Today the topic will be for beginners, although it is likely that those who have been working with Photoshop for a long time will find something new for themselves. Let's talk about cropping a photo using Adobe Photoshop, or more precisely, about the Crop Tool.

Many people prefer to crop photos in a RAW converter, which is often very convenient, especially at the stage of analyzing a photoset and selecting just those few photos for subsequent deep retouching. However, I personally believe that framing is often much more convenient and expedient at the very end of processing, because you don’t always know in advance what color or contrast accents may appear in the composition, and, in the end, sometimes the model’s legs are a little easier.” pull it out” rather than change the framing somehow.

1) So, the Crop Tool is located on the Adobe Photoshop toolbar, indicated by the number one in the figure and responds to the “C” key.

2) Width and Height - if we want to crop the picture with a strictly defined size, we can enter these values ​​for the width and height, respectively, and, if desired, swap them by clicking on the arrows between them.

3) If you right-click on one of the Width or Height fields, you can select the units of measurement for our numbers. Please note that at least some number must already be entered into the cell, otherwise Windows will simply offer its standard copy/paste dialog, etc.

4) Resolution - if we want to set the resolution for our future frame, it can be set here. In my opinion, the moment is quite conditional, because in most cases, ultimately, we are only interested in the real resolution of the image in pixels, regardless of its further application.

5) If we need to crop several photographs strictly to the same size, then for convenience, just click on the “Front Image” button, and Photoshop will automatically enter values ​​into the Width and Height fields corresponding to the file we are currently looking at.

6) The "Clear" button resets the values ​​of all the above fields.

Now let's move on to the more interesting and more practical part.

When we start actually cropping and stretch the “crop frame”, the menu changes slightly and this is what we get...

7) We have the opportunity to choose whether to leave the cut-off part of the frame in memory (Hide) or permanently delete it (Delete). In most cases, I think it is preferable to always select Hide, because it can often be convenient to simply move the photo a little in an already cropped area instead of going back a step and re-framing.

It should be noted that the choice is provided only when working with a layer; when working with a background image (Background), the Delete option is always selected (To easily and quickly make a layer from a background image, just double-click on the “background” inscription in the panel with layers in the lower right ).

An example of reframing an already cropped photo with the Hide option selected:

8) In recent versions of Photoshop, it is now possible to turn on “assist” when cropping. Specifically, you can choose between three options, when selected, it is projected into the cropping area: Rule of Thirds - the “rule of thirds” grid, Grid - just a grid (can be useful, for example, when leveling the horizon), None - nothing is projected.

9) The Sield checkbox determines whether to “darken” the inactive area, which will subsequently not be included in the frame. Nearby, in the Color field, you can select a “darkening” color.

10) "Opacity" shows the percentage of darkness (0 - completely transparent, 100 - completely opaque).

11) Perspecitve determines whether we will "correct" perspective biases. (Becomes active only when you select the Delete option in step 7).

12 ) Cancel and OK, respectively Esc and Enter on the keyboard.

13) Frame rotation axis or center for changing the size of the cropped area. You can drag it with the mouse to any place, even outside the frame and outside the photo, or you can Alt-click on the desired place so that it immediately appears there.

By the way, to rotate a frame, just move the mouse pointer to its edge, then it [the pointer] will change to an arrow and you can rotate the cropped area. If we want to rotate it by an exact value, a multiple of 15 degrees, just hold Shift while rotating (often convenient when rotating 90 and 180 degrees).

Example:

14) To crop while maintaining aspect ratios, just first select the entire photo with the Crop Tool, and then drag one of the corners while holding the Shift key.

And so that crop while maintaining the aspect ratio, but towards the center of the rotation axis(13a) you also need to select the entire photo with the Crop Tool, and also drag one of the corners, but while holding Alt + Shift.

It is also sometimes useful to place the rotation axis in the center of one of the sides of the frame; if you don’t want to crop it from this side, but want to crop it from the rest without changing the aspect ratio - try it.

9a - an example of an “auxiliary” grid with the Grid option selected; I change the “assistance” when cropping.

By the way, to crop with a square, you need to hold Shift before selecting the cropping area. And to simply extend/compress the cropping area towards (from) the center of the cropping area (rotation axis), drag one of the central points on the sides of the frame while holding Alt.

All this sounds scary and tricky, but in practice it will turn out to be very simple and convenient, try it))

15) And finally, about perspective distortions. Let's say we need to align something we shot in perspective. There are several ways to do this in Photoshop, we will look at the simplest one, which is available in the context of cropping and the Crop Tool.

Let's assume that we have a window like this, and we want to “straighten” it as if we were looking at it from the front. I found the picture on Google, so if I violated anyone’s copyright, I apologize in advance))

In 7a, select the Delete option, then in the Perspective box you can check 11a. Now the points along the edges of the cropping area can be easily moved one relative to the other by simply dragging with the mouse. Let's place them so that the border lines of the cropping area are parallel to the corresponding lines in the photo (this is where it will be very useful to select Grid in the “help” menu when cropping 8).

If one of the points is close to the frame border, it [the point] will try to "stick" to the frame border. To prevent this from happening, for precise positioning, hold Ctrl.

When we have placed everything successfully, press Enter and the result will be:

I would like to note that the more accurately we position the points relative to the geometric guides of the picture, the more accurate the result of the correction will be, however, in any case, with strong perspective distortions, the quality of the picture will also suffer greatly, which is especially noticeable with a low resolution of the original.

Traditionally, an example of a larger picture and, perhaps, that’s all for today.))

In several lessons, I will show you the simplest techniques for working with Photoshop. Preparing photographs for printing and posting on the Internet. These lessons show the most necessary actions without which to prepare good photo, is simply impossible. The tools I show are available in all versions of Photoshop. If your version is different from mine, some of the tools may be in a different place, but they are there!

Lesson #1

Attention! Always make a copy of the photograph, just in case, and then “mock” it! Because the original may come in handy when you are not satisfied with the result of your experiments.

Now open a copy of the photo in Photoshop. Press the button " crop"(1) or "Crop" if you have non-Russian Photoshop.

At the top of the properties panel, set the desired width and height of the image. Since we are preparing a photo for posting on the Internet, in order to maintain the proportions of the monitor screen, we will set, for example, the width to 1024 pixels and the height to 768 pixels.

In principle, here you can set any size. Simply, if you want the photo to be used as desktop wallpaper, then set it to 1920x1080, 1024x768, 1280x1024, 800x600.
If the photo does not fit into the wallpaper, or there are several photos on the page, then they need to be made smaller in size, otherwise site visitors may not wait for such a heavy page to load and will go to another site.

By the way, I am often asked how to make an avatar for the forum. And you do the same! Usually maximum size avatars 90x90. Therefore, set the Width to 90 px, Height to 90 px.

After clicking the "Crop" button, the cursor took the form of a "Crop" icon. Now, by clicking the left mouse button in the upper left corner of the photo, drag the cursor down and to the right. At the same time, the frame will stretch behind it. Release the button and the frame will freeze in place. But you can stretch it - squeeze it by the corners, grab it with the cursor and drag the entire frame from place to place. At the same time, it will strictly adhere to the proportion you set, so you will not be able to flatten the photo. In any case, the size you specify will be preserved!

By the way, if you are not going to maintain the proportion of the photo size, then leave the “width” and “height” fields empty. In this case, by stretching the frame by the sides with the cursor, you can make it wide or narrow, high or low. In short, the photo will be a non-standard size.

As a result of experiments, you will achieve a result when there is nothing unnecessary left in the frame, and the area of ​​future cropping is darkened.

Now press the right mouse button while holding the cursor on the photo. A context menu will appear with the words “crop” and “cancel.” Click the “crop” menu item and you will see a photo of improved quality!

Note: Now you can proceed to the photo saving stage. In the future, when you gain experience, you can do all the steps to improve the photo (the next pages of the book) and only then save it.

Cropping is cutting off parts of an image for the purpose of focusing or improving composition. Tool Crop Photoshop is a very simple and at the same time very interesting tool to use. In this tutorial we will look at the functions and settings of the tool Crop.

Tool Crop can be activated by clicking on the tool icon in Toolbars or using a hotkey WITH(Latin). The tool has much more capabilities than it seems at first glance. Let's look at the tool settings.

Tool settings panel.

let's consider Tool settings panel, provided that we have not yet worked with the image using this tool.

1 . The first setting element is called Tool Preset Picker. Click the arrow button to open a menu of available settings. Already saved samples are placed in the window that opens, each in a separate line. Select one of them, and the tool will acquire the specified parameters. You can also create a sample with your own settings and save it. (We won't go into detail about the first element; it's rather useful professional photographers. But we will pay special attention to the next six settings elements).

2 and 4. Here you can ask Width And Height the resulting image after cropping. For example, you want to get an image measuring 9 x 12 cm. In the field Width indicate the value 12 cm, and in the field Height- 9 cm. By creating a crop frame on the image, the width and height of the tool frame will maintain the specified proportions. The frame can be moved around the image and resized using the corner handles. By placing the frame in the desired location and cutting out the image, you will receive a cropped image measuring 9 x 12 cm.

3. By clicking on this button you can swap the parameter values Width And Height.

5 . Resolution Images. Resolution image shows how many pixels there are in one inch of the image. If you are working with a photograph, for example 300 pixels/inch, then it is better to write this number in the field Resolution.

6. When you press the button Front Image in the fields WidthHeight And Resolution values ​​will be entered automatically open image. After applying cropping, your image will be cropped at the same size and resolution.

7. By pressing the button Clear, You will delete all data entered in the fields WidthHeight And Resolution. Remember to clear the settings when cropping future images.

Now let's consider Tool settings panel, provided that the tool is selected and the tool frame is already located on the image Crop.

1 . Cropped Area. After selecting an area to crop, you don't have to cut it out; instead, you can simply hide the cropped areas. This feature is not available for the background layer. To convert the background layer to a normal one, in the palette Layers Double-click on it and in the dialog box that appears, click OK. Now position the tool frame Crop in the image and Tool settings panels select option Hide. Click Enter to apply cropping, and the cropped area will be hidden, but it will still exist. Using a tool Move You can move hidden areas of the image. This technique is useful when you want to experiment with various options image composition without cut-out areas. To remove cropped areas, select the option Delete.

2. Check the box Screen (Shield Color) so that the area outside the frame is darkened. This will allow you to see the cropping area better.

3 . Color. Click on the color swatch if you want to change the color of the darkened area.

4 . Opacity. Changes the opacity of a darkened area.

5 . After checking the box Perspective(the function is available when the option is selected Delete) frame manipulators acquire greater independence. Now, by moving each of them, you can change the shape of the frame. Where it leads? After cropping, the image continues to be rectangular, but is distorted by the shape of the frame. This feature is used to change perspective. For example, when shooting with a wide-angle lens, there may be distortion, which is especially noticeable in cityscapes. To correct it, change the shape of the frame so that its sides are parallel to the distorted contours. After cropping, the image will be distorted so that the sides become parallel. Due to this, the image will be straightened.

Working with the tool frame.

You can change the size of the cropping frame using the markers located on it. Moving the cursor to the markers, it will take the form of a bidirectional arrow, showing the directions for adjusting the frame (1 and 2). The frame can also be rotated, and the arrow will take on a semicircular shape (4). Rotation is performed around the central point (3). You can change the coordinates of the rotation axis by moving the center point to the desired location.

To end cropping, press Enter or double-click inside the crop frame. To cancel the cropping operation, press Esc.

In conclusion, I advise you to watch the lesson Crop an image, where a specific example shows how to work with the tool Crop, and the lesson Image Alignment, which explains how to straighten a skewed image before surgery Cropping.

Today we want to teach you how to crop pictures in Photoshop. We will learn from the simplest examples.

Cropping, that is, changing the boundaries of the frame, can be done not only during photography, that is, in the process of creating a picture, but also during digital processing. At this stage, you can do a lot with the photo: correct the perspective, level the horizon, change the center of vision, etc. Our tips today will be useful not only for beginner Photoshop users, but also for inexperienced photographers who are still learning the basics of photography. These tips will help you improve your photography while it's being taken. We will also talk about a new tool that appeared in Photoshop CS5. Using it you can easily correct the perspective.

How to Crop Photos Using the Crop Tool

Step #1

Let's open some image in Photoshop. Then in the toolbar we select Crop tool(frame). Another option for calling the frame is to press the “C” key. Then you need to click on the canvas and stretch the frame that appears on the picture. The area that will be deleted will be highlighted in dark color. In the corners of the selected area and in the middle of all four of its boundaries you will see dots, by moving which you can change the boundaries of this area.

Note:

Inside, the framing frame in Photoshop has a “Rule of Thrids” grid that will greatly assist you in composing your frame. The area that will be cut by the program can be made transparent rather than dark. To do this, press the “/” key.

Step #2

You can rotate the frame that appears on your image the way you want, in any direction. To do this, the mouse cursor must be moved outside the selected area, onto the dark part of the image. You will immediately see that a sign has appeared in the form of two arrows, which are arranged in the shape of an arc. Now you need to hold down the left mouse button anywhere on the canvas and feel free to rotate the frame.

Well, then, when you achieve what you wanted, you need to press the Enter key, and your image will be cropped.

Note:

• If you have already created a frame, but then change your mind about cropping the image, you need to press the “Esc” key. Then everything will return to its original position.

How to crop to a specific size

Sometimes it is necessary to crop an image to a specific size, for example, the long-established 9x12 cm or 13x18 cm in photography. For this procedure, you need to use specially created fields, which serve to enter the exact size of the future photograph.

And here, too, you first need to activate the Crop tool. As we already said, to do this, just press the “C” key. Now pay attention to the top of the screen. You can easily see here several buttons and fields with which you can set the exact proportions of the future frame. Now, in the Width and Height fields, write down the desired exact dimensions of the image.

After you have set the required frame dimensions, you need to click on the canvas and thus create a frame. You will immediately notice that the proportions of the future photo will be exactly the way you want them to be. Now it will be impossible to change them. As in the first case, the frame can be rotated in different directions. Well, after you achieve the desired position of the frame, as you guessed, you need to press Enter.

Note:

In order to reset the proportions settings, you need to click on the Clear button, which is located in the properties of the Crop tool.
If you need to copy the proportions and size of the frame to work on cropping other images, you need to click on the Front Image button. Using this operation you will save a lot of time when working with a large number of photos.

How to straighten slanted photos

Sometimes it happens that when you come home after a walk with a camera outside the city and sit down at your computer, you will see that some of the pictures you took today have a slight flaw. We are talking about a skewed horizon line. In earlier versions of Photoshop, in order to straighten the horizon, you would have to perform several specific techniques. This would take up quite a lot of your time. With version CS5, there is a completely new tool with which you can eliminate this defect with incredible ease, leveling the horizon line in just a few seconds.

Step #1

Open the image we need in Photoshop. Now select the Ruler tool from the toolbar. How to find this line? Very simple. First you need to click on the Eyedropper tool. A menu will immediately appear next to it, in which you will see Ruler.

Step #2

Now, using this ruler, you need to stretch the line in the photograph relative to the horizon line. After that, all you have to do is click on the Straighten button, which is located in the tool properties panel. All. The horizon in your photo is straightened.

A few more tips for beginners

• When framing a photo, you should try to leave a little more free space on the side of the frame where the movement shown in the photo is directed. For example, if you are filming a moving car, then you need to leave a little more space in front of it than behind it. This technique will give the photo dynamism, depth, and the viewer will immediately feel a sense of speed. Also, a little more space should be left in the portrait on the side where the gaze of the person depicted is directed.
• Always try to remove all unnecessary, random elements from the frame. Especially around the edges. This will help you greatly enhance the integrity of the composition. But, nevertheless, sometimes it is permissible to introduce some elements into the frame at the edges that create a natural frame for your photo - for example, a stone arch, tree branches, etc. In this case, you will get a natural vignette.
• the most important. Know that a truly experienced photographer, a master of his craft, begins to compose the frame while shooting. He does not rely on subsequent processing in Photoshop or some other graphics editor.

Based on materials from the site:

Article chapters:
Crop tool – Photoshop Frame
Framing with a Photoshop Frame

Cropping a photo– these are special actions to change the scale and position of an image within the boundaries of a given frame when taking a photograph or when processing it in Photoshop, for storing and later using this photograph.

Of course, it is necessary to crop photos correctly when taking photographs, but this is not always possible. But even if the photo is framed perfectly at this stage, you may need to change its format for some purposes. It is more convenient to crop photographs in the Photoshop program, since it has more possibilities for this.

Cropping photos in Photoshop after taking photos is necessary in three main cases. Firstly, if the photo needs to be output to some external device, such as a printer or TV. Secondly, if it is necessary to remove image composition errors. And thirdly, for creative work such as creating collages.

Before cropping a photo

Cropping a photograph is directly related to changing its size and resolution, which are closely related. By changing one of these quantities, the others change. Before cropping photos in Photoshop, you first need to recalculate the dimensions and resolution, bring them to a clear form, and only then work with them.

This is especially true for those files digital photos, which were scanned from film negatives or slides. In this case, a high resolution is set, for example 2400 dpi, with a frame size of 36 by 24 mm. To accurately crop a photo in Photoshop, the dimensions must be an order of magnitude higher and the resolution an order of magnitude lower.

To recalculate the size and resolution of a photo before cropping in Photoshop, you need to select “Image Size” in the top panel in the “Image” menu. A window of the same name will open to set the size and resolution of the photo. This window can be opened faster using the hot buttons " Alt» + « Ctrl» + « I"(Fig. 1).

Rice. 1 Photoshop program window for recalculating the size and resolution of a photo when cropping

Immediately you need to uncheck the box next to the “Interpolation” item. This is necessary so that the image dimensions and resolution change simultaneously and influence each other. If the checkbox is checked, then when changing the resolution, only the dimension in pixels will decrease. The print dimensions will remain the same.

For example, if you uncheck “Interpolation” and change the resolution from 2400 dpi to 300 dpi (Fig. 1), the dimension will remain the same, but the dimensions of the printed print will change from 3.5 x 2.2 to 27.9 x 17.5 cm. Such dimensions are clearer to us and we can consciously work with them in Photoshop when cropping a photo.

How to crop photos

In Photoshop, you can crop photos in different ways, it depends on the final purpose of cropping. It should be taken into account that cropping is a way of changing the size of a photograph by cropping it on one or several sides. This process is irreversible and you need to think carefully before cutting a photo.

In order to crop a photo in Photoshop in a different way or in some other way, you need to crop not the photo itself, but its copy. The photograph must be stored unchanged in a digital photo archive. All cropped copies of photographs must be stored in separate photo archives.

Such separate storage of a photograph allows you to avoid repeating the process of cropping it twice, and if you wish, in Photoshop you can make another crop of the same photo at any time. This way you can frame any photo many times in different ways.

Before you start cropping a photo in Photoshop, you need to determine exactly what it is for. The type of framing will depend on this - normal, with rotation or with image deformation. This needs to be determined in advance, since different methods and tools of Photoshop are used for each type of cropping.

Photo Crop Tools

There are several different tools you can use to crop photos in Photoshop. Depending on the purposes of framing, the desired tool or their combined use is selected.

The main tool for cropping photos in Photoshop is “ Frame" Most often, photographs are cropped using this particular tool.

You can use all the tools to crop photos in Photoshop. discharge, which create a dashed frame on the image - an ant's path.

Using the " Ruler"In Photoshop, you can expand and crop the image. Areas of the photo that extend beyond its dimensions when rotated are removed.

You can crop a photo in Photoshop without changing its size. In this case, the image is reduced and its scale is increased. For this purpose they are used layers.

Tool " Canvas size"This is perhaps the easiest tool for cropping photos in Photoshop. With this tool, you can quickly set the final dimensions of your photos or specify how much to crop them on one or more sides.

Another convenient tool for cropping photos in Photoshop is “ Trimming" With its help, you can find the edges of shadows or shaded edges and crop the photo based on them.

Read about how to work with each cropping tool in Photoshop, when and what they are best used for in the following chapters of this article.