Photoshop Elements 3 for Windows and Macintosh: Visual QuickStart Guide

Cropping an Image

The one thing that you’ll want to do with

nearly every image is crop it. In spite of all the

wonderful advances in film and digital cam-

eras, rarely is a picture taken with its subjects

perfectly composed or its horizon line set at

just the proper height. More often than not,

subjects are off-center, and unwanted objects

intrude into the edge of the picture frame.

Take a hint from professional photographers,

who almost always use cropping techniques to

arrive at that perfect composition. Photoshop

Elements offers two simple and quick meth-

ods for cropping your images.

To crop an image using the Crop tool:

1.

Select the Crop tool from the toolbox (C)

(Figure 6.1).

When you move the pointer over your

image, it becomes the Crop tool.

2.

In the image window, drag to define the

area of the image you want to keep

(Figure 6.2).

The image outside the selected area will

be dimmed to indicate the portions that

will be deleted.

3.

If you want to modify your selection,

move the pointer over one of the eight

handles on the edges of the selection;

then drag the handle to resize the selec-

tion (Figure 6.3).

Figure 6.3 You can easily move and resize the area

you choose to crop by dragging the handles around

the perimeter of the cropping selection.

Figure 6.2 When you crop using the Crop tool,

Photoshop Elements gives you visual feedback by

highlighting the image that will be preserved and

dimming the portions that will be deleted.

Figure 6.1 The Crop tool.

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Cropping an Image

Figure 6.5 The final, cropped image.

Figure 6.4 The Cancel

and Commit current crop

operation buttons are

located below the palette

well in the options bar.

4.

When you’re satisfied with your selection,

double-click the pointer inside the selec-

tion, press Enter/Return, or click the

Commit current crop operation button

in the options bar (Figure 6.4).

The image is cropped to the area you

selected (Figure 6.5).

If you’re just not satisfied with your selec-

tion and want to start over, click the

Cancel current crop operation button.

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Fixing and Retouching Photos

Cropping an Image

The Cropping Shield Display Options

In addition to the Cancel and Commit current crop operation buttons, three additional crop-

ping options appear once a selection has been made with the Crop tool, and all allow you to

control the display of the dimmed area, or shield, around your cropped selection (Figure 6.6).

Clicking the Shield check box toggles the dimmed area off and on. A single click in the Color

box opens the Color Picker, where you can change the color of the dimmed area. The default

color is black. Lastly, you can use the Opacity slider to change the strength of the dimmed area

from its default of 75 percent.

Figure 6.6 Once you make a cropping selection, the

Shield display options appear in the options bar.

To crop an image using the

Rectangular Marquee tool:

1.

Select the Rectangular Marquee tool

from the toolbox or press M (Figure 6.7).

2.

In the image window, drag to define the

area of the image you want to keep

(Figure 6.8).

3.

From the Image menu, choose Crop

(Figure 6.9).

The image is cropped to the area you

selected (Figure 6.10).

Figure 6.10 The final, cropped image.

Figure 6.8 Drag with the Rectangular Marquee tool to

define the part of the image you want to crop.

Figure 6.7 The Rectangular

Marquee tool.

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Figure 6.9 You can crop in one

simple action by choosing crop

from the Image menu.