Crop image within a photoshop canvas

[shambles]

I have a PS document I use as a 'template'. I place several images withing the canvas, but sometimes need to crop one or more of those images. Is there a way to do this within the document rather than cropping each image seperately, then placing each one back onto that canvas?

[JJMack]

Crop or resize the image for a  template image area and and mask to image area shape?  Scripts can automate the populations of templates. Free Photoshop Photo Collage and mockup Toolkit 

[shambles]

Thanks, but I'm not using a Photoshop tempalte. I'm just using a document I creaeted as a template so I can place different photos and save as an individual document. What I'm asking is, can I crop and image or photo within a Photoshop document?

[JJMack]

Crop crops all the layer in a a document.  You can delete pixels from a layer that would be like an image layer crop.  However.  doing  that while creating a template is not going to crop replacement replacement images.  You normally create templates to make thing easy to replace.   You would need to delete pixels in your replacement images like you did creating the template.

Normally when you replace an image in a template you scale the replacement image the fill the Image area in the template and the layer is masked or clipped to constrain the visibility be only be visible in the templates image area it is like the Image is being cropped by the layer mask or clipping layer. 

The scaling resize can be automated via Photoshop scripting and the masking would make it look like it was a centered aspect ratio crop. If you do not scale the replacement image for the templates  image area how would any animation know what crop you may want as your image corp. What you want you image's cropped composition to be.

Templates are easy to create but should be designed to facilitate easy replacements.  Creating a template where you need to chose an acceptable composition for each image replacement is not the kind a Template I would create

[jane-e]

"Thanks, but I'm not using a Photoshop tempalte."

It you add to "t" to the extension, i.e., "filename.psdt", the file will then be a template. The only difference is that when you open a template, you get an untitled document, so you can't accidentally overwrite a file. You might want to try it for this workflow.

Cropping is always for the entire file, and while you can delete pixels on any given layer, it's a best practice to use a layer mask to hide what you don't want for non-destructive editing.

~ Jane

[JJMack]

The PSD and the PSDT files are Both the templates. The only differences  is the PSDT templates opens as a new document with a new generated name it will do contain the PSDT files content but is a new document without a backing file on your disk.. Where the PSD template opens as the PSD document that is backed by the PSD template file. if you make changes and use "Save" the changes you have modified the template by overwriting the file you opened.  If  you open the PSDT Template file it will open as a new document and if you make changes to update the actual template you have to use "Save As" and save over the PSDT file you opened.  PSDT is the to safeguard your template fro unintentional changes. "Save" will not save a nes file.

[shambles]

Yes, yes, I know all of that. No one has addressed my particular question.

Thanks but never mind.

[JJMack]

As I wrote the crop tool will crop all layer in your document not just one image layer. The best way to handle a single image layer is to make it a Smart Object layer  then Scale the image for its use in the document composite image and mask the image for the crop composition you want the image to have.  These are none destructive process.  You can recover the original size and composition by removing the mask and scaling the image back to 100% size.  

For templates where I do not need  to rotate images or distort them into some perspective or warp the around an object I just use a Background layer and map image locations sizes and shape with alpha channels.  with name that indicate populating order in a stack over the background layer ie Image 1. Image 2, ... Image N.   Here is one with 5 images. The 5 images will be placed in as smart object layers, scaled to fill the image area and positioned over the images area and masked to shape,

[Conrad_C]

It sounds like you might try the Frame tool in Photoshop. With the Frame tool, you can draw rectangles that are placeholder frames that can contain and crop graphics that you drag and drop into the frames. You can then crop the images in Photoshop in two ways:

• Select the frame thumbnail icon in the Layers panel to be able to select the frame around the graphic and change its size and position relative to the image.
• Select the image thumbnail icon in the Layers panel to be able to select the image inside the frame and change its size and position relative to the frame.

Because frames work as placeholder containers, frames are great for making Photoshop templates.

If you’ve ever used Adobe InDesign, it’s the same idea as the graphics frames in InDesign.

[shambles]

Thanks for your reply, Conrad. I have extensive experience with InDesign, and have used that tool often in page layouts for print. Unless there's a feature I'm unaware of,  the frame tool just resizes the image with proportions restrained or not restrained, and positions it within the frame, fits the image to the frame, or the frame to the image. That's not what I was wanting to do in Photoshop. I often need to crop an image either just horizontally or just vertically. I've been opening the individual images, cropping them, then placing them into the Photoshop document. It works, but I didn't know if there was a shortcut to do this for each image within one document. 

I've been using Photoshop for decades and I'm still learning. Is there really any such thing as a "Photoshop Expert"? 😉  I'm retired now, so I'm under no pressure to find solutions.

Thanks again,

John

[Conrad_C]

Shambles wrote:

I often need to crop an image either just horizontally or just vertically.

Do you mean like what is shown below? A Photoshop frame does allow non-proportional resizing. I dragged the side handles, but the corner handles also weren’t constrained; if they were, the Shift key should toggle that on and off.

As for whether anyone is a Photoshop “expert,” Photoshop is such a wide and deep application that in all but a very few cases, people who say they “know” Photoshop are usually experts in the parts they use a lot, but they do not know the many sides of Photoshop that they never touch. A lot of photographic Photoshop experts don’t know the scientific image analysis tools in Photoshop, a lot of web Photoshop experts know little about how to use Photoshop correctly for print, and a lot of experts at using Photoshop for pro-level printing on a million-dollar press know nothing about how to prep an image for professional video production (like how to use Pixel Aspect Ratio).

That’s why we all talk to each other here, we help each other cover each of our own blind spots.

[shambles]

Thanks for your input, JJ. I wasn't aware that I could do that within a Photoshop document using the frame tool. I'll definetly give it a try.

Photoshop (and all the Adobe apps for that matter) have become so complicated, I don't know if anyone can be an expert in any of them. You're correct that some are experts in some areas of the app that they use. I suppsoe I might fall into that catagory. It seems like, with each upgrade, they add a few 'features' but mostly just rearannge the menus to keep us at Adobe's mercy. I miss Macromedia! I made a good living using Freehand.

[JJMack]

The frame tool is very odd. It creates a Layer  in the layers pallets that is actually a layer group the Frame Mask and a smart object layer that contains the image content as a smart object.  The layer set frames has a layer name that is different then the smart object layer's name.  IMO there was no need for this tool or messing  with the structure of the layers  palette.  I removed the Frame Tool from my tool bar and disable its shortcut. Frame the tool has issues for uses place and place can do some strange scaling of  the image file because of its print resolution place may scale the image very small for the Frame layer.  The frame tool will not scale the image back up in size to fill the frame should place scale the image smaller than the frame's  image area in the document.  The smart object contains the actual larger image but the frame tool does use it.  Its just accepts  the scaling place did to the image. All features in Photoshop are not implemented well  the frame tool has its issues.  You can use transform the fix the issue manually.