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Depending on the camera and settings, you might capture real estate photos with sizes or aspect ratios that don’t meet the requirements of the Multiple Listing Services (MLS) sites. Knowing how to crop a layer in Photoshop helps you cut off the edges, changing the image’s aspect ratio.
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Cropping in Photoshop allows you to select a certain region in an image layer and eliminate everything outside the highlighted portion. Considering cropping cuts off some part of your image, you can use it to do away with a background that might distract the viewers, drawing their attention to the main subject.
Navigate to the top menu, click on Layers and then choose Duplicate Layer to avoid messing up with the original layer. Alternatively, if on Mac, press Command + J or Control + J if using a Windows PC. Once your layer is ready, crop the layer using one of the following tools.
Navigate to the main toolbar on the left side of your screen and pick the Pen tool, or hit the P key on your keyboard. Click on the photo to create a small square that indicates a point. Click another point on your image, and Photoshop will join the two with a line.
Continue clicking to create other anchor points connected by small lines, indicating a selection for the crop. If you want a curved selection, control-click, and drag as you adjust the anchor points.
Once satisfied with the anchor points, move your cursor from the last anchor point you formed to the initial anchor point until a small circle appears near your cursor, and then click. Usually, a line will appear, completing your path.
Navigate to Options, select Make and then click on the selection or right-click inside the path and select Make Selection to change the path to a selection. Adjust the Feather Radius option to zero and click OK. Usually, a line of marching ants will appear, indicating a selection.
Navigate to the layers panel, select the layer you wish to crop, and then use any of the following options to hide or remove the unwanted region.
Using a layer mask allows you to crop a layer and mask out the area you want to crop out, leaving you with an option of returning to the original size if necessary.
With the layer, you want to crop selected, click on the layer mask icon at the lower part of your Layers panel. This automatically hides everything outside your selection, leaving you with an appealing crop without losing your image data permanently.
The permanent deletion method makes your adjustment permanent, leaving you with no image data for corrections. To use this option, hit Command + Shift + I if on Mac or Control + Shift + I if using your Windows PC. This highlights everything outside your initial selection. Press the delete key on your keyboard to eliminate the current selection.
The Marquee tool is a basic selection tool in Photoshop that allows you to highlight your Photoshop layer in a wide range of shapes, such as a rectangle, ellipse, or square, for adjustments such as cropping or stroking.
With your duplicate layer selected, pick the Marquee tool from the main Toolbar on the left of your screen. Click anywhere on your photo to mark the starting point of your selection, and drag the mouse to make a selection.
To make a perfect circle or square selection, press and hold the Shift key on your keyboard while dragging. You can also press and hold the spacebar while dragging to reposition the whole selection. You can then use the above steps to hide or permanently delete the unwanted region to crop the layer.
The Photoshop Crop tool resizes the whole image and cannot be limited to individual layers. That means if you want to use it to crop an individual layer, you will need to convert the layer to a smart object.
Smart objects are like non-destructive layers in Photoshop as they allow you to make adjustments and undo the changes if necessary, as the changes history is stored within the Smart Object. You can use the following steps to make your layer a smart object and crop with the standard crop tool.
The Custom Shape tool in Photoshop allows you to add various shapes, such as flowers, music notes, or animals, to your image. Use the following steps to crop your layer using a clipping mask and custom shapes.
Click and hold the Rectangle tool or the recently-used tool in the tools panel and choose the Custom Shape tool from the fly-out menu. In the options bar, click on the down-facing arrow on the right-hand side of the Shape picker to reveal Photoshop's different shape options.
Click on the gear icon in the upper right corner to load all the shapes that Photoshop offers, and use the scroll bar to scroll through the thumbnails.
You can also download other shapes from the internet if you want to crop your real estate image to a specific shape. Double-click on the thumbnail of your desired shape to select it, and then close the Custom Shape Picker.
Click and drag the shape into your image, then reposition and resize it to satisfaction. Usually, Photoshop will automatically create a new shape layer to hold this shape. In the layers palette, rearrange the layers and ensure the layer you want to crop is above the custom shape layer.
Right-click outside the thumbnail of the layer you want to crop. In the fly-out menu pop-up, choose Create Clipping Mask to crop your image in the custom shape. Your layers thumbnail will now be indented and have a down-facing arrow indicating that the clipping mask is applied.
No, cropping a layer in Photoshop does not affect picture quality, as the crop tool only changes the file size, not pixel dimensions. However, the image might look pixelated if you try to expand it to be the same size as the original image, which will stretch the individual pixels.
Yes, you can use a crop tool to crop multiple layers of the same image as the adjustments you make apply to the entire canvas and to the same degree. Usually, this happens if you edit several layers of the same image and want to crop during the final touches.
Even with good framing skills, you might still capture unnecessary details when shooting real estate interior photos. Learning how to crop a layer in photoshop helps remove the irrelevant details, emphasizing the main subject. You can crop using tools such as marquee, custom shapes, crop tools, and pen tools.
