How Do I Crop a Picture Into a Round Shape in Photoshop Elements?
People tend to think of Photoshop Elements as being merely the pared down little brother of Photoshop. Actually, Photoshop Elements is a powerful graphics program in its own right, possessing many of the same tools and functions as Photoshop. Many of the instructions and tutorials for Photoshop also generally work in Photoshop Elements. In fact, the process for doing something like cropping a picture into a round shape is virtually identical in both programs.
Preparation
Load the picture you want to crop onto your computer's hard drive. Transfer it directly from a digital camera, CD or SD card or scan it. but if you scan it, use a high resolution (600 DPI or more). This higher resolution results in a a better final image.
Creating the Shape
Open Photoshop Elements. Select "File" and click "Open." In the dialog box, browse to the picture you loaded and open it. Select the "Elliptical Marquee" tool from the toolbar. In the options at the top, change the tool to "Fixed" so it will maintain the same proportions. Set the "Feather" to 20-50. The exact number depends on the size of the picture you use. Then draw out a selection on the canvas, with the sizes of the selection not quite touching the sides.
Choose "Select" from the menu and click "Inverse." Now hit "Delete" on your keyboard, and the space around the area you originally selected will be deleted, leaving a blank area around the image.
Saving the File
To save the file, select "File" and click "Save As." In the dialog name your file and save it as a GIF or PNG file to preserve the transparent area around the picture. If you print this file, you will have a circular image you can cut out. As another option, you can place it on a website as a circular image (if you saved as GIF, since some web browsers can't handle PNGs).
Tags: Photoshop Elements, area around, circular image, Crop Picture, Crop Picture Into