How to Crop A Single Layer in Photoshop

[@PhotoshopEssentialsChannel]

Hi everyone, Steve here. One of the questions I get asked all the time is "How do you crop a single layer in Photoshop?" The Crop Tool won't work because it crops everything at once. So in this video, I show you two ways to do it. The first way is the easiest way to crop a layer, but the easy way is not always best. So I also show you a better way that's both flexible (you can go back and edit the crop) and non-destructive. As always, I hope this video is helpful!

[@Mikemenn]

Nice. Thanks. May I suggest a followup or addendum: all of the ways to do non-destructive editing? In addition to masks: make a copy, smart objects, etc.?

[@PhotoshopEssentialsChannel]

@@Mikemenn I'm already on it. :)

[@Mikemenn]

@@PhotoshopEssentialsChannel Awesome sauce.

[@AMGameGoesOn]

So complicated to crop a single layer omg. Why cant they just add an option to do it easily.

[@desomusicinc]

Exactly 🤦🏾‍♂️

[@chrisjmedia]

why the hell is this so complicated adobe?? Why??? that is so damn stupid. how often you crop the whole comp in comparison to a single layer huh?? yes! not that many times!... damn i hate this company so much Thank you for this very well made tutorial dude.

[@russbuss98]

typical adobe making it 10x harder than you need to instead of just having a crop layers feature

[@garyl6561]

I can't believe such simple feature requires all these steps

[@راهنمايبرتربورس]

finally someone is teaching at the right speed. some videos are too slow and boring, and some others do the so fast that you have to watch 4-5 times to find out what they said and that is even worse in time wasting concept. but you teach at the sweet spot of speed. keep going with this style:)

[@larsus1436]

This is, in my opinion, the main problem here with Photoshop. For us inexperienced users, the logical thing to do is to use the Crop tool. What we don't know is that what this tool actually does is crop the entire canvas, and applies the end-result crop of the canvas to all the layers. You even exemplified the use of this tool and how it's not what we need to use because even you knew that's the main mistake all of us will make the first time. As others have stated, Photoshop could really use a more straight-forward way of doing this. A crop tool like the already present Crop tool, but only for a single layer, would be great. A limitation of these methods you've displayed that I find quite annoying is when I try to resize a cropped layer with the Free Transform tool (Ctrl + T). The margins and beziers appear on the ORIGINAL limits of the layer instead of the resulting image, making the resizing process really tricky and inaccurate, forcing me to eyeball the transformation by trial-and-error. Great video, thank you for your help^^

[@CinematicTactics]

come on Photoshop, it shouldn't have to be this complicated, thanks man this is exactly what I needed

[@ironsymbiote2564]

Its annoyed me that I needed to google this to so something so simple. It should automatically choose to crop a layer you have selected. If I wanted to crop the whole thing then I should need to select everything to crop everything

[@Liammoz]

100 percent agree bro

[@SpedRockt]

Photoshop has always been a great and powerful tool but sometimes, over complicate simple task for no reason. This makes alot of people stay away, don't want to learn this incredible software.

[@deepakbhatdduke97]

Now that was only video i could find that explained everything properly. ive watched like 6 videos before i got here.

[@onii-chain]

well they updated it and all this shit is different why the hell is it so difficult to crop now

[@lukejbonner]

Thanks! They should've just made a "Crop Layer" option. Seems super obvious.

[@ireoluwaafowowe171]

Man your voice is therapy. Thanks for the tutorial too!

[@ArcticNorthAdventures]

Thanks for this tutorial cant understand why adobe makes it so difficult

[@alexb6040]

It's funny how difficult it is to simply crop a photo in photoshop.

[@Drawmeafatcat]

THAT'S WHAT IM SAYING! WTF ADOBE

[@Egobyte83]

Why isn't there just a "crop layer" function???

[@PhotoshopEssentialsChannel]

Maybe a toggle for the Crop Tool to switch between "crop image" and "crop layer"? Seems like it should be simple, and yet it never happens.

[@pragmaticcreator]

Thanks Steve. The second method is the best way by working non-destructively.

[@abu4u87]

This is helpful, straight forward. Thank you!

[@HernandezMFotografia]

As usual, a very clear and insightful video. Thanks for the great content!

[@PhotoshopEssentialsChannel]

I'm glad it's helpful. Thank you for watching!

[@cfr1205]

Thanks, Steve! Another well explained, and easy to understand tutorial.

[@PhotoshopEssentialsChannel]

Thanks Frank!

[@thegoodnewdays1191]

You can't use the crop tool to simply crop one photo in photoshop? Why does Adobe give me so me reasons to leave them alone?!

[@DrSarahS]

Thanks a million! I was just trying to figure this out.

[@PhotoshopEssentialsChannel]

Perfect timing! :) Glad it was helpful.

[@SoulOfTech]

That is a lot of work just to crop a single layer, PS really isnt the most user friendly tool is it. Thank you so much for this useful tutorial!

[@siamakpoursabahian539]

Excellent and thorough guide.

[@PhotoshopEssentialsChannel]

Great to hear it was helpful. Thanks for watching!

[@RapTatsumi]

Thanks, its really help me... i've been looking for this 😷

[@photoman52beta]

First method isn’t helpful, but the second method is perfection. Thanks.

[@PhotoshopEssentialsChannel]

There is also a third method, using clipping masks, but I decided not to include it since it really doesn't offer any benefit over cropping with a layer mask.

[@Biznes828]

Thank you very much. What a great tutorial. Exactly what I was looking for :)

[@Tesseradical17]

The fact that people have to look this up at all...

[@arronax3319]

"Smart object is not directly editable" This program is the worst garbage on the planet

[@JoffneyT]

ik man, i have the same problem, don't know why it won't work

[@arronax3319]

@@JoffneyT I ended up finding out about Select, then mask or something, you can cut the picture however and then the portion you cut and back ground is put in seperate layers you can delete

[@Normal_difficulty69]

@@arronax3319 im trying to cut a simple image and its been half an hour ima go back to ibis paint this app sucks ass fr

[@spencerhealey]

Wow, there were a lot of tips here! Thanks!

[@SelvamME]

Simply and very effective. Thanks🙏🙏🙏

[@PhotoshopEssentialsChannel]

Thank you for watching!

[@AddictedToHappy]

"Could not complete your request because the smart object is not directly editable" oh great, back to Google -_- This should have been a 2 second process haha

[@PhotoshopEssentialsChannel]

The first way I show in the video won't work with a smart object because you can't delete part of a smart object. But the second way, using a layer mask, will work.

[@AddictedToHappy]

@@PhotoshopEssentialsChannel amazing, thank you! 😀

[@muhammadrizky3302]

this is soooooo helpsfullllll! love ur content

[@Hazzer77]

My problem is, I want to permanently delete everything outside of the canvas (to save file space). However, when inverting the selection area, it only selects in the canvas.

[@learningme3135]

Excellent ur way of speaking and explaining is awesome.

[@PhotoshopEssentialsChannel]

Thanks!

[@pepperjanehq]

THIS IS FANTASTIC, THANK YOU

[@BeezNee1]

This really helps me with photoshop. Tqsm

[@Psycheart]

FAST AND EFFECTIVE THANK YOU

[@DeltadronesBr]

Awesome! Thanks a lot!

[@PhotoshopEssentialsChannel]

You're very welcome. I hope it's helpful.

[@lukejbonner]

That was really helpful. Thank you!

[@PhotoshopEssentialsChannel]

Great to hear it! Thank you for watching!

[@mamanomepegues87]

Thanks for the tutorial! . The only thing that bothers me is that when the mask and the image are linked and you want to resize the cropped image Photoshop shows you the handles around the original image and not the mask making dificult to align it when you are working with multiple object. Same happens if instead a layer mask you use a clipping mask...is there any work around for this?

[@bommaritohawaii]

Very good! Helpful, thank you

[@PhotoshopEssentialsChannel]

Great to hear it. Thank you for watching!

[@iyobyagob7583]

excellent 👌 thank you 😊

[@xdcuff]

Photoshop is great, i do all this then says cannot complete because is not directly editable

[@judeleon8485]

Well explained. Thanks

[@Casablancapc1]

thank you 🙏👁💛

[@black-and-light]

Great! Thank you

[@PhotoshopEssentialsChannel]

You're very welcome. Thank you for watching!

[@kornelijabud]

Thank you very much!

[@kikohandumon2438]

❤❤❤Nice and clear Thank you Bro❤❤❤

[@shima.86.m]

omg, thank youu! u saved me

[@ConquestOfJustice]

Further proof that Adobe is incompetent.

[@zanclot]

Im trying to crop an image to height width 1:1 in order to upload them into a game,but all the images I’m downloading are probably too big and when I try to crop it say if it’s a word like BWIN cropped I only get WI and leaves the other two letters outside.I hope someone understands my situation and gives me an answer.

[@amantech5t]

Thank you🙏🙏🙏

[@perrysantos]

thank you!

[@macknchease3785]

thanks my guy

[@duviday]

err transforming the marquee selection transforms the underlying image...thats what 'selection' means. Doesn't work. How are you getting just the 'outline' ???????

[@PhotoshopEssentialsChannel]

Transform Selection adjusts the selection outline itself, not the pixels inside the selection.

[@Moe-Talks]

Thank you.

[@MDVSK-jl6uq]

Ty❤

[@foddymemer]

Why i cant crop any singke layer

[@ItsJai121]

Thanks

[@TheJomadi]

💗👍👍

[@iyobyagob7583]

but you didn't answer me my question that I asked you last time

[@PhotoshopEssentialsChannel]

Sorry about that, what was your question again?

[@iyobyagob7583]

My question is,(1) How to create a portrait design inside a Letter and also (2)how to create a powerful text portrait from a photo and (3) how to combine double Exposure and Selective color design in Photoshop, sorry I know it's too much questions,

[@PhotoshopEssentialsChannel]

Thanks! Those are on my list.

[@iyobyagob7583]

And even downloading Photoshop version 22

[@PhotoshopEssentialsChannel]

@@iyobyagob7583 You can get the latest version (Photoshop 2023) from Adobe using my link in the description.

[@DirectingTheMovie]

Thank you so much!!

[@PhotoshopEssentialsChannel]

I hope it was helpful. Thanks for watching!

[@zapzed8079]

Thanks