How To See Whole Image - After Cropping Without Deleting Cropped Pixels (PSE 2020)

[Chrisn N]

I can understand the benefit of cropping without deleting cropped pixels. The problem is if I wish to crop again there doesn't appear to be a way to see the whole image again. It's like I am cropping blind. I assume there must be a bug or I am missing a trick to reveal the whole image again. As a work around, I have no choice to save the uncropped PSD file in case I wish to crop again; this defeats the purpose of cropping without deleting cropped pixels. Is there a way I can fix this problem? Your advice would be appreciated.

Kind regards

Chris

Uncropped Image

First Crop (Without Deleting Cropped Pixels)

Second Crop

[Phil Pickering]

Sorry, but I don't think Adobe Photoshop Elements gives you the option to crop images without deleting pixels.

Also, if you open the image in the Elements Editor from the Elements Organizer, you will always have a copy of the original image if you wish to make an alternative crop from there. Or, if you have made other changes and are working from a previously saved image, use the Save As... option.

I like to keep my Organizer catalog neat and tidy, so always make sure the Save in Version Set with Original checkbox is selected.

[MichelBParis]

You are missing the fact that cropping non-destructively is exactly what you get when using the Camera raw plugin.

You know that you can open not only raw files in that plugin, but also jpegs, psd, tiff... formats?

Menu File >> Open in ACR.

Editing non destructively is not the only advantage, you can open  many files at the same time and apply the same edits to many opened files. You can define your own crop ratios.

Note that the changes in PSE2021 (ACR 13.0) have completely changed the way the crop tool works. My big issue is that the changes have been inherited from the full ACR version of Photoshop, which does use the GPU. In PSE, with a normal hardware (according to minimal system requirements), using the sliders is so slow as to be impossible. I hope an upgrade will use the GPU. With the same computer, the full Photoshop version (with GPU) works fine.

[Chrisn N]

Thank you Phil and Michel for your replies. I can confirm that the main edit workspace in PS Elements does have the option to delete or not delete cropped pixels. I usually like to crop after I have finished editing. 

The first crop works fine. The problem is if I wish to crop a second time I cannot see the whole image. So it's like cropping blind. There is either a bug or I am missing something.

First Crop

Second Crop

Kind regards

Chris

[Phil Pickering]

Hi Chris,

After checking the Elements Editor User Guide, and my 2020 & 2021 editions of Adobe Photoshop Elements Classroom in a Book, I can't find any reference to a Delete Cropped Pixels option (nor Content-Aware or Color Adaption options either).

Is it an experimental, beta feature you have enabled?

[Greg_S.]

Phil, I think it must be from an add-on like Elements XXL.

[Phil Pickering · Accepted solution]

Thanks Greg!

Thought I was going mad 🙂

It is indeed from ElementsXXL:

So Chris, it seems this is something you might want to take up with the ElementsXXL developers.

[Chrisn N]

Thank you all for your help. I thought that this was an Adobe feature, but it turns out it is from the Elements XXL plug in I am using. So as you say, I will have to take this up with the developers. In the meantime, there are several work arounds I can use. 

Thank you all again for your help. 

Kind regards

Chris