Important: Cropping a photo changes its appearance in the photo library and in every album, slideshow, book, calendar, and card where it appears. To edit a photo without changing it everywhere it appears, make a duplicate to edit by selecting the photo and choosing Photos > Duplicate.
Here are some tips:
- If you’re working in your library or an album, select the photo you want to crop and click the Edit button.
- If you’re working in a slideshow, book, calendar, or card, double-click the photo you want to crop in the photo browser. This switches the photo to edit view.
- If you want to crop to a specific photo dimension, select the Constrain checkbox and select a dimension from the pop-up menu, such as a square photo or a 4 x 6 postcard.
- If you plan to use the photo in a book, choose 4 x 3 (Book).
- If you plan to use the photo as your desktop picture, choose Display to fit the photo to your monitor screen.
- If you want to do a custom crop, deselect the Constrain checkbox.
Drag the selection window to the position you want; drag it larger or smaller to enclose the desired area.
Click the Apply button in the Crop pop-up window.
To save your crop, click the Done button to return to the previous view, click the arrow key to move to the next photo, or select a new photo to edit from the photo browser at the top of the iPhoto window. (If you don’t see a row of photos at the top of the window, choose View > Thumbnails.)
If you don’t like a change you’ve made to a photo, you can undo your most recent change by choosing Edit > Undo.
For photos edited in iPhoto ’08, you can also change the crop at any time without losing your other edits, simply by opening the photo in Edit view and clicking the Crop button.
iPhoto always retains the original photo you imported, so you can change a photo back at any time by choosing Photos > “Revert to Original.”
If you are editing RAW-format photos, choose Photos > Reprocess RAW.
About Cropping:
Cropping allows you to edit a photo by selecting only the portion you like. You can also use cropping to improve a photo's composition. The ratio of width to height in photographic prints is known as the aspect ratio.
The aspect ratio is important to know when cropping because when ordering prints or a book, photos must match the required aspect ratio or they may be cropped.
For 35 mm pictures the aspect ratio is 2:3 which will produce photos of 4 x 6 in. If you intend to use the same photo to get multiple size prints, you may need to duplicate the photo and constrain and crop to the specific size prints being ordered.
Warning: Cropping a photo changes its appearance in the photo library and in every album where it appears. To edit a photo without changing it everywhere it appears, make a duplicate to edit.
Crop a photo:
- Select the photo you want to crop.
- Click the Edit button.
- Position the arrow pointer at one corner of the area you want to select, then drag to enclose the desired area. To constrain your selection to a specific size ratio, choose a ratio from the Constrain pop-up menu before dragging to enclose the desired area. If you're ordering larger prints, choose the appropriate size (5 x 7 or 8 x 10) to constrain the image.
- Click the Crop icon in the Edit pane.