Mastering the Crop Tool in Photoshop: A Step-by-Step Guide

In this video, we will be working with the Crop Tool. Let us begin by opening our file.

In this video, we will be using the “staff photo.jpeg, ” and we will click Open. The first important thing to note about cropping is that we will not have a backup image because cropping actually changes the dimensions of our file. Therefore, instead, we are going to save our file immediately by going to File > Save As.

We will save this as a Photoshop file and add the word “adjusted” to the end of the file name. Press ENTER. Next, let us begin cropping. We can use the Crop Tool found on the left in the Tools Bar, and when you click on it, you will see that a white border appears around the image.

The first thing that we will want to do is go to our Options Bar and uncheck “Delete Cropped Pixels.” What this does is allow Photoshop to preserve the areas and pixels we previously cropped. This gives us more flexibility to make adjustments without permanently losing parts of our image.

So, let us begin cropping. The simplest way is to drag the corners or sides of our image to crop it. When we have a crop that we like, we can press ENTER or click the check mark found in the Options Bar. We now have a cropped image.

If we want to crop again, we can return to the Crop Tool and begin adjusting it. To set specific parameters for our crop, we can go to the “Ratio” option and select the aspect ratio we want. For example, let us choose “Square, ” and we will see that a square ratio is applied to the image.

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We can drag the crop to center the image, and we can also adjust the size of the crop. As we click and drag, the square shape is maintained because the ratio is set to square. We can press ENTER to confirm the crop. Now we have a tightly cropped image of the face.

Let us use the Crop Tool again, and this time let us change the ratio to 16 × 9. We will drag the corners outward to capture more of the image. As you will see, if you drag too far, the checkerboard background will appear, indicating that there is no image data on that side. Let us center the 16 × 9 crop and press ENTER. Now we have a 16 × 9 crop of the subject’s face. To clear the crop setting, we can simply click “Clear” to reset the ratio.

Now let us use a 4 × 5 crop. Again, we will expand the crop area to slightly larger than the subject’s face and press ENTER. As you can see, Photoshop includes many useful features for the Crop Tool that allow us to preserve cropped pixels and adjust easily.

We also have the option to add grids such as “Rule of Thirds” or “Diagonal Grid, ” to help us center the image. Let us choose “Diagonal Grid” and click and drag. We will see that her face is aligned diagonally in the center. We will adjust the height slightly so that her eyes are positioned along the diagonal lines, giving us a proper frame for the image. These guides help us maintain consistency when working with multiple images.

For example, we may want all subjects’ eyes to align with diagonal lines and the nose in the center. If we switch to the “Rule of Thirds” in the Options Bar, it may be that both eyes and the chin should fall within the center square.

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By using these guides, we are able to maintain consistency across our photos. One final use of the Crop Tool is found by going to any corner of the crop area. When we hover over a corner, we will see curved arrows appear. Clicking and dragging these allows us to rotate the entire photo to adjust the angle as needed.

In this example, I will slightly tilt the crop to the left to align with the bricks, then make a small adjustment to the right. The image is already quite straight, so I will drag it slightly to the left and press ENTER. We now have a clean 4 × 5 cropped image of our staff member.

Let us save this file by pressing CTRL + S on our keyboard, then pressing ENTER or clicking OK. We now have a saved file.

In the next video, we will be working with lens calibration. See you there!