'm off to Home Depot to get some of those furniture pens), it will look good in that. It's a picture that looks like an old botanical print.

The good news is that I've picked up some really neat stuff in the past couple of months, and some of them have mats already in them and so on, but now it's just fitting my work into those holes, which is not what I should be doing, I know. But I'm under the gun here.

[wilgk]

Hi Elise
another thing to try (for the chips in the wood) is you can get wee tiny pots of putty (remember pre aluminium window frame days) and these come in woo grain stain tints - I have worked with this stuff with timber furniture - a tiny bit on your finger rubs into the hole/defect and then clear oil/lacquer with a brush over that and then rub with a rag to get shine off - worked for me...

[mythlady]

Thanks, Kay -- I think that's what I came home with -- putty sticks in different colors that you can blend together. I hope it will work. The frames don't have to be perfect -- the idea is that they're "distressed" or "vintage," to go with my pictures, but they can't be that distressed.