I have adobe photoshop 7.0, how do I freehand crop successfully?

Question

Everytime I try to use the lasso tool to crop a part of the image, it turns out shakey. Ive tryed tooking up tutitorials but nothing turned up. Perhaps there is some other way of using this method of the program?

Answer 1

The Magic Wand is terrible, don't use it. Use the Pen tool to draw your shape:

1. Select the Pen Tool (shortcut: P)

2. In the options at the top of the interface (upper left of the screen) select the "Paths" button (When you roll over it it will say "Paths". The button to the left of it will say "Shape Layers"). If you don't have these Options, go to Window>Options.

3. Draw your path.

4. Press control / enter (NOT return). This will load the vector path as a selection.

5. Select the layer you want to crop/mask in the Layers tab.

6. Go to Layer>Layer Mask>Reveal Selection

Hope that makes sense. That's one of the ways the pros do it. Other methods would take pages to describe!

Answer 2

You might consider some other methods that use predefined shapes that are smooth. I don't use Photoshop, but the program I use has selection tools that are ovals, circles, stars, etc. With a selection, you have to copy and paste into a new image.
You can also use a large broad brush to put in a background color, then switch to a smaller brush and gradually work it in closer to the image you want, effectively cropping it. If you want to paste it somewhere else, you can make the back ground invisible, perhaps with flood fill.

Answer 3

Freehand Adobe

Answer 4

I think the questioner probably meant they want to be able to crop a picture without it having to fit into the pre-set ratios. This is something I want to do but cannot find a way to 'freecrop' - I'm always left with a bit of white at the edge and trying to remove that only makes the crop box smaller, therefore cutting my subjects out...
Help...

Answer 5

Freehand is harder, thus learning it is the way to go, and it will make learning Photoshop more easier after that; since you will have tried making every thing the hard way first. So, go for Freehand, even if it's harder.

Answer 6

Use the magic wand.

http://www.peachpit.com/articles/article.asp?p=31732&seqNum=7&rl=1

Answer 7

you?
successfully?
not. a. chance.