How To Crop Images In Photoshop CC – Complete Guide
In this tutorial, I show you how to crop images, how to straighten images, and how to crop an image non-destructively with Photoshop CC! We'll start with the basics and learn how to crop images using the Crop Tool. Then we'll learn how to straighten an image with the Crop Tool. And finally, we'll look at a great feature, first introduced in Photoshop CS6, that lets you crop an image without losing any of the original pixels. We've got a lot to cover, so let's get started!
How to crop images with the Crop Tool
We'll start with the basics. Here's the first image I'll be using. I downloaded this one from Adobe Stock:
Selecting the Crop Tool
To crop an image in Photoshop, we use the Crop Tool. I'll select it from the Toolbar. You can also select the Crop Tool from your keyboard by pressing the letter C:
As soon as you select the Crop Tool, Photoshop places a cropping border around the image. And if you've used the Crop Tool on a previous image, the border will be set to that previous size. So before we go any further, let's reset the Crop Tool to its default settings.
In the Options Bar, we see that I cropped my last image as an 8 x 10. We'll look at these options in more detail in moment:
And in the document, we see that the cropping border is set to that 8 x 10 aspect ratio:
How to reset the Crop Tool
To clear the previous settings and restore the Crop Tool to its defaults, right-click (Win) / Control-click (Mac) on the tool icon in the Options Bar:
And then choose Reset Tool from the menu:
This resets the Aspect Ratio to just Ratio and leaves the Width and Height boxes empty:
Related: How to reset your tools and Toolbar in Photoshop CC
The problem is that it doesn't reset the cropping border itself, which is still set to that previous 8 x 10 size:
To reset the border, press the Esc key on your keyboard. Then, if you can't see the border, select a different tool from the Toolbar (any tool will do), and then reselect the Crop Tool. The cropping border now surrounds the entire image:
Resizing the crop border
If you look around the border, you'll see little handles. There's one on the top, bottom, left and right, and one in each corner:
The easiest way to crop your image is to click and drag the handles to reshape the border into any size you need. The area inside the border is what you'll be keeping, and the area outside it will be cropped away:
Moving the image inside the crop border
You can also click and drag inside the border to reposition the image inside it:
How to cancel the crop
I'm going to cancel my crop so we can look at another way to work. To cancel it, click the Cancel button in the Options Bar:
Drawing your own crop border
Instead of using the initial crop border that Photoshop places around the image, you can also click anywhere inside the image and drag out your own border:
Then, drag the handles to resize it, or click and drag inside the border to reposition the image:
Resetting the crop
To reset your crop, rather than canceling out of it completely, click the Reset button in the Options Bar:
How to lock the aspect ratio of the crop border
By default, Photoshop lets us resize the crop border freely, without caring about the aspect ratio. But if you want to keep the original aspect ratio of your image, press and hold your Shift key as you drag any of the corner handles. This locks the aspect ratio in place:
I'll click the Reset button to reset my crop:
How to resize the crop border from its center
If you want to resize the border from its center, press and hold the Alt (Win) / Option (Mac) key as you drag the handles:
Again I'll click the Reset button to reset it:
How to lock the aspect ratio and resize from center
And to lock the aspect ratio and resize the border from its center, hold Shift+Alt (Win) / Shift+Option (Mac) as you drag the corner handles:
How to crop an image to a specific aspect ratio
What if there's a specific aspect ratio you need? Maybe you want to print the image so that it fits within a certain frame size, like 5 x 7 or 8 x 10. In that case, you can set the aspect ratio in the Options Bar.
Choosing a preset aspect ratio
For standard aspect ratios like 8 x 10, click the Aspect Ratio option:
And then choose from a list of presets, like 1:1 for a square, or 8:10, 4:6, and so on. I'll choose 8:10:
Photoshop enters the aspect ratio into the Width and Height boxes. It actually enters 4 x 5, which is the same as 8 x 10:
And as soon as I select it, my cropping border jumps to the 8 x 10 ratio:
Swapping the orientation
To swap the Width and Height values, click the swap icon (the arrows) between them:
This lets you easily switch between Portrait and Landscape mode:
Choosing a custom aspect ratio
If the aspect ratio you need isn't found in the presets, you can enter it manually. Let's say I want to crop my image as an 11 x 14, and I want it to be in Landscape mode so that the width is larger than the height. I would click inside the Width box and enter 14. Then I would press the Tab key on my keyboard to jump over to the Height, and I'd enter 11:
Photoshop instantly resizes the crop border to the 11 x 14 ratio:
I can then resize the border by dragging the handles. Since we've set the aspect ratio in the Options Bar, Photoshop will automatically lock the ratio as you drag, so there's no need to hold Shift. But you can still hold the Alt (Win) / Option (Mac) key to resize the border from its center:
How to save a custom crop preset
If you know that you'll need to use the same aspect ratio again, you can save it as a custom preset. Click the Aspect Ratio option in the Options Bar:
And in the menu, choose New Crop Preset:
Give the preset a name. I'll name mine "11 x 14 Landscape". Then click OK to close the dialog box:
The next time I need it, I can quickly select it from the list:
Clearing the aspect ratio
If you've entered a specific aspect ratio and want to go back to resizing the crop border freely, clear the aspect ratio by clicking the Clear button:
You can then drag the handles independently:
How to crop to a specific image size and resolution
So far, we've been cropping to a general aspect ratio, or a general shape. But you can also use the Crop Tool to crop your image to a specific size and resolution. To do that, open the Aspect Ratio menu:
And then choose W x H x Resolution (Width, Height and Resolution):
Let's say that, instead of cropping my image to an 11 x 14 aspect ratio, I want to crop it so that it will print at a specific size of 11 x 14 inches. Since I want the width to be larger than the height, I'll click inside the Width field and I'll enter 14. But instead of just entering the number, I'll also enter "ïn" (for "inches"). Then I'll press the Tab key on my keyboard to jump to the Height field, and I'll enter 11 in for the height:
The Resolution value
Notice that we now have a third box as well, and this is where we enter a Resolution value. Since the industry standard resolution for high quality printing is 300 pixels per inch, I'll enter 300 into the box, and I'll make sure that the measurement type is set to px/inch (pixels per inch):
With my settings entered, I'll resize the crop border:
Cropping the image
And then, to crop the image, I'll click the checkmark in the Options Bar. You can also crop it by pressing Enter (Win) / Return (Mac):
Photoshop crops the image. I'll press and hold my spacebar and I'll drag the image into view so we can see it:
Checking the image size
And if we check the size of the image by going up to the Image menu and choosing the Image Size command:
We see in the dialog box that Photoshop has cropped the image to 14 x 11 inches at a resolution of 300 pixels per inch. We'll be learning all about image resizing in separate tutorials. So for now, I'll click Cancel to close the dialog box:
How to undo the crop
To undo the crop, I'll go up to the Edit menu and I'll choose Undo Crop. Or I could press the keyboard shortcut, Ctrl+Z (Win) / Command+Z (Mac):
This returns the image to its original size. I'll press Ctrl+0 (Win) / Command+0 (Mac) on my keyboard to fit the image on the screen, and then I'll zoom out a little bit by holding the Ctrl (Win) / Command (Mac) key and pressing the minus key ( - ):
The crop overlay
Before we move on to learning how to straighten an image, let's look at one more handy feature of the Crop Tool, and that's the crop overlay. I'll click on my image with the Crop Tool to bring up the cropping border. And notice the 3 x 3 grid that appears inside the border. This grid is known as the Rule of Thirds:
The Rule of Thirds
The idea with the Rule of Thirds is that you can create a more interesting composition by placing your subject at, or near, one of the spots where the grid lines intersect:
Choosing a different overlay
While the Rule of Thirds overlay can be useful, it's not the only one that's available to us. To view the others, click the Overlay icon in the Options Bar:
Here, we can choose a different overlay, like Golden Ratio:
The Golden Ratio is similar to the Rule of Thirds, but the intersection points are closer to the center. You can cycle through the overlays from your keyboard by pressing the letter O:
Finally, another way to crop your image is to just double-click inside the crop border:
And that's the basics of how to crop an image with the Crop Tool!
Related: How to crop images in a circle!
How to straighten an image with the Crop Tool
Let's look at a different image so we can learn how to straighten a photo with the Crop Tool. Here's an image I shot myself, and notice that the horizon line is crooked:
To straighten the image, I'll select the Crop Tool from the Toolbar:
The Straighten Tool
And then, in the Options Bar, I'll select the Straighten Tool:
How to use the Straighten Tool
With the Straighten Tool, look for something in your image that should be straight, either vertically or horizontally. In my case, it's the horizon line. Click on one end, keep your mouse button held down, and drag over to the other end. Photoshop draws a path between the two points, and it uses this path to determine the angle that the image needs to be rotated:
Release your mouse button, and Photoshop rotates the image to straighten it. And because rotating the image added some transparent areas in the corners of the document (transparency is represented by a checkerboard pattern), Photoshop also resized the crop border to keep those transparent corners out of the image:
At this point, I can resize the crop border myself if I need to:
And then to accept the crop, I'll press Enter (Win) / Return (Mac):
And that's how to straighten an image with the Crop Tool. I cover more ways to straighten an image in a separate tutorial.
How to crop images non-destructively
And finally, let's switch over to a third image so we can look at a great feature in Photoshop that lets us crop our images non-destructively. I downloaded this image from Adobe Stock:
Again, I'll select the Crop Tool from the Toolbar:
In the Options Bar, I'll choose the 8 x 10 aspect ratio preset:
And then I'll resize my crop border by dragging the top handle downward. I'll hold Alt (Win) / Option (Mac) as I drag to resize the border from its center:
To crop the image, I'll press Enter (Win) / Return (Mac) on my keyboard:
Deleting the cropped pixels
So far, so good. But what if I decide at this point that I want to change the crop? Maybe I want to change its orientation from Portrait to Landscape. In that case, I'll go up to the Options Bar and I'll swap the aspect ratio by clicking the swap icon:
Photoshop again places the crop border around the image:
I don't want to be cropped in so close, so I'll drag the handles outward to bring back more of the background:
But notice that when I release my mouse button, instead of seeing more of the image, Photoshop just fills the surrounding area with white:
That's because Photoshop deleted all of those surrounding pixels when I made my original crop. It's filling those missing areas with white because it's using my current Background color, which by default is set to white:
The Delete Cropped Pixels option
And the reason that Photoshop deleted those pixels is because, if we look in the Options Bar, we see that the Delete Cropped Pixels option is turned on, which it is by default:
Canceling the crop and reverting the image
Let's look at a better way to work. I'll cancel the crop by clicking the Cancel button in the Options Bar:
And then I'll revert the image back to its original size by going up to the File menu and choosing Revert:
This restores all of those missing pixels:
I'll swap the aspect ratio back to Portrait mode:
And then I'll drag the handles to resize the border, just like I did before:
Turning "Delete Cropped Pixels" off
But this time, before I actually crop the image, I'll turn the Delete Cropped Pixels option off by deselecting it:
Then, I'll accept the crop by pressing Enter (Win) / Return (Mac). And so far, everything looks the same as it did before:
But watch what happens if I try to resize the crop. I'll swap the aspect ratio back to Landscape mode:
And as soon as do, we see something very different. The entire image reappears, as if it was never cropped at all. That's because when Delete Cropped Pixels is turned off, Photoshop just hides the cropped area instead of deleting it:
I'll press and hold Alt (Win) / Option (Mac) as I drag a corner handle outward to resize the border to include more of the image:
And then with Delete Cropped Pixels still turned off, I'll accept the crop by pressing Enter (Win) / Return (Mac):
Repositioning the image inside the crop
Another benefit of cropping the image non-destructively is that, since Photoshop is just hiding the cropped area, we can actually move the image around to reposition it even after we've cropped it. Select the Move Tool from the Toolbar:
And then click and drag on the image to move it around until you're happy with the composition:
Restoring the entire image
And finally, if you cropped your image with Delete Cropped Pixels turned off, you can restore the entire image at any time by going up to the Image menu and choosing Reveal All:
Again because Photoshop was only hiding the cropped area, the entire image is instantly restored:
And there we have it! That's how to crop images, how to straighten images, and how to crop your photos non-destructively, in Photoshop! If you're tired of rectangles and squares, learn how to crop images in a circle! Or visit our Photo Editing section for more tutorials!