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M
Mark37430984r9lw
Inspiring
May 28, 2026
Question

How can I recreate a crop in Photoshop?

  • May 28, 2026
  • 2 replies
  • 27 views

I’m using the latest ACR/PS versions on a Windows 11 laptop.  I always save as high-quality (12) jpgs, but this is probably irrelevant to the question.

With XMP files, ACR snapshots, PS logging, and my own manual logging, it’s easy to recreate PS states from the original RAW, except for crops.  I’m well aware that I can save individual crops as PSD files and come back to them later, but there are issues with this - the biggest one is that I’m struggling with storage space as it is and don’t want to add to the problem.

It’s trivial to see the exact pixel dimensions of a crop, but I would need to recreate them with the subjects (99% of them are birds) framed with the exact placement.  So, is there some way to do this?  Could I manually write down some values while in the original session or maybe look at the original crop in a future session as part of a system to recreate it from the original RAW, from the state just prior to the crop, which sometimes is a previous, looser crop.

    2 replies

    L
    LAMY2017
    Legend
    May 28, 2026

    What I meant by

    “Don’t forget about the Delete Cropped Pixels checkbox that you would want to NOT use if you want to go back and change the crop.”

    was that Delete Cropped Pixels is unrecoverable, that you’d have to go back to the original file to redo the crop. I guess I don’t depend on history states or snapshots. To each their own. By the way, my practice is to not crop files, but to Save As various proportioned, cropped JPEGs. One raw file, one PSD, few to many JPEGs. My habit has developed over years on editing in LrC, then exporting JPGs for printing or distribution.

    Larry
    L
    LAMY2017
    Legend
    May 28, 2026

    Mark, there are two ways to go with the Crop tool -- Width x Height x Resolution or Ratio.

    Within Ratio, we have Original Ratio, 1:1, 4:5, 5:7, 2:3, 16:9, and presets with varying width, height and resolution. You could create a New Crop Preset….

    Can you standardize your cropping on a particular preset? But the curve you throw us is placing the object in same position in each composition. The crop tool allows you to position the object within the grid.

    Anyone, a few things to think about. Don’t forget about the Delete Cropped Pixels checkbox that you would want to NOT use if you want to go back and change the crop.

    One of the great things about Ps and this community is, just when you think you’ve come up with choices, someone betters you with one you never thought of.

    Larry
      M
      Mark37430984r9lwAuthor
      Inspiring
      May 28, 2026

      Well, I just may have made this more complicated.  Sometimes I use the crop tool, and when I do, I always use ratio.  I have it set to classic mode (moving the grid around the subject is more intuitive IMHO) and to delete cropped pixels.

      BUT, sometimes, I make crops from the M (marquee) tool, and other times, I finalize crop tool made crops with the M (marquee) tool, so my ratios are not always standard.

      I don’t understand this:

      “Don’t forget about the Delete Cropped Pixels checkbox that you would want to NOT use if you want to go back and change the crop.”

      In PS sessions, I change crops all of the time from history states with this checked - what is the issue?  Edit - I think I see what you have brought up, but I would never want to make a looser crop from a tighter one.  For that, (assuming there is a solution to this) I would always have at least one more saved looser crop, and could always just go back and make a new, tighter crop from the uncropped base which I would have already recreated from the previous session’s known tweaks.

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