Crop Tool Presets

As I play more with my new camera (Canon 60D), my photo’s are getting better and I’m ready to print many of them. I love playing with photoshop, editing my photo’s and cropping them. Just about any crop works fine for on the web or on facebook, but when it comes to print sizes I need to maintain a standard crop. Photoshop makes this easy.

I’ve been taking the crop tool for granted until recently. Now I know what a powerful addition the crop tool really is. Over the next couple of weeks I’ll share some of the cool features the crop tool has, but first let’s start with the Crop Tool Presets.

I am using Adobe Photoshop CS5 (though I’m 99% positive this works in most versions of Elements as well); and a picture taken of Dane today. I did a quick edit on the photo using MCP Actions fantastic Summer Solstice set:

croppresets_original

While I love the wonderful textures and old-world culture the background brings, I think the barn door overwhelms poor Dane. Time for a crop!

I select the crop tool in my side menu tool bar:
Then I click the crop tool () again in the upper menu bar.
Click on the small arrow (circled “1” below); then, if necessary, click the additional side arrow (circled “2” below) for the crop tool preset manager.
Choose “Crop and Marquee”, click “append”, to get the listed preset crops added to your crop tool:

croppresets_step1

I choose the Crop 4 in X 6 in preset crop tool. Then drag over the photo until you are at the max for this preset (ie 4″ X 6″). Once the crop is in place on the photo, you can still move it around while maintaining the preset crop size. I also have the “Rule of Thirds” choice selected on my menu bar, this allows me to easily choose where to place my crop.

Once I’m done, I click the in the upper menu bar to commit to my crop:

croppresets_step02

Now I’m done with my photo, cropped the way I like it and sized perfectly for printing.

croppresets_final

NOTE: this photo is cropped 4X6, then reduced to web size

About the Author: Toiny

My name is Toiny (pronounced Twa-knee) and I am the Studio site owner and a Designer at heart. I especially love creating word arts and tools to help others create. I learned photoshop from my Father-in-Law while printing alien t-shirts for the tourists in Roswell, NM. Once I touched photoshop, I never let it go. It's a creative addiction! I currently live with four-out-of-six kids, my husband & two ornery cats in the Black Forest, Germany. Or as they say in German: Der Schwarzwald. I design under the name: Schwarzwald Design at the Studio.

4 Comments

Cindy 10 July 2013 at 3:37 am - Reply

Very helpful. Thanks!
Faith A 10 July 2013 at 1:18 pm - Reply

I’ve just discovered the crop tool, but didn’t know about the presets, thanks this will make things so easy.
Jill 13 July 2013 at 11:38 am - Reply

I always wished there was a preset like this … guess I should have looked harder. Thanks for teaching this old dog a great new trick!!!
Setting Custom Crop Presets in Photoshop | theStudio | Digital Scrapbooking Studio 24 July 2013 at 11:12 am - Reply

[…] is part II in my Photoshop Crop Tool series, following up Crop Tool Presets earlier this month. I’m using photoshop CS5 and one of my new favorite photo’s. I took […]

Crop Tool Presets