PS crop tool confined in one layer?

[johnkiv]

Is there a way to confine the crop tool to only the layer you are working on?  I would especially like to maintain cropped pixels available now with CS6.  I am working on a display print where I am placing multiple jpg files on one canvas as layers.  I resize the placed files using Edit, Transform, which is fine if I am staying with the original proportion.  It becomes awkward if I need to crop a file. I have managed some workarounds cropping in a new canvas, but looking for a better method.  I have tried Indsign and find it clunky compared to photoshop, and I have not spent enough time with it to work fast.

Thanks for your help, John

[Mark D Segal]

When you select the crop tool, look at the tool options, where you will find a box that says "Delete cropped pixels". Leave it unchecked. When you commit the crop, the image will be converted to one with two layers and the cropped pixels will be retained.

[digitaldog]

Non destructive crop requires a layer.

[Gary Brown]

I might be misunderstanding the question, but it sounds like you just need a layer mask to hide that layer's pixels outside the area you want to “crop.”

[Mark D Segal]

The OP seems to want to do this all on one layer. A layer mask needs a layer, meaning Background + Layer. The procedure I outlined and Andrew clarified also creates a layer. Once the image is flattened the ability to preserve the cropped material gets lost.

[johnkiv]

Thanks for the replies.  Let me try to do a better job explaining what I have happening.

I have a 13x19 canvas as a background layer. The final print is display print / page layout.

A text layer.

Roughly 30 +- files placed on the the canvas, each photo on its own layer, in effect a manual picture package.  I can move the photos, change size (maintaining proportion) with edit>transform.

If I go on one of these layers with the crop tool to crop the layer's photo, it crops everything outside the crop out to the edges of the 13x19 canvas.  All that is left is what is inside the crop, everything else is gone.

Is there a layer setting to isolate the layer to keep it independent of the background?  What I was hoping would be that each layer would act the one file acts cropped preserving pixels.

Is a layer mask the only solution?  I tried open file as smart object, that didn't seem to help, but sounded good.

All help is appreciated.

[digitaldog]

If I go on one of these layers with the crop tool to crop the layer's photo, it crops everything outside the crop out to the edges of the 13x19 canvas. 

That’s the only way it works. IOW, if you crop, you crop everything outside the crop boundaries layers or not. It is a document wide effect.

Now if you wanted to crop away pixel data of a layer, that’s doable of course. Target the layer, use a selection marquee and then use the invert selection (everything is reversed), then delete those pixels from that layer, adding transparency where you had the selection.

[fetish]

I might be misunderstanding the question, but it sounds like you just need a layer mask to hide that layer's pixels outside the area you want to “crop.”

methinks johnkiv is talking about masking instead of cropping too.

Dude, crop tool in photoshop is to change the size/dimensions/content of your canvas. if you want multiple pics sitting inside there with their own 'cropped' dimensions, you're actually talking about masking.

[Mark D Segal]

methinks johnkiv is talking about masking instead of cropping too.

Dude, crop tool in photoshop is to change the size/dimensions/content of your canvas. if you want multiple pics sitting inside there with their own 'cropped' dimensions, you're actually talking about masking.

"Dude", you're not necessarily talking about masking. You could be talking about compositing. The canvas is the largest size needed to accommodate all the images. You adjust and crop each image in the set to your requirements, and small enough so that all the images going onto one background canvas will fit with appropriate borders between them if that is what is wanted. Then you drag them one on top of another on the background canvas, and lay them out as you wish. It is only necessary that the bit depth and the resolution of the background and the layered images be the same. You temporarily flatten each image before dragging it onto the background canvas so that all the adjustments are conveyed. Once transferred, the original images can be saved with their layers intact so that cropped pixels are not lost in the originals. The composite can be saved with the individual image layers intact, and/or flattened into one flat composite for onward use if that is necessary. As long as the original images have been cropped preserving the pixels and saved with that layer intact, and the composite saved with its layers intact, the whole process is reversible by going back to these images for making changes and replacements. This is something I do routinely, and works quickly. It is even more efficiently done in Lightroom 4.1 than in Photoshop, because in LR you don't need to think about coherence of resolution and bit depth, and the whole history of each image is preserved and reversible automatically.

[johnkiv]

It looks like in need to work on my making technique.


This was a help,  Thanks