Cropping with Free Transform and Canvas Size in Photoshop
 

I wan tto crop an image, but after I crop it, I want to make it a 400 x 400 image. Can you say crop 400 x 400 and then able to adjust where it crops on the image?

In this video tutorial, I'm actually going to show you TWO techniques:

1. Canvas resizing
2. Free transform

In order to understand these techniques, you'll want to read the notes as you watch the video. Taken alone, the notes or video will be confusing. Viewed/read together, it will make sense. Yes, I move fast, feel free to pause, rewind (by dragging the marker further back on the timeline under the video), or outright replay several times.

VIDEO:



NOTES:

• Free transform cannot be performed on a background layer, so after I open the image, one of the first things I'll do is duplicate the background to a new layer.
• After the canvas of the image is cropped, understand that all you've really cropped is the viewing area of the image. (It will stay this way, too, for as long as the image remains a PSD. Converting to another flat format, such as JPEG, will crop the image too, not just the viewable canvas.) Notice how I have zoomed out quite a bit, so that I may see the outlines of the actual image, when I am "free transforming" it. If you are too close, you cannot see the image edges, and therefore will be unable to resize it.
• The FREE TRANSFORM tool can be dragged from a corner or side, and it is easy to destroy the aspect ratio -- sometimes known as "squishing" or stretching the image either horizontally or vertically -- and this is quite bad if not intentional. To avoid altering the aspect, hold the SHIFT KEY on the keyboard before dragging the box from the corner (not the side), as SHIFT locks the aspect. This is true in almost any software, Mac or Windows, that allows for GUI-based image adjustments.