Adobe Photoshop CS5 for Photographers - Martin Evening [165]
Figure 5.62 After you have dragged with the crop tool and before you commit to the crop, the tool Options bar will change (as shown here) to the crop modal state. The modal crop tool options allow you to change the color and opacity of the shield/shading of the outer crop areas. To apply a crop, you can click on the Apply Crop button in the Options bar, double-click inside the crop area or hit the or keys. Click on the Cancel Crop button or hit the key to cancel a crop.
1.
I selected the crop tool and dragged across the image to define the crop area. The cursor can then be placed over any of the eight handles in the bounding rectangle to readjust the crop.
2.
Dragging the cursor inside the crop area allows you to move the crop. You can also drag the crop bounding box center point to establish a new central axis of rotation.
3.
You can mouse down outside the crop area and drag to rotate the crop around the center point (which can even be positioned outside the crop area). You normally do this to realign an image that is at an angle.
4.
The shield color and shade opacity can be anything you like. In this example I increased the shade opacity to 100% to produce a completely opaque shield. You can also use to hide the bounding box completely and still be able to drag the corners or sides to adjust the crop.
Selection-based cropping
You can also make a crop that is based on an active selection by choosing Image Crop. Where the selection has an irregular shape, the crop will be made to the outer limits of the selection and the selection will be retained. A practical advantage of this method is that you might want to -click a layer to make a selection based on a single layer and then execute a crop (as described in Figure 5.64 below).
Figure 5.64 Sometimes it is quicker to make a crop from a selection rather than try to precisely position the crop tool. In the example shown here, if I wanted to make a crop of the box containing the letter D, the quickest solution would be to -click on the relevant layer in the Layers panel and choose Image Crop.
Fixed aspect ratio crops
One of the advantages of using the rectangular marquee tool to make a selection crop is that you can set a fixed aspect ratio for the crop in the marquee tool options (see Figure 5.63).
Figure 5.63 If you select the rectangular marquee tool you can use the Constrain Aspect Ratio option to make a proportional crop without altering the image resolution or dimension units. Enter the desired proportions in the Width and Height boxes, drag the marquee selection tool across the image to define the area to be cropped and then chose Image Crop.
Perspective cropping
The crop tool can also be used to crop and correct the converging verticals or horizontal lines in a picture with a single crop action. In the Figure 5.65 example I wanted to correct the converging verticals or ‘keystone’ effect seen in this photograph. By checking the Perspective box, I was able to accurately reposition the corner handles on the image to match the perspective of the building. I could then apply a crop to straighten the lines that should be vertical. To make a perspective crop adjustment even more precise you can hold down the key as you drag a corner handle – this restricts the movement to one plane only. I also find the perspective crop tool is useful when preparing photographs of flat copy artwork as this enables you to always get the copied artwork aligned perfectly.
Figure 5.65 The crop tool is great for correcting the perspective in a photograph. Once the crop is defined and the Delete mode (circled) is selected, you can then check the Perspective box in the Options bar and move the corner handles independently. You will probably find it easier if you zoom in to gauge the alignment of the crop edges against the converging