The sexiest Photoshop Tool: The Crop Tool

by | Oct 16, 2015 | Beginner, Tutorial, Video Tutorial | 26 comments

Do you really know how to use the Crop Tool?

Crop Tool Features

The Crop Tool may not be the sexiest tool in Photoshop.  In reality it is quite boring!  It doesn’t do much but make your image smaller or in some cases larger right?

That’s not the case.  The Crop Tool will not make your images phenomenal with Color Grading and High Contrast Glory, but it could be the difference between an okay composition and a phenomenal one!

The Crop Tool has a lot of useful features in it that many people overlook.  Often times this happens subliminally by the way we read.  Hear me out.

We tend to read from left to right and we end up using our tools the same way.  In this tutorial we will breakdown the Crop Tool from left to right to ensure we don’t miss a thing!  We will cover some things you already know and we will look at some things you never knew were possible with a tool so simple.

Main Tutorial Highlights:

  1. The many ways to crop
  2. How to crop and maintain aspect ratio
  3. How to use the settings to personalize your cropping experience
  4. How to change the composition guides
  5. how to rotate composition guides
  6. How to straighten an image
  7. how to crop for a specific print size
  8. How to crop from the center of the crop tool

Hold on to your knickers, this is one wild ride and an epic adventure through the crop tool!  I am trying really hard to make this as exciting as possible 🙂  No really, I think there may be some very important aspects you are missing with the Crop Tool.  This is valuable information all joking aside.

 

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Blake Rudis
f.64 Academy and f.64 Elite are the brainchildren of Blake Rudis. While he is a landscape photographer, he is most passionate about post-processing images in Photoshop and mentoring others.

For Blake, it's all about the art and process synergy. He dives deep into complex topics and makes them easy to understand through his outside-the-box thinking so that you can use these tricks in your workflow today!
Blake Rudis on EmailBlake Rudis on FacebookBlake Rudis on InstagramBlake Rudis on PinterestBlake Rudis on TwitterBlake Rudis on Youtube

26 Comments

  1. brendan reilly on October 16, 2015 at 8:41 am

    thanks for sharing it was interesting

    Reply
  2. Al Gordon on October 16, 2015 at 11:44 am

    Thanks Blake!
    Nice tutorial, I now have more ways to utilize the crop tool…

    Reply
    • Blake Rudis on October 16, 2015 at 12:11 pm

      It’s a powerful tool! Composition ends here 🙂 have a great day.

      Reply
  3. Robert Keller on October 16, 2015 at 1:06 pm

    Great tut. As you pointed out, I was ignoring many aspects of the crop tool.

    Thanks for the enlightenment.

    Bob

    Reply
    • Blake Rudis on October 16, 2015 at 4:14 pm

      Thanks for the feedback!

      Reply
  4. TomS on October 16, 2015 at 1:44 pm

    Where’s the band aid on your finger?

    Reply
  5. Arthur on October 16, 2015 at 2:06 pm

    Thanks for a very interesting review of a boring subject
    I was surprised to read your comment in the preamble that ‘We tend to read from right to left’ I would have thought that was questionable.

    Reply
    • Blake Rudis on October 16, 2015 at 4:14 pm

      Oops I’ll fix that, thanks!

      Reply
  6. Robert Angel on October 16, 2015 at 3:46 pm

    Thanks for the tutorial, Blake. “The Crop Tool” can’t be the easiest subject to make both informative and entertaining. You’ve done both here. Appreciate the effort.
    Bob

    Reply
    • Blake Rudis on October 16, 2015 at 4:12 pm

      Thanks for the feedback, you are correct. The crop tool is far from sexy.

      Reply
  7. Robert Lanier on October 16, 2015 at 4:10 pm

    Wow. A whole new way of using the crop tool. I was wondering if once you crop you could copy to a layer in another image to make a collage.

    Reply
    • Blake Rudis on October 16, 2015 at 4:13 pm

      You sure could, you’d have to copy all and paste it on a larger canvas.

      Reply
  8. Julie Boyle on October 16, 2015 at 9:02 pm

    That was great Blake. I always go to the ‘image size’ to change the size of the image and this is so much easier. I find it hard to get my head around the ratio sizing but you made it cleared for me – thanks. Julie

    Reply
  9. Don Lenz on October 17, 2015 at 10:32 am

    Great tut on a subject that we all think we know yet I found out more in the 13 mins. than I would have gotten out of a book. Thanks

    Reply
    • Blake Rudis on October 18, 2015 at 1:18 am

      Sweet! Thanks for watching, Don!

      Reply
  10. Rosemary Hall on October 17, 2015 at 3:29 pm

    Good tutorial!. I know a lot of these crop overlays; your tutorial helps to use them better! Very useful! Thank you Blake . . .

    Reply
  11. Evan Christie on October 17, 2015 at 10:35 pm

    What a great in depth look at the Crop Tool Blake. This is actually one PS Tool I knew well but still picked up on a couple of points. However there is so much in PS that I’m still learning. You should do a series of these on other tools & other features in Photoshop. Thanks.

    Reply
    • Blake Rudis on October 18, 2015 at 1:19 am

      Will do! Thanks for the ideas. I think I will do a series of these tool tips every once in a while.

      Reply
  12. Terry S on October 17, 2015 at 11:15 pm

    Thanks Blake, these reminders help save time a make being creative enjoyable. Some comments on WxH Resolution might also be helpful.

    Reply
  13. Peggy Staley on October 19, 2015 at 8:42 pm

    Great tut Blake, but I do have a lingering question. Regarding the Golden Spiral, Golden Ratio, Diagonal and Triangle options in the crop tool, what would they be used for? Do you have an example that could be posted?

    Reply
    • Blake Rudis on October 19, 2015 at 9:18 pm

      Great question. They are used for creating different styles of compositions.

      Reply
  14. Dave Hobbs on October 23, 2015 at 11:48 am

    Blake
    Another great tutorial but I do have a related question…… Is it possible to change the crop guide lines – perhaps change the color and/or opacity etc? I find on some images that some of the overlay lines (i.e. for the golden spiral, diagonal) are very difficult to see and it would be helpful to adjust them. Thanks

    Reply
    • Blake Rudis on October 23, 2015 at 1:01 pm

      I don’t believe so, but I will look into this!

      Reply
  15. Rick in Spokane on October 25, 2015 at 9:02 pm

    Great tutorial. Like including “you” in the lesson.

    Reply
    • Blake Rudis on October 25, 2015 at 9:13 pm

      Thanks, Rick!

      Reply
  16. vince guzzo on December 9, 2015 at 4:03 pm

    I finally got to this tutorial .Very cool, I would have never thought the crop tool was sexy, But it is..
    What is the difference using the crop tool vs image size?

    Reply

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