Just for Beginners, post your questions, ask for help, get opinions...
8 posts Page 1 of 1
Hello everyone. This is something that I have wondered about for a long time.

It's a question about the crop tool in CS3 [on an iMac] and also Elements 5 [on a Windows PC].

When I make a montage with several pictures, each picture being on it's own layer, if I find that I want to crop one picture but nothing else. I select the correct layer and crop the photo the way I want it. My thinking is that only that picture will be cropped and everything else will remain the same. However, what happens is that every layer is cropped and I lose everything except the cropped picture and the background [the background is cropped also]. All the layers are still there, but there's nothing on them.

Is there a way to crop the selected layer so that everything else stays like it was?

Thanks in advance - Russ
Hi Russ,

The short answer is no - a crop is a crop is a crop.

In CS3, you could try opening the image as Smart Objects, crop in ACR, then open the image and use the editing software to resize, move around, etc. If you need to re-do the crop, you click on the smart object thingy for that layer, go back into ACR, reset the crop and re-crop, etc. The smart object can be resized, etc without loss of image quality and detail.

There is a free tutorial here - http://www.radiantvista.com/tutorials/a ... rt-objects on how to do the ACR/open/edit/reACR/resize thing and should get you going.

For PSE5, not so sure, but at least one way would be to do it with Layer masks/clipping group ans use it to reveal the image you want to see.
John
Russ, as an alternative:

1. With the picture you want to crop on its own layer, select the area you want to keep using the rectangular marquee tool.
2. Invert the selection to select everything else except what you want to keep.
3. Click on the delete key. The part you want to keep will be retained and can be moved around with the Move (4-pointed arrow) tool.
Chuck
LR2/CS3/PSE6/Canon 450D, G10/Panasonic LX3
yep.. ya gonna have to do it Chuck's way. :wave:
~kimi~
Gone Crazy... Back Soon...


Gallery ~ a la kimi

My Blog

kimboustany.com
Thanks for the help.

I watched the smart video - it was very interesting.

I'll give Chuck's method a try.

Thanks again - Russ
Chuck - I gave it a try and it worked perfectly.

Thanks a million - Russ
Russ, glad it did what you wanted it to do!
Chuck
LR2/CS3/PSE6/Canon 450D, G10/Panasonic LX3
In Elements, Chucks method or Layer Masks (plugin) or grouping will do this.

In CS3, smart objects are the way to go and have the additional benefit of being re-editable and re-placable.

Bit of a learning curve, but I am toying with this and can see the light at the end of the tunnel. :doh:
John
8 posts Page 1 of 1

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 6 guests

cron