How to Crop a Photo

Learn how to best crop a photo in Photoshop, with self-portrait photographer Laura Zalenga

One of the simplest yet most underrated and effective ways to enhance your photos is by cropping them correctly. It may sound simple but knowing what to take out of your images is just as important as what you leave in.

Laura Zalenga is a photographer specializing in artistic self-portraits, with commercial clients that include Adobe, Disney, Sony, and Mercedes Benz. In this tip, she shares how to best crop a photo using Photoshop and basic photographic principles.

To crop your image, select the Crop tool and choose your ratios in the top right part of your workspace. Once your ratios are established, the image will adjust automatically at all sides as you move any edge or corner inwards.

In the middle of the upper part of your workspace, you will see a grid icon. Select this to reveal guide options based on geometric rules of perspective such as the Rule of Thirds, the Golden Ratio, and the Golden Spiral. These will make guidelines appear on your image, which you can then use to help you make adjustments.

If you liked this tip, you can learn more from Laura Zalenga about using self-portraits to explore your emotions on her course The Art of Self-Portraits: Expressing Yourself through Photography.

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- Directing People for Portrait Photography, a course by Emilia Brandão
- Introduction to Narrative Photography, a course by Dara Scully
- Fine Art Self-Portrait Photography, a course by Danny Bittencourt