CS2 Crop Trouble - DPChallenge Forums

08/26/2008 09:45:11 AM · #1

I'm using Photoshop CS2 at work. Every time I try to crop a section of a photo at an angle, the resulting crop is square to the photo even though the crop area I had selected was turned at an angle - because it squares the selection, it crops a different part of the image from what I selected. I can't figure out why this is, since I know that at home, when I crop at angles it works fine.

Anyone know why this is happening?

Canon EF 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6 DO IS USM

08/26/2008 09:57:42 AM · #2

Some more info - if I rotate the photo to the angle I want and then crop it square to the photo edges, it works just fine. But it also takes longer to figure out the exact angle and rotate the photo to match.

Why can't I just draw an angled selection box and have it work?

cpanaioti

Canon EOS-40D

08/26/2008 10:07:18 AM · #3

Originally posted by OdysseyF22:

Isn't that expecting a rotation without rotating? Unless I'm missing something that doesn't make sense.

Message edited by author 2008-08-26 10:07:31.

Canon EF 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6 DO IS USM

08/26/2008 10:17:45 AM · #4

Originally posted by cpanaioti:

Originally posted by OdysseyF22:
Some more info - if I rotate the photo to the angle I want and then crop it square to the photo edges, it works just fine. But it also takes longer to figure out the exact angle and rotate the photo to match.

Why can't I just draw an angled selection box and have it work?

Isn't that expecting a rotation without rotating? Unless I'm missing something that doesn't make sense.

Perhaps I'm not explaining things clearly. The photo I'm working with is a portrait with a subject holding a ball. It's a straight on portrait, everything nice and level. I want to crop a section of it at an angle, so the subjects head and the ball are in the angled crop. I draw the crop selection box and drag the corners to rotate it around the center point until it's lined up over the area I want to crop. It SHOULD crop this area and rotate it so that the resulting image is level to the screen as usual.

Instead, it's leveling and then cropping, so the end crop isn't even the area I selected. However, if I manually rotate the photo and then do a level crop, it works - but this requires extra steps and I know it should work the other way.

Clear as mud?

cpanaioti

Canon EOS-40D

08/26/2008 10:25:36 AM · #5

Originally posted by OdysseyF22:

Originally posted by cpanaioti:

Originally posted by OdysseyF22:
Some more info - if I rotate the photo to the angle I want and then crop it square to the photo edges, it works just fine. But it also takes longer to figure out the exact angle and rotate the photo to match.

Why can't I just draw an angled selection box and have it work?

Isn't that expecting a rotation without rotating? Unless I'm missing something that doesn't make sense.

Perhaps I'm not explaining things clearly. The photo I'm working with is a portrait with a subject holding a ball. It's a straight on portrait, everything nice and level. I want to crop a section of it at an angle, so the subjects head and the ball are in the angled crop. I draw the crop selection box and drag the corners to rotate it around the center point until it's lined up over the area I want to crop. It SHOULD crop this area and rotate it so that the resulting image is level to the screen as usual.

Instead, it's leveling and then cropping, so the end crop isn't even the area I selected. However, if I manually rotate the photo and then do a level crop, it works - but this requires extra steps and I know it should work the other way.

Clear as mud?

Ok, so rotation is expected and that's how I would expect it to work. It's just creating it's own crop to at least cover the area you've outlined without rotating?

Canon EF 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6 DO IS USM

08/26/2008 10:29:50 AM · #6

Originally posted by cpanaioti:

Originally posted by OdysseyF22:

Originally posted by cpanaioti:

Originally posted by OdysseyF22:
Some more info - if I rotate the photo to the angle I want and then crop it square to the photo edges, it works just fine. But it also takes longer to figure out the exact angle and rotate the photo to match.

Why can't I just draw an angled selection box and have it work?

Isn't that expecting a rotation without rotating? Unless I'm missing something that doesn't make sense.

Perhaps I'm not explaining things clearly. The photo I'm working with is a portrait with a subject holding a ball. It's a straight on portrait, everything nice and level. I want to crop a section of it at an angle, so the subjects head and the ball are in the angled crop. I draw the crop selection box and drag the corners to rotate it around the center point until it's lined up over the area I want to crop. It SHOULD crop this area and rotate it so that the resulting image is level to the screen as usual.

Instead, it's leveling and then cropping, so the end crop isn't even the area I selected. However, if I manually rotate the photo and then do a level crop, it works - but this requires extra steps and I know it should work the other way.

Clear as mud?

Ok, so rotation is expected and that's how I would expect it to work. It's just creating it's own crop to at least cover the area you've outlined without rotating?

It's creating its own crop as if the rotation I outlined didn't exist. My crops are usually at a downward angle from left to right. The crop it makes ends up being parallel to the bottom of the photo across from the left bottom corner of the crop I indicated.

cpanaioti

Canon EOS-40D

08/26/2008 10:31:45 AM · #7

Originally posted by OdysseyF22:

Originally posted by cpanaioti:

Originally posted by OdysseyF22:

Originally posted by cpanaioti:

Originally posted by OdysseyF22:
Some more info - if I rotate the photo to the angle I want and then crop it square to the photo edges, it works just fine. But it also takes longer to figure out the exact angle and rotate the photo to match.

Why can't I just draw an angled selection box and have it work?

Isn't that expecting a rotation without rotating? Unless I'm missing something that doesn't make sense.

Perhaps I'm not explaining things clearly. The photo I'm working with is a portrait with a subject holding a ball. It's a straight on portrait, everything nice and level. I want to crop a section of it at an angle, so the subjects head and the ball are in the angled crop. I draw the crop selection box and drag the corners to rotate it around the center point until it's lined up over the area I want to crop. It SHOULD crop this area and rotate it so that the resulting image is level to the screen as usual.

Instead, it's leveling and then cropping, so the end crop isn't even the area I selected. However, if I manually rotate the photo and then do a level crop, it works - but this requires extra steps and I know it should work the other way.

Clear as mud?

Ok, so rotation is expected and that's how I would expect it to work. It's just creating it's own crop to at least cover the area you've outlined without rotating?

It's creating its own crop as if the rotation I outlined didn't exist. My crops are usually at a downward angle from left to right. The crop it makes ends up being parallel to the bottom of the photo across from the left bottom corner of the crop I indicated.

I'll have to try this when I get home tonight. I usually do my cropping in Lightroom and it works as you would expect there.

Bear_Music

Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra

Sony 24-70mm F4 Vario-Tessar T* FE OSS

08/26/2008 10:49:16 AM · #8

"Crop" is always defined by outlying points on 2 axes, the vertical and the horizontal, in CS3, and I assume CS2. There is nothing in CS to indicate that cropping to a rotated selection should rotate the image at some point in the process. It just isn't there.

Now, here's what you CAN do: you can draw your selection as usual, and instead of cropping you COPY it. Then open a new document and paste, then rotate to square it up (easy to do). This is assuming that the reason you are using selection-rotate in the first place is to visualize your rotated crop more accurately out of the original. Me, I'd just eyeball-rotate the image then draw a crop on it and be done with it.

But I've seen nothing, ever, in Photoshop that allows you to crop on anything but the x-y axes of the image.

R.

Sony 24-70mm F4 Vario-Tessar T* FE OSS

08/26/2008 11:24:22 AM · #9

Originally posted by Bear_Music:

Bear, if what you say is true, then why is there the option to rotate the crop selection in the first place? Shouldn't it allow you to select a diagonal area that crops back to a standard 180 degree-aligned image?

And thanks for the work around - it's what I've been doing in the meantime.

Problem is, I know that I've been able to do this before - rotated crops are one of the ways to fix a tilted horizon!

Bear_Music

Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra

08/26/2008 11:27:34 AM · #10

Originally posted by OdysseyF22:

I was working with the marquee select>crop function. This one behaves the way I have described. If you rotate the selection then crop, it crops to outlying x/y points. I actually was not aware you could rotate a crop tool selection; I've never done it. I'm not in PS right now but I'll have a look at it shortly.

R.

Bear_Music

Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra

Sony 24-70mm F4 Vario-Tessar T* FE OSS

08/26/2008 11:54:27 AM · #11

That's weird. Just tried draw crop>rotate crop>accept crop and it did what you say it should: it automatically rotated the cropped image. So I learn something new, which is good, but I have no clue why this is not working for you, except perhaps you are using the marquee tool by mistake? THAT one behaves the way you are describing... But you have to use the edit menu to finish the job, so I doubt that's it.

R.