Cropping into an unusual shape

Cropping to produce a rectangle is a snap. What if you want a crop in the shape of a rounded rectangle or a star? This could be tricky.

Whenever I am doing a tricky crop I like to make a copy of the image so I am not working on the original. Drag your original photo onto the new layer icon so you have a copy of the image.

Next select the rounded rectangle tool from the shape tool palette.

I set a radius of 20 for the rounded rectangle edge of and instead of creating a traditional filled rectangular shape, I select the path tool icon located along the left side of the option bar.

Now I draw a rounded rectangle over the area of my image I think I want to use. A path is displayed. I can use the path selection tool to move the path to whatever area of the screen I choose.

Now I can perform the crop. I access the Layer menu > Add Layer Clipping Path > Current Path. The area outside of the path is hidden, to produce the result shown below. Note I have 2 layers which display the image. The upper layer has a clipping path which removes the outer area, the lower layer is turned off.

I can now add another layer below my cropped photo and place solid white to simulate my Web page. This is the look the rounded rectangle crop achieves.

Now lets discuss how we could achieve that look with a softer, feathered selection. Again I use the rounded rectangle tool and use the path tool found in the option bar. After creating the path and positioning it just where I want it I access the path palette. This is usually displayed as a tab behind the layer window. If you can't find the path palette just select Window > Show Path.

At the bottom of the path window is an icon for turning the path into a selection (third from left) select that icon.

You will know you have been successful because the path has been replaced by marching ants.

I now switch back to the layer window and access the Select menu > feather selection > enter a value of 5. The selection is softened. I select Inverse and then delete the outer area. This is the result of a feathered rounded rectangle selection.

I also created this effect with a star as shown below.