Automatic cropping in Photoshop. Cropping photos in Photoshop: a detailed description of the process

Article chapters:
Crop tool - Photoshop Frame
Crop Frame Photoshop

Crop a photo- these are special actions to change the scale and position of the image within the boundaries of a given frame when taking a photo or when processing it in Photoshop, for storing and then using this photo.

Of course, it is necessary to correctly crop photos when taking photographs, but this is not always possible. But even if the photo is framed flawlessly at this stage, it may need to be resized for some purpose. It is more convenient to crop photos in Photoshop, as it has more options for this.

Cropping photos in Photoshop after taking a photo 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 you need to remove image composition errors. And thirdly, for creative work like making collages.

Before cropping a photo

Cropping a photo is directly related to changing its size and resolution, which are closely related. Changing one of these values ​​changes the others. 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 that have been 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 the “Image Size” item on the top panel in the “Image” menu. A window of the same name will open for setting the size and resolution of the photo. You can open this window 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 affect each other. If the checkbox is checked, then when changing the resolution, only the dimension in pixels will decrease. The size of the printout 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, and 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 ultimate goal framing. At the same time, it should be borne in mind that cropping is a way of resizing a photo by cropping it from one or more 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 separately in this photo archive.

Such separate storage of a photo allows you not to repeat the process of cropping it twice, and if you wish, you can do another cropping of the same photo in Photoshop at any time. Thus, it is possible to crop 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 cropping will depend on this - normal, with rotation or with image deformation. This must be determined in advance, since different methods and tools of the Photoshop program are used for each type of cropping.

Photo crop tools

You can use several different tools to crop photos in Photoshop. Depending on the purpose of framing, the desired tool or their sharing is selected.

Photoshop's main photo cropping tool is " Frame". Most often, photos are cropped using this particular tool.

To crop photos in Photoshop, you can use all the tools allocation, which create a dashed frame on the image - an ant track.

With the tool " Ruler»In Photoshop, you can expand and crop the image. Deletes areas of the photo that go beyond its dimensions when rotated.

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, 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 photos or specify how much to crop them on one or more sides.

Another handy photo cropping tool in Photoshop is " Trimming". With it, you can find the borders of shadows or feathered borders and crop the photo according to them.

How to work with each cropping tool in Photoshop, when and why it is better to use them, read in the following chapters of this article.

Cropping is one of the most basic edits ever made in a program. Bad cropping (or no cropping) can ruin an image, while good cropping can make it ten times better by cutting out useless or distracting material.

There is a reason why professional photos look so good. In addition to being shot on high-quality cameras and retouched after processing, they are also very high-quality compositional.

Cropping means removing distracting elements of an image by cutting off unwanted parts at the edges. It highlights the object, draws the viewer's eye to it.

Let's learn a few basic principles.

Once you understand the rule of thirds, a compositional principle used by photography and videography professionals, you will find it in almost every image you see. Its meaning lies in dividing each frame into nine equal parts using an imaginary field for playing tic-tac-toe.

Please note that the main parts of the wolf's body are located strictly in their square: ears, eyes, jaw. Majority digital cameras allow you to display such a grid on the camera display, helping you create a frame. To figure out how to enable it, you may need to delve into the camera's menus or read the instruction manual.

Along with applying the rule of thirds, pros often crop images in the most unexpected ways. This is another way to increase the visual interest of the shot to grab the attention of the viewer.

This is especially important when you're dealing with very small images, such as in a thumbnail gallery or on a website where multiple images are vying to grab attention. In such small images, you can not see a lot of details (or not see them at all); and if there are people in the photo, you can immediately stop trying to identify them. Here are some tips for creating really eye-catching tiny images:

• Instead of zooming out on the original, focus on one element of the image. It is often not necessary to include the entire subject for people to understand what it is.
• Sharpen again after resizing. Even if you've sharpened the original (brightened the focus digitally), go ahead and sharpen again after resizing using the Unsharp Mask filter.
• To add elegance to your miniature, give it a y or .

Now that you've mastered a few basic principles, you're ready to explore the many framing methods Photoshop provides, starting with the most common ones.

Crop and hide

Photoshop usually removes the outer edges. They disappear forever. But if you're cropping a file with multiple layers, or a single-layer file with a loose background layer, you can leave the cropped material in place, making it easy to bring it back in case you change your mind.

To do this, go to the options panel and set the radio button Cropped Area into position Hide. The program will hide the clipping area outside the document window instead of deleting it. Thus, even if you don't see it on the screen, it will still be part of your file.

If you need to return the cropped area, select the menu command Image - Show All to resize the canvas to show everything beyond the edge of the document (cropped portions in this case). If you want to return only part of the clipped area, press the V key to select and drag the image back into view.

Note

Modes Delete And Hide become available after you draw the frame, and they are active only when the file does not contain a pinned background layer, or if you cut off a multi-layered file (the rest of the time they are grayed out).

Crop with perspective

If you shot an image at an angle and then find that you need to straighten it, you can crop the image and change its perspective at the same time.

Note

The program will not allow you to crop the image with perspective when the switch is set to Hide. In this case, set the switch clipped into position Delete and then check the boxPerspective.

To crop with perspective, first draw a box around the object you want to straighten (it doesn't have to be exactly aligned with the object, but you do need to capture the entire object).

Next check the box in the Options Bar, and then drag the corner handles so that the frame lines are parallel to or overlaying the angled image lines. If done properly, the cropped image will look straight and beautiful. However, be careful: this tool distorts images, and as a result, living creatures may look like you photographed their reflection in a distorted mirror.

Crop to a specific size

Sometimes you need to crop accurately, like when you crop a photo to fit it into a 4x6 frame. In this case, you can use the options to enter values ​​for the width, height, and resolution of the final image to limit the crop to a specific size.

Note

As with most dialog boxes and panels, any changes made in the Options Bar are saved until changed again. So the next time you crop an image to a certain size, don't forget to click Delete/Clear (Clear) to clear the dimension fields. Then your crop boxes will not be limited to the last used size values.

To enter custom sizes, enter values ​​in the fields Width And Height. Alternatively, you can choose from the list of typical sizes provided in the drop-down list. If you are planning final result to print, you will also need to enter permission; if not, you can leave this field blank.

Note

When entering custom sizes, be sure to include units of measurement such as pixels or inches. Otherwise, Photoshop will assume that you mean the unit of measurement specified in the settings, and this may not be exactly what you need.

Now that you've drawn the frame, it's constrained by the proportions (ratio between width and height) of the dimensions you entered. After accepting the crop, the area inside the frame will perfectly match the dimensions entered.

Crop with selection tools

You can also crop the image within the selected area. This technique is useful if you have created a selection and then need to crop the image to approximately the same size. This method is best suited (although other selection tools work too). After creating , select the menu command Image - Crop.

Noticed an error in the text - select it and press Ctrl + Enter . Thank you!

Good day to you, dear visitors of my blog. Has it ever happened to you that you are taking pictures, and then BAM ... and some alien element got into the frame, such as a man, woman or child running past, and even looked into the frame as if it was necessary. I personally have had such cases more than once. I still thought: “Here is a scoundrel! Where did you come from here?

It also happens that the photo turned out to be crooked and then you have to cunningly squeeze out to make the photo straighter. But I will show you how to make this process easier. You will learn how to crop any image in Photoshop. This will help us tool "Frame".

With the framework we can:

• Straighten a crooked (skewed) image
• Crop unwanted objects
• Cut out only the desired fragment from the image (ideal for avatars)
• And much more.

So, you are ready. Well then, let's see how to use this tool.

Trimming extra objects

Well, let's start with cutting. In the photo you can see how some guy got into the frame from the side, although it was clearly not planned to put him here. This is where cropping will help us, i.e. frame (Pan Crop).

By the way, this photo can be cropped not only from the left side, but also from the upper left corner. To do this, hover over the upper left corner of the photo until a double diagonal arrow appears. And again, holding down the left mouse button, drag down and to the left until the unnecessary space is covered with dark. This will cut not only this weirdo, but also the top piece (if necessary).

In general, the point is that from which side you need to cut the object, pull from that side. The tool is just wonderful for such things.

Photo alignment

As I said above, we can not only crop unnecessary objects, but also straighten crooked photos. Let's look at an example. Let's say we have a photo that is tilted.

The only negative with this method is that a small part of the photo is cropped. Those. To achieve evenness of the photo, you need to crop a little around the edges. Something like this. But as a rule, this can be sacrificed. For example, in our case, for sure. Well, did it work with this method? Very well.

Cutting a fragment

Another good area of ​​application for this tool is cutting out a fragment of an image. For example, I constantly use such a chip to create avatars for contacts, mail, forums, etc. A very useful thing.

Let's say you have a photo where there are a lot of unwanted objects and for the avatar you want to cut out only yourself.

Like this. Everything seems to be explained clearly, but if there are any questions or misunderstandings, then do not be shy and ask.

Also, if you notice, then when cropping, the photo (image) is divided into 9 parts, i.e. it is separated by 3 vertical and 3 horizontal lines. This effect is called "Rule of Thirds". This rule implies conditional division of the image by three horizontal and three vertical lines. And it is believed that the best attention is focused not in the center, but at the intersection of these lines.

Many photographers and artists use these rules. So if you want to follow this rule of thirds, then you can shift the image so that the key object is at the intersection of the lines.

Crop with aspect ratio

Well, let me tell you about a little chip. By default, framing is free-floating. Those. it all depends on how you move the mouse up and down and left and right. It turns out an arbitrary aspect ratio.

But you can set this ratio yourself. To do this, in frame mode, go to the tool's properties. There you will see 2 cells with arrows between them. This is where you can set the ratio. For example, if you write 2 in the left cell and 1 in the right cell, then the process will proceed evenly and cropping horizontally will always be twice as much as vertically.

You can also set the ratio from the list of templates. To do this, simply open the drop-down list in the properties of the Frame tool. If you choose 1:1, then the selection will be even and square, if 16:9, then, as you understand, everything in this ratio will be cropped. Hope you get the point? I think yes.

You can learn more about the frame tool, as well as all other tools, in this excellent video course. With it, any beginner can master Photoshop in 1-2 weeks, if you devote an hour a day. The lessons are simply magnificent, they look excited. In general, I highly recommend you.

Well, on this I finish our today's lesson and I really hope that you liked it. Do not forget to subscribe to updates of my blog articles, then you will be the first to know about everything interesting. See you in the next lessons. Bye bye!

Sincerely, Dmitry Kostin.

Hello visitors to my blog! Very often, pictures, pictures taken by the camera or video frames need to be corrected. You can do it yourself using Photoshop. In its menu, among many interesting features, there is a tool - a frame. It is they who crop photos in Photoshop.
It is located in the toolbar and the manipulations performed by it help to achieve the desired result.

What You Can Do With the Frame Tool

• Using the "Frame" you can get a portrait from a full-length picture, i.e. improve the composition of the picture.
• By cropping the sides of the picture, remove unwanted objects that have fallen into the frame.
• Align the horizon of the image.
• Adjust photo size

How to use "Frame" to crop photos

Using the example of a personal photograph, I will show how to make a portrait from a large picture, removing unnecessary details or, as mentioned above, change the composition of the picture.

Open the desired photo in Photoshop and click on the "Frame" icon in the toolbar or activate the Frame tool with hot key C.

Next with a keyboard shortcut Ctrl+Alt+I activate the image size editing window and set the image size with a width of 1280 or 1024 pixels. In order for the height to be set in proportion to the width, the corresponding chain icon in the settings window must be activated.

Note! If in the future you plan to use the image only on the Internet, set the resolution to 72 pixels / inch. For printing, set the resolution to 300 pixels / inch.

Using hotkeys ctrl+1 zoom in on the image to 100%.

Select the desired fragment.

Then, moving the cursor diagonally, we create a frame of the required size on the image.

The framing is completed with the key "Enter" or a checkmark located in the upper right corner of the options panel. The operation is canceled by pressing Esc or by selecting the crossed out circle in the options.

In order to set a fixed image size, for example 800×500 in the options menu, you need to set the appropriate width and height values ​​in pixels.

Using the key hold:

"shift"- you can create an even square;
Alt- the expansion of the frame will be made from its center;
"Shift"+"Alt"- you can expand the square symmetrically.
The left mouse button, when the cursor is in the middle of the frame, you can move it in any direction.

Frame rotation and horizon alignment

In the photo, in the corners of the borders of the frame, when the cursor is placed on them, arrows in the form of a semicircle appear.
This indicates the possibility of rotating the cropped picture and changing its size.

When making the frame slanted, remember that when you click "Save", the fragment will be oriented in a straight position.

This feature is very useful when leveling the horizon. Of course, you will have to crop the edges of the photo. But if this is not done, then white areas will remain at the corners.

For example, take a landscape with a sloping horizon.

Align the frame parallel to the horizon and press Enter.

We get an image with a flat horizon.

That's all.

Subscribe to blog updates to be the first to know about new articles!

Sincerely, Ul Sartakov.

In this photo manipulation tutorial, we'll explain how to properly crop images and look at several ways to use the Crop Tool.

For photo editors, this tool is extremely important and necessary, thanks to cropping, the photo takes on a completely different look. We can crop the edges of an image to create a new composition, or we can remove unwanted objects from the frame at the borders of a photo, just as photographers used to cut their photos with guillotine shears after developing.

When should you crop an image?

Very often, due to lack of time, we are forced to neglect building the correct composition in the frame directly during the shooting.

But thanks to Photoshop, we have the opportunity to change the composition after shooting using the Crop Tool or Frame / Crop in the Russian version of the program.

Also, this tool has additional functions designed to teach the basics of composition, such as the Rule of Thirds. We will tell you more about this a little later.

With the help of Crop, we can not only get rid of unnecessary objects in the frame, but also correct very common mistakes. For example, we can correct a horizon littered in a photo, which is a blunder and annoys viewers no less than a picture hanging crookedly on the wall.

We will show you how to use cropping to position the horizon parallel to the top and bottom of the photo.

It is sometimes difficult to prepare pictures for printing when the aspect ratio of the cropped image does not match the aspect ratio of the image that has not been cropped. This problem is especially significant if you want to combine photos into one series.

We'll show you how to use the Crop/Frame tool to crop photos while retaining the shape and proportions of the original photo.

Where is the Crop Tool or Crop Tool?

In the Photoshop Crop Tool, you will find it in the Toolbar in its uppermost compartment, which indicates the frequency of use of this tool.

If you click on the tool's icon and hold down the mouse button, you'll see that it has several sub-sections, such as the Slice Tool, which is typically used by web designers to clip portions of a Photoshop document for web pages. In early versions of the program, Slice Tools occupied a separate niche, but over time they were merged with Crop Tools.

What can I do with the Crop Tool?

Here we'll show you how to use this tool to improve the composition of a photo, correct cluttered horizons, and resize an image for printing.

Improving the composition

Looking through the footage, we choose the most good photos, and as often happens, there are very few such photos. The chances of getting a good shot increase if you use the Rule of Thirds.

According to this compositional technique, the frame is divided into nine equal parts using a grid. By placing subjects in the compartments created by the grid, at the intersection of lines, or along the lines, we significantly improve the composition of the photo.

Professional photographer David Bailey, using the example of a photo of a girl, showed how effectively you can crop a portrait, leaving part of the image outside the frames and cutting off the top of the model’s head, thereby making it more restrained and at the same time intimate.

Get creative with the framing process, use a square frame instead of a standard one, this option often looks more impressive.

Using the crop grid blend mode

1. Draw a square

Open the original image. Select the Crop tool from the toolbar. Hold down the Shift key (this combination makes the crop area square) and select the area you want to keep. The area that will be removed after cropping will be painted in transparent gray, and the untouched fragment of the image will remain 100% visible.

2. Keep balance

In the Options Bar, set the View Mode to Rule of Thirds. Drag the crop square so that the line intersections are positioned over the model's eyes. Next, position the mouse cursor outside the crop square and rotate it to change the angle of the model's head and achieve symmetry.

3. Creative framing

Now drag the crop box to the right to leave the left side of the model's face outside. The result still follows the Rule of Thirds: the eye, nose, and mouth are in the left third, the hair is in the middle third, and there is empty space in the right third.

4. Changing the framing screen settings

The area outside the cropping window is displayed as a gray translucent screen by default, which helps you to focus directly on the fragment that will remain after cropping.

If you want to completely hide the area that will be clipped, you can change its transparency. To do this, in the options panel, set the Opacity to 100% in the Enable Crop Shield section.

You can also choose any color to display the clipped area, or by unchecking Enable Crop Shield, completely disable the crop shield.

Correcting errors by framing

In addition to improving composition, framing also allows you to correct some of the mistakes made when shooting. To capture the entire landscape, we had to zoom out as much as possible, as a result, the edges of the hood fell into the frame. Also in the upper left corner of the photo, we see a darkening that we do not need.

We photographed from a boat, so it was quite difficult to take a photo with a perfect horizon line, the horizon was a little filled up, but fortunately, it is possible to correct such blots with cropping.

Select the Crop Tool in the toolbar, select our photo, set the view mode to Rule of Thirds.

Then hold down the Shift key, in this case this will keep the original aspect ratio of the photo. With the Shift key held down, move the mouse cursor over the upper left corner of the photo and drag it so as to leave the blackout and the hood included in the frame behind the crop area.

Drag the cropping box to place the stone in the bottom left corner of the grid. The mountain must remain in the central part of the grid. To correct a bulging horizon line, position the cursor outside the crop box and rotate it so that the horizon line runs parallel to the horizontal grid lines.

Change of size

Sometimes, when sending a series of photos for printing, we get partially normally printed photos that occupy the entire sheet of photo paper, and partially cropped. Now we will introduce you to a step-by-step guide to correct and accurate framing.

How to resize a photo?

1. Choose the scale

Open the original image. Select the Crop tool, on the left side of the options bar, click on the arrow located next to the tool icon and from the presented cropping presets, select 5 inch x 7 inch 300 ppi (5 inches x 7 inches, 300 pixels per inch).

2. Change the orientation of the photo

By default, the preset will create an orientation for a portrait photo, but we need a landscape format. To switch orientation, there is a special button in the options bar in the form of a rounded arrow, you can also change the orientation by pressing the X key on your keyboard.

3. Checking the size

To complete cropping, click on the tool icon and select Crop the Image from the pop-up window. Next, go to Image> Image Size (Image, Image Size). Select inches as the unit of measure. We will see that the image size is 7 inches wide by 5 inches high with a resolution of 300 pixels per inch.

How to use the Crop/Frame tool

Below we have demonstrated the key parameters of the Crop/Box tool. Enjoy all the features of this invaluable tool, and we'll show you everything you need to know about this tool.

• Fast switching. Click on this icon to change the preset image orientation. We can choose landscape or portrait orientation.
• Overlay. To overlay a grid according to the Rule of Thirds, select Rule of Thirds from the list. Or choose another grid that suits you.
• Framing Screen darkens the area that will be cut off during the cropping process. To turn off the screen, uncheck the box.
• Reinstalling a preset. Here you can set a preset for cropping with certain sizes and resolution.
• Reset. To reset a preset, click on the tool icon in the options bar and select Reset tool
• Opacity and color. Lower the opacity of the Screen to make the area that will be cropped more visible. You can also change the color of the screen here.
• Perspective. When framing architectural photographs, use this option to manually correct perspective.
• neighboring instruments. In the same section with the Crop/Frame tool, there are less functional Cutting tools. To switch between them, use the key combination Shift+C.

Basic tool parameters

With the Crop Tool selected in the toolbar, click on the image and drag the mouse cursor to draw a crop box (01).

Use the Rule of Thirds grid overlay for a more concise composition (02).

By default, the clipping area is highlighted with a gray translucent screen, which sometimes makes it difficult to concentrate on the area we are going to leave, especially if the photo is black and white. In this case, you can change the color and opacity of the screen (03).

To apply a crop to an image, click on the tool icon. Or click on any other tool in the toolbar, then a pop-up window will appear in which the program will ask you if you are going to crop the image or not (04).