Cropping question

[Summer75]

I did a batch of photos for a local fundraiser. The pictures are great but so many people were coming and going of various group sizes that I ended up taking the last half from further back. Now I am home and I am cropping them to fit the group size. A fair number of the photos I am going to change from landscape mode to portrait mode but that means I am cropping half the picture off. I did it and it looks good, but in my mind I am thinking that isn't right. Half the pixels are cropped off but the photo is still orginal size.

How can I do this? Make the image smaller or is there another method of cropping?

 

[The_Traveler]

When you crop you lose the pixels.
But, you can still show and print the same size as long as you have enough pixels.

What kind of camera do you have, what format (jpeg or raw)?
Post a couple of pictures and you'll get better, more complete and helpful responses.

 

[dennybeall]

What software are you using? To me cropping is used to delete portions of the photo that are not needed or detract from the photo. If I'm making the photos all the same size I'd do it with the image size in Photoshop.
So I'd crop off the bad parts and then reset the image size to match the set.

 

[KmH]

If you didn't crop all the photos to the same aspect ratio you won't be able to make them all the same size.

 

[Summer75]

I did make them all the same size, well 2 sizes as some are portrait view and some use the landscape orientation, but I left all to the same constraints and aspect as the original (albeit crops some were flipped). I am worried that by cropping off so much of the ones I made portrait orientation will be lesser quality since I cropped off so much off the sides. My images are cropped but still very close 5616 x3744 in dimensions, but the MB of the photo is much smaller. I am wondering what the does to the quality of the photo to stretch the pixels like that or if I should reduce the size smaller to tighten them back up.