How to crop a photo: crop in Photoshop on your computer and online | Lesson | Photo, video, optics

Need to level a littered horizon? Do you like square photos or elongated ones, as if the picture is a screenshot from the movie? Or maybe there is no time to retouch people, garbage, a light source in the background and is it easier to cut off everything superfluous? In any of these cases, cropping the photo will help you.

We’ll show you how to quickly crop your photos in Photoshop, and share the best sites to crop photos online.

How to crop a photo in Photoshop

To crop or — in professional slang — crop a photo, the program has a special tool — Frame / Crop. You can find it in the manual editing toolbar on the left or activate it with a hotkey C.

With the Crop tool, you can crop your photo and change the aspect ratio, adjust the frame to any aspect ratio, straighten the horizon, and even improve the composition.

What is the Crop Tool? Frame / Crop Tool

1. Proportions menu

Click on it to open a list of possible presets and functions for framing. The menu is divided into three blocks by horizontal lines.

First block:

— Ratio / Ratio. «Free» photo cropping. You can do any cropping. If you clamp Shiftwidth and length change proportionally.

— W x H x Resolution / W x H x Resolution. In the columns with the size and resolution of the image, the size and resolution of the photo appear. There you can enter any values ​​​​and the cropping frame will change. It is useful if you need to crop an image to a certain size. For example, remove the excess on the sides of the picture so that it fits correctly on the site.

Second block:

— Original proportions / Original Ratio. Returns the crop frame to its original state. Fires if you’ve made a frame but haven’t confirmed the crop command yet.

— List of framing presets.

Third block:

— Original Image / Front Image. Allows you to copy a crop from another photo.

— Presets for printing with a given ppi resolution (pixels per inch).

2. Lines that allow you to set the aspect ratio manually. In order not to build a frame, you can simply write the desired aspect ratio in the columns. For example, film cropping 2:3 or 3:4. Two arrows facing each other swap height and width. For example, 16:9 can easily be turned into 9:16. The key has the same functionality. X.

3. Clear framing settings.

4. Level. Levels the horizon with one touch. It is enough to click on it and draw a vertical or horizontal line so that it coincides with the vertical or horizontal line in the photo.

5. Framing grid settings.

In the first menu block, a group of grids corresponding to the rules of composition: the rule of thirds, the golden ratio, the triangle, the golden spiral or the Fibonacci spiral. By selecting one of the grids and cropping the photo, focusing on their guides, you can improve the composition of the frame, make it more harmonious and pleasing to the eye of the viewer.

— Grid demonstration modes:

one) Auto Show Overlay (shows the grid when you move, stretch, rotate it);

2) Always Show Grid / Always Show Overlay (default mode; always shows grid);

3) Never Show Grid / Never Show Overlay (turns off the composition grid, leaving only the crop box).

6. Options:

— Classic Mode / Classic Mode. If you turn it on, it is not the image that rotates, but the grid. This was in older versions of the program.

— Show Cropped Area.

— Auto centering / Auto Center Preview. If the function is disabled, the photo will move across the work area as it is cropped, which is inconvenient.

— Enable Crop Shield. Settings for displaying cropped parts of the picture. By default, what will be cropped is covered with a gray translucent solid. Here you can set the color and opacity of the plate.

7. Delete cropped pixels / Delete Cropped Pixels. One of the most important features. If enabled, pixels are permanently removed after cropping. This offloads the system a little — the program needs to “remember” less, but if you want to change the cropping, all that remains is to close the file and start over. Which is inconvenient if after cropping you have already spent time on retouching and color correction.

eight. Content-Aware Shading. If you are cropping to enlarge the image, enabling this feature will fill in the empty space with automatically generated patches.

How to copy a crop from another photo

1. Open the photo you want to crop and the reference with the desired crop.

2. Open the sample image.

3. Go to the tool Frame in Photoshop and from the Aspect Ratio dropdown select Original Image / Front Image. A frame will automatically appear on the image, repeating its cropping.

4. Without changing anything, stand on the photo you want to crop. The crop frame will automatically repeat.

Where and how to crop a photo online — 4 most convenient sites

If Photoshop is not installed, there is no time to wait for it to start, or you are working on someone else’s or a new computer, you can also crop photos online. We have collected the best sites where you can crop online without losing image quality.

1.iLoveIMG. Free cropping online, where you can not only upload your photo from a computer or laptop, but also take a picture from Google Drive or Dropbox file sharing.

2. Photoshop online. A site for free framing online, where you can also find detailed guides on how to use the functionality of their site.

3. Cut photo. An incredibly simple site with a minimum of functionality — there is only a frame and the ability to reset the settings to the original ones. Shows the actual size of the photo and the one that will be the output. There are step by step instructions for use.

4.Watermarkly. A minimalistic and user-friendly site to quickly crop photos online.

Available round and rectangular cropping, as well as 22 presets for different social networks and situations. Simultaneously with cropping, you can align the horizon. Registration is not required.