Imaging Tip: Using Photoshop Guides for Cropping

IMAGING TIP: Using Photoshop Guides for Cropping
By Rich Seiling

Cropping is a creative decision. What you leave out of a photograph is as important as what you leave in. For me, the goal of a photograph is to communicate something that is deeply felt, and if cropping helps communicate the message more clearly, I could care less about printing full-frame or to a specific aspect-ratio.

The challenge is how to implement this in a scan-once, purpose-many workflow. I need a way to indicate my cropping decisions without actually removing any of the file--because at some later date, I might want to change my mind and use part of the photograph that is outside my original crop.

Like anything in Photoshop, there are many ways to achieve this. My way is to use the Guides feature of Photoshop. These are horizontal and vertical cyan colored lines that lay over the top of your photographs. They do not show up when you print a file....they only show up in Photoshop. I am using these guides to define the four corners of my cropping decision.

When I want to define a cropping decision on a Guide File or a Master File, the first step is to turn on the Rulers using the VIEW>RULERS menu. This will turn on a set of rulers at the top and left of your image. Rulers make it easy to create guides.

To make a guide, move your cursor over the ruler, then left click and hold. While holding the button down, move the cursor over the image. You’ll see a cyan line appear - this is the guide. Now move the guide wherever you want it and let go of the mouse button. Repeat these steps three more times until you’ve roughly defined a crop. Don’t worry about being perfect, as we will refine our decisions in the next step.

Now we need to understand some more properties of these guides.

1. They are not permanent, and that means we can reposition them at any time.

2. They are saved with the file, so they are there for us each time we open the file.

3. As I mentioned above, they do not show up when we print the photo...they only show up in Photoshop.

4. We can hide them from view by unchecking VIEW>EXTRAS. This is handy, because they can sometimes be distracting, and we only need them when we actually crop the image.

Now that we have four guides from performing the step above, we need to learn how to move them. This is done using the Move Tool that is located in the upper right corner of the tools palette. After selecting the Move Tool, if I move the cursor over a guide, I’ll see it change from a pointer with a little cross, to a set of two parallel lines with arrows coming out at a right angle to the lines. This tells me that the tool is able to move this guide. From there, I can left-click and hold, then reposition the guide however I'd like.

This is why I use this tool - it lets me mark my crop without actually changing the file itself, and it lets me come back at any time in the future to change it. That is the core of the scan-once, purpose-many approach.

When I make a Targeted File, I will use these guides to actually remove the part of the image that I don’t want to print (this is only done to the Targeted File...The Guide File or Master File is always left intact). To do this, I choose the Cropping Tool, then drag it out along the guides. By using the Snap-To feature (located under the View menu), we can quickly and accurately match our crop to the guides everytime we make a targeted file.

I find this approach gives me freedom to explore the many possible crops of each image, because I can change my mind, or refine my decision anytime I want, without losing any of the photograph. For me, exploring and refining my photographs is a huge part of enjoying this complicated and wonderful pursuit we call photography.