Content

• Steps
• Method 1 of 3: Cropping a photo
• Method 2 of 3: Make cropping an art
• Method 3 of 3: Crop Photos Online with PictureCropper.com

Cropping a photo is a feature that can dramatically improve your shot or ruin it entirely. There are some simple cropping techniques to make your subject stand out or remove unwanted elements from your photo and avoid disaster. Here are a few things to keep in mind when cropping your photos.

Steps

Method 1 of 3: Cropping a photo

1. 1 Find a program that lets you crop your photo. You can't just crop a photo online. In order to successfully crop an image, you need to save the photo to your hard drive, open it with a photo editor or word processing program, and work with it in that program. Below are the programs you can use to crop an image:
   • Preview
   • Adobe photoshop
   • Adobe illustrator
   • Microsoft Word
   • A lot others
2. 2 Crop using keyboard shortcuts. You can crop the photo using the long way (find the crop tool in the menu), or by pressing a few keys on your keyboard. Note: the keyboard shortcuts are different for all programs. There is no single command for cropping.
   • Keyboard shortcut for Preview: "command + k"
   • Shortcut for Adobe Photoshop: "C"
3. 3 Keyboard shortcut for Adobe Illustrator: "Alt + c + o"
4. 4 Frame the long way. This is not the most ideal way to crop a photo, but it will help you achieve the desired result. If the keyboard shortcut does not work in the program you are using, try cropping with the following methods:
   • Preview: Place the arrow and select the part of the photo you want to crop, then go to Tools → Crop.
   • Adobe Photoshop: Select the crop tool, select the part of the photo you want to crop, and press Enter / Return on your keyboard or choose Commit.
   • Adobe Illustrator: Select the part of the image you want to crop, then go to Object → Clipping Mask → Make.
   • Microsoft Word: Select the photo you want to crop, select the Crop Tool from the Picture Toolbar and select the area you want to crop.

Method 2 of 3: Make cropping an art

1. 1 Try to crop your photos as much as possible when composing your shot. If you are photographing a friend, take the picture of the friend, not the friend at the end of the hallway. Then you don't have to crop most of the photo when you return from the photo shoot and edit it after upload.
2. 2 Remember the rule of thirds when shooting. This is not quite the same as the "golden mean", which is more applicable to painting than photography.
   • Basically, the rule of thirds is: "Mentally divide the viewfinder or LCD screen into three, using two vertical and two horizontal lines to create nine smaller rectangles and four intersection points."
   • Try composing your shot so that the center of your subject is directly on or near one of the four intersection points of the lines. Our eyes naturally tend to these four points, not the center of the photo.
     
     
3. 3 Save the original image so you can crop it in several ways. Always work with a copy of the image, which will allow you to return to the original photo at any time and additionally edit it if you get inspired.
4. 4 Get rid of excess space. Let's go back to our friend in the hallway: the hallway is a large extra space. Frame the photo so that the person takes up most of the frame, leaving some background for context.
5. 5 Know when not to crop. Some photographs should be left in their original form to maintain context.
6. 6 Think about what you are going to use the photo for. Whether you want to print it or use it on the Internet. A photo must have more pixels in order to print it, while a photo that is posted on the web, as a rule, must contain fewer pixels.
7. 7 Always ask yourself the question: "What is this photo about?" Crop the image appropriately. As with writing a book, it is helpful to remove unnecessary details. Crop so that what remains accurately reflects the subject of the photo.

Method 3 of 3: Crop Photos Online with PictureCropper.com

When cropping software is not available, it is easy to crop photos using the online tool.

1. 1Go in your browser to Picture cropper.
2. 2Click "Select Image" and select a photo from your local drive.
3. 3 Wait for the download process to complete. For large files, this may take a while.
4. 4Select a specific area in the photo.
5. 5Use the "Crop & Download" button to download the result.