Photoshop: how to properly crop an image?

All tutorials on photoshop aimed at beginners contain a section on clipping in the first paragraphs. This operation is one of the basic manipulations that the neophyte must learn to master in order to edit and retouch images.

According to the dictionary, clipping is ” the elimination on a phototype of the background surrounding a subject, by application of a special product“. More simply, cropping an image consists of selecting one of its elements and removing the rest. In this way, the clipped object can be reused and pasted on a another picture. Futura shows you step by step how to master this operation.

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Import an image

Once you have launched Photoshop, you must first choose the image on which you are going to work. Click on “File” in the menu bar, then on “Open”.

A window Explorer type opens. Go to the folder containing your image, click on it to select it and click “Open”.

Select the object to clip

The image to be cropped has now taken place in the central working area. You will now have to isolate the element you want to keep before removing the background. To do this, the first thing to do is to click on the quick selection tool in the toolbar.

Click on the element to be cropped (the dog in the example) and hold down the left mouse button. Then move the slider to magnify the selected area.

At the end of the operation, the selection should roughly follow the outline of the object to be clipped.

You can see on the image below that the clipping is not yet very precise (at the level of the legs for example).

Now you need to outline the outline more sharply. To retouch with more precision, you can use the “Zoom” tool. After selecting it in the bar on the left of the screen, you only have to click on the part of thepicture which needs to be enlarged. Several clicks may be needed to reach the desired size. To zoom out, hold down the “alt” key and click on the image (the zoom tool must still be active).

From now on, you have to remove unwanted areas from the selection. To achieve this, hover over the Quick Selection Tool again, hold down the “alt” key, and click on the small areas that are not part of the object. Similar to element selection, you can hold down the left mouse button to enlarge the area that should not be selected.

Remove background from image

When you have arrived at a satisfactory result, it is time to isolate and separate the clipped object from the image. To do this, right-click on the object, then on “Layer by copy”. The new layer appears on the right. Just below, you can now right-click on the background and choose “Delete Layer”.

The gray and white boxes materialize the absence of background, it is different from a white background. The final image should look like this.

Move the clipped object to a second image

Once the object has been clipped, you can save it for later use. To do this, click on “File” then “Save as” (choosing the appropriate format). But you also have the possibility of embedding it directly on another picture.

To do this, first import a new image (File > Open) which appears in a new tab. Return to the first tab. Then select the “Move” tool from the toolbar on the left. Now, all you have to do is drag and drop the clipped element to the other tab.

The interface automatically switches to the second image during drag and drop. You can place the clipped element wherever you want and then continue working on it afterwards.