Black borders on cropped images?

[Michael31415902v4ji]

Hey all. I am trying to crop an image that has black borders (screen cap of a video game that is not wisecreen). However, when I crop, it adds the borders back. I assume it is retaining the initial width of the image instead of changing to reflect the crop, which strikes me as weird. How can I get my desired crop? Object seletcion tool is drunk or high so that is not an option. I am just starting with photoshop and find that while some actions are simple, they are not always obvious. I appreciate any help.

[Ged_Traynor]

@Michael31415902v4ji can you post a screenshot of the Photoshop interface with the pertinent panels and options showing to highlight the issue

[Michael31415902v4ji]

Here are photos of the image and the process and results. I use the crop tool and perform the crop. The select tool still highlights around the cropped area, and when it is copied to another project the black border reappears to fill in the empty space.

[Michael31415902v4ji]

In addition, if I attempt a crop on a canvas with other items, everything else disappears and the canvas displays only the image.

[pixxxelschubser]

Please show your Layers panel.

Could it be that there is a smart object (or more likely a frame) of this size in your file?

[Michael31415902v4ji]

Here is a picture with the layer frame visible. Also a shot of how the backround is affected post crop. When I do select crop from the left toolbar it initially boxes in the entire canvas. I would then box in the area I want to crop. Is it cropping the background layer and so doing nothing to the layer I want the crop performed on? The directions for cropping don't mention that as a possibility.

[pixxxelschubser · Accepted solution]

As I assumed. This is a smart object. This type of "file in the file" cannot be cropped. Convert your smart object to a layer and try again.

[Michael31415902v4ji]

That worked, thank you.

[pixxxelschubser]

Glad we could help

😉