Show megapixels during cropping

When cropping an image, there is a constant readout of the pixel dimensions, which is very useful, however sometimes I would like to know the total number of megapixels without having to manually multiply in my head (or with a calculator).

The reason for this is that I always publish at a set number of megapixels and try very hard not to crop the original less than this size.

Good suggestion. Voted!

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Hi @zkarj,
I’m curious: you said, I quote, “I always publish at a set number of Mpx…”.
My question is: if megapixels in this case are the constraint, why don’t you resize your image instead of cropping?
Maybe I misunderstood your request, but it seems like if you have no other choice then “loosing parts your images” rather than “keeping everything, but at a smaller size”…

Steven.

I think I need to do a better job of explaining.

First, I edit my image for composition. This means choosing between 3:2, 16:9, 2:1 or 1:1 for the most part. Sometimes I go non-standard for trickier compositions. I choose the most appropriate for the subject and then size the crop visually to best portray the subject.

Second, I export the image at a standard megapixel size. Currently, 6 megapixels. I use this approach so that photos at all those different ratios are (roughly) perceptually the “same size”. If I choose to publish at 2000 pixels wide or 2000 pixels longest side, then 1:1 images are substantially larger than 2:1 images. I arrived at 6 megapixels because I used to publish my 3:2 images at 3200 pixels wide. But then I had to have separate export presets for square images as I brought those down to 2600 pixels square. The megapixel export option was something I asked for some time ago and so was happy to see it added for this reason.

Now to my request.

If I am cropping a recent 24 megapixel image then it’s pretty much going to be the case that the original as cropped will exceed 6 megapixels and so downsizing will occur. However, with my older 10 megapixel camera photos, it can be quite easy if cropping moderately to get the original as cropped to be smaller than 6 megapixels. Now using my sole export preset it will either (I forget which as I avoid this situation!) create a smaller than 6 megapixel image or scale the image up to 6 megapixels.

I don’t want either of those things, so I would like to avoid ever getting the original below 6 megapixels and that means I need to keep an eye on those dimensions. Here’s the example I was working on when I stopped to write my request.

The crop dimensions are 3582 x 1791. My brain can do “slightly more than 3000 by slightly less than 2000” and then I’m left wondering whether that comes out “slightly under or slightly over” 6 megapixels. It’s actually about 6.4 so it’s fine, but that’s mental arithmetic I can’t do simply in the middle of a photo editing session so I constantly have to use a calculator.

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So I think the short explanation is he is resizing on export, but tries to make sure every resize is from a higher resolution to a lower resolution. (and none from a lower resolution, which I guess are not resized… The just end up smaller.)

I think this is a good idea. I would use it too.

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Thanks for the detailed workflow and details about the issue you are facing.
We’ll see if we can come up with something simple to solve it.

Steven.

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