Converting photos to backgrounds

[CarbonViper]

Wondering if any one can help me.
Fairly new to photoshop and editing photos and was wondering how I would go about converting them into backgrounds.
My cameras aspect ratio is 3:2 and the resolution for my pc is 1600x900.

Can i make a kind of template that I can chuck onto a picture to crop it and get the image I want for my background.

Thanks in advance

[Ultuous]

I'm on an ancient version, but I'd just use the select tool, change the 'style' to Fixed Aspect, and put in a width of 16, height of 9!

Once you've selected the appropriate rectangle, it's just a case of selecting Image --> Crop from the menu!

[GetCarter]

Firstly, if you re-size to 16:9 then all the proportions will be wrong.

Secondly, doesn't you camera let you specify 16:9? (Most do)

Thirdly, If you want 1600 x 900 then just re-size to 1600 wide then crop out a 900 tall bit (losing the top and bottom).

[budfox]

The right answer is above. Select a custom crop ratio of 16x9 and crop your image in photoshop. Then resize it so that the width is 1600px. That will produce an image that is 900px high (because you cropped it to that ratio). Save as a .bmp somewhere sensible and job done.

[CarbonViper]

Thanks for the responses, would it be advised that I change the aspect ratio on my camera, I won't be putting loads of images to wallpapers just 1 or 2

[flat-planedCrank]

CarbonViper said:

Thanks for the responses, would it be advised that I change the aspect ratio on my camera, I won't be putting loads of images to wallpapers just 1 or 2

In that case I'd set it to the widest / largest possible setting then crop any images you want to make into backgrounds

[FRMATT]

My preferred method is to make a new image in Photoshop with the dimensions of my screen, then copy in the photo I want and resize it holding shift to maintain the aspect ratio. This way I can crop my image to fit nicely on the desktop

[CarbonViper]

Thanks for all the responses, got it done and really pleased with how easy it was

[Simpo Two]

Or just set the crop tool to 1600px x 900px and drag the crop box as required. One step.