How To Crop In Photoshop
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If you want to be able to change the size or shape of your crop you can also just make shape in a seperate layer and clip your image with a clipping mask on your shape. If you group the two after that you can move them as one. If you do this you're still able to change to shape of your crop afterwards. How to Crop a Circle in Photoshop Step 1: Open your image in Photoshop. At this point you should have the image and no other layers. Step 2: Double click on the Background layer and make it a Normal layer – just click OK. Step 3: Select the Elliptical Marquee Tool. Step 4: Create the circle. One of the great new features in Photoshop CS6 is the improved and enhanced Crop Tool.If you've been using earlier versions of Photoshop to crop your photos, you'll find quite a few changes with CS6, all designed to make cropping and straightening images easier and more flexible than ever before.
- 1 Step-By-Step Way to Cut Out Images on Photoshop
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- 3 Cut out an Image & Make the Background Transparent Using GIMP
- 4 Erase Parts of an Image in Illustrator
Adobe Photoshop offers users a variety of methods for cutting out objects from images. The method you choose to accomplish this depends on the complexity of the object. The Lasso and Magic Wand tools are ideal for simple objects or objects that are on backgrounds of a uniform color. For more precise work, the Quick Mask or Pen tools are better suited. Once you have separated an object from its background, you can then add it to new images or layouts to create eye-catching advertisements, presentations or other business documents.
Magic Wand Tool
1.Select the Magic Wand tool from the toolbox and then left-click the object that you want to cut out. This creates a selection around the area that you have clicked. Hold down 'Shift' and click an adjacent section of the object if the entire object was not covered by the selection.
2.Continue adding sections of the object until the entire object is selected. This works best if the object is a uniform color. Alternatively, if the object is detailed but the background is uniform, use the Magic Wand on the background instead of the object and then select 'Inverse' from the Selection menu.
3.Click 'Edit' from the Menu Bar and then click 'Copy' once the entire object has been selected.
4.Click 'File' and then click 'New.' Select 'Clipboard' from the preset drop-down menu and then click 'OK.'
5.Click 'Edit' from the Menu Bar and then click 'Paste.' This places the object on a new canvas. Double-click the 'Background Layer' on the Layers palette and then click 'OK.' Right-click the background layer and then click 'Delete.' You can now save your object in a file format that supports transparencies.
Quick Selection Tool
1.Click the Quick Selection tool from the toolbox and then left-click on the object you want to cut out. This creates a selection around the area that you have clicked.
2.Click on other areas inside the object to add them to your selection. Hold down the 'Alt' button and left-click on areas that you want to remove from the selection.
3.Click 'Edit' from the Menu Bar and then click 'Copy' once the entire object has been selected.
4.Click 'File' and then click 'New.' Select 'Clipboard' from the preset drop-down menu and then click 'OK.'
5.Click 'Edit' from the Menu Bar and then click 'Paste.' This places the object on the new canvas. Double-click the 'Background Layer' on the Layers palette and then click 'OK.' Right-click the background layer and then click 'Delete.'
Lasso Tool
1.How To Crop In Photoshop Elements
Select the Zoom button from the toolbox and then click on your image until the entire object that you want to cut out is visible.
2.Select the Lasso tool from the toolbox and then click and drag your mouse cursor around the edges of the object that you want to cut out. Do not release the mouse button until you have connected the start and end points of your outline. The entire outline process must be done in one motion without letting go of the mouse button. If the object is composed of straight lines use the secondary Polygonal Lasso tool. For objects with high contrast use the secondary Magnetic lasso tool as it automatically creates anchors points as you move your mouse cursor around the object.
3.Release the mouse button once you have completed the selection. For the Polygonal and Magnetic Lasso tools, connect the last anchor point with the first one.
4.Click 'Edit' from the Menu Bar and then click 'Copy.'
5.Click 'File' and then click 'New.' Select 'Clipboard' from the preset drop-down menu and then click 'OK.'
6.Click 'Edit' from the Menu Bar and then click 'Paste.' This places the object on the new canvas. Double-click the 'Background Layer' on the Layers palette and then click 'OK.' Right-click the background layer and then click 'Delete.'
Pen Tool
1.Select the Pen tool from the toolbox and then click 'Paths' from the action bar.
2.Click anywhere on the outline of the object that you want to cut out to set the starting point.
3.Trace the outline of the object with the Pen tool. This is done using a series of points called 'nodes.' Every time you click on the outline of the object, a new node is created. These are connected to the previous node. Click and release the mouse button to create a straight line between two nodes, or click and drag the new point to curve the line.
4.Right-click anywhere on the image and then click 'Make Selection' and click 'OK.'
5.Click 'Edit' on the Menu Bar and then click 'Copy' once the entire object has been selected.
6.Click 'Edit' from the Menu Bar and then click 'Paste.' This places the object that you have cut out on the new canvas. Double-click the Background Layer on the Layers palette and then click 'OK.' Right-click the background layer and then click 'Delete.'
Quick Mask
1.Click 'Select' from the Menu Bar and then click the 'Edit in Quick Mask Mode' option. Alternatively, choose the 'Edit in Quick Mask Mode' button from your toolbox.
2.Click 'Set Foreground Color' from the toolbox and select black. Click 'Set Background Color' from the toolbox and select white.
3.Click the 'Brush' tool from the toolbox and then click on the 'Brush tool options' from the Options bar.
4.Click and drag the size slider to a value that is suitable for the object that you want to cut out. Press the '[' and ']' to decrease and increase the brush size on the fly, as the size requirements will differ, depending on which area of the object you are selecting.
5.Set the hardness slider to a medium-high value, such as 80 percent to ensure that the edges of your object are not too sharp. This enables your object to blend in better with the image you later paste it in. If you prefer that the edges are sharp use 100 percent hardness
6.Click and drag your mouse cursor along the outline of the object. Increase or decrease the size of the Brush tool from the Options bar to work with more precision. Zoom in on areas with lots of detail. The goal is to outline the object as precisely as possible. The painted areas on the image show up as a transparent red color to indicate that these are being worked with in Quick Mask mode.
7.Increase the size of the brush tool and then color the entire area inside the outline that you have created. Once you are done, the object that you want to cut out should be completely highlighted in red.
8.How To Crop In Photoshop Express
Click the 'Switch foreground and background colors' button on the toolbox. Paint over the areas where you might have gone over the edges of the object that you want to cut out. Where the black foreground color created the red Quick Mask, the white foreground color erases it.
9.Click 'Edit in Standard Mode' once you have cleaned up the edges of your mask. This turns the area around your mask into a selection.
10.Click 'Select' from the Menu Bar and then click 'Inverse.'
11.Click 'Edit' from the Menu Bar and then click 'Copy.'
12.Click 'File' and then click 'New.' Select 'Clipboard' from the preset drop-down menu and then click 'OK.'
13.Click 'Edit' from the Menu Bar and then click 'Paste.' This places the object that you have cut out onto a new canvas. Double-click the 'Background Layer' on the Layers palette and then click 'OK.' Right-click the background layer and then click 'Delete.'
Tip
- Right-click anywhere inside the selected area and then click 'Refine Edge' to see how the object that you have cut out looks without the background. Drag the sliders below the 'Adjust Edge' area and check the real-time changes on the canvas until you are satisfied with the way the object looks. Click 'OK' once you have made the adjustments to your liking.
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About the Author
Virtually growing up in a computer repair shop, Naomi Bolton has held a passion for as long as she can remember. After earning a diploma through a four year course in graphic design from Cibap College, Bolton launched her own photography business. Her work has been featured on Blinklist, Gameramble and many others.
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The Magnetic Lasso tool in Photoshop is one of those tools regularly overlooked in the process of making a selection. However, that is a mistake because you can use it to do wonderful things once you understand how it works.
In very simple terms, this tool makes selections based on edges. This means you can get a pretty accurate – 80 to 90% accuracy – selection. This means the tool selects the edges of the object as you move the mouse by finding the changes in brightness and color values between the object and its background. As it finds those edges it lays down an outline to the edge and, like a magnet, snaps to it. Thus the tool’s name.
So how does it do it? Adobe would tell you it is good old “Adobe Magic”. That isn’t the case. There is a limit to the area where the tool finds the edges. What is that limit? No one is quite sure and Adobe isn’t telling. You have to use the tool’s “hot spot” which is the little piece of rope dangling from the bottom of the cursor’s icon. We are not huge fans of this, so we usually press the Caps Lock to change to a precision cursor which is a circle with a +-sign in the middle. That circle tells us anything in that circle is looked at and everything outside of it is ignored.
Where does one regularly use the Magnetic Lasso tool? If the selection you want to make has edges that strongly contrast with the pixels around it, do your sanity and productivity a favor and pick the Magnetic Lasso.
Using the Adobe Photoshop Magnetic Lasso Tool
There are a couple of ways of getting at the tool. The first is to select it from the Lasso Tool fly out. It is at the bottom. Alternatively, you can use the keyboard command – Shift-L – to cycle through the three tools.
Once you have selected the Magnetic Lasso, to Tool Options will change. They are:
- Feather: The value is the distance the vignette or blurred edge of the selection will extend from the edge of the selection. This is how one softens the edge of a selection. If you are new to this try and keep the value between 0 and 5.
- Width: This is the width of the circle when the Caps Lock key is pressed. You can make it larger or smaller by pressing the [ or ] keys. Keep in mind this is not a brush. All you are doing is enlarging the edge detection area.
- Contrast: The width of the circle determines where Photoshop finds edges. This setting determines how much of a difference there needs to be in the color and contrast values between the object and its background. If you look at the above image, you will notice there is not much contrast between the subject’s head and the background. In this case, we used a smaller circle and lower contrast value. To change the contrast value on the fly press the . (period) key to increase the contrast and the , (comma) key to decrease the contrast.
- Frequency: As you drag along the edges the Lasso will drop anchor points. This value determines the distance between them.
Once you have determined your options find an edge to drag along and make your selection.
Photoshop Straighten Tool
Correct Selections Made by the Adobe Photoshop Magnetics Lasso Tool
No selection is ever “dead on”. With the Magnetic Lasso, there are a few ways of correcting errors. They include:
- Add an Anchor Point: Click the mouse.
- Remove an Anchor Point: Press the Delete or Backspace key.
- Switch Between Lasso Tools: Press the Option/Alt key and click on the edge. If you continue to drag you will automatically switch. If you release the mouse after clicking on the edge, you will switch to the Polygon Lasso tool. Releasing the Option/Alt key after switching tools returns back to the Magnetic Lasso.
- Subtracting Areas: You have selected the edge of a doughnut but you need to remove the doughnut hole from the selection. You have a couple of choices around accomplishing this task. The first is to hold down the Option/Alt key and drag around the hole. This switches to the Subtract from Selection mode. You will know you are in this mode when a minus sign (-) appears in the cursor. The second method is to select the Mode in the Tool Options and then click the mouse around the edge of the area to be deleted. Be sure to close the selection.
- Adding to Selections: Switch to the Add to Selection mode by clicking it in the Options toolbar. Click around the edge to be added and be sure to close the selection.