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How to Crop in Photoshop with Content Aware
  • By Design Bundles
  • 4 Mins
  • Photoshop Tutorials

How to Crop in Photoshop with Content Aware

For this tutorial, we will use a couple of images to illustrate the two ways in which you can use cropping techniques. For the first example, we used a bird stock photo, and for the second one an interior stock photo from the Plus Hub.
This tutorial will cover:

Use content aware crop to straighten an image


Step 1: Open your image


In Photoshop, open the image you want to work with.
Open image in Photoshop

Step 2: Use the Crop Tool


Select the Crop tool (C) and make sure only the content-aware box is checked in the top menu.
Content aware crop in Photoshop

Step 3: Use the straighten option


Click on the straighten button then click and drag a line across something in the image you want to be straight. The image should rotate.
Use straighten feature in Photoshop

Step 4: Apply changes


 Hit enter or click the checkmark on the top menu to apply the content aware crop to the empty spaces.
Commit changes in Photoshop
Your image should look like this.
Straightened image in Photoshop

Step 5: Get rid of the empty space


Depending on the angle of rotation, the amount of empty space you need to fill, and the background of the image the results may not be ideal. You can crop some of the portions that don’t look so good using the Crop tool (C) but this time checking the delete cropped pixels box.
Delete cropped pixels in Photoshop
Once you are done, hit enter or click the checkmark on the top menu.
Commit changes in Photoshop
The straightened image should look similar to this.
Before and after crop in Photoshop

Use content aware crop to extend the edges of an image


Step 1: Open your image and select the crop tool


To use this feature to extend the edges of an image, just select the Crop tool (C) and make sure only the content aware box is checked in the top menu. 
Expand image with content aware crop Straightened image in Photoshop

Step 2: Apply the content aware crop


Then, pull the side or sides you want to extend and hit enter or click the checkmark on the top menu to apply the content aware crop to the empty spaces. 
Commit changes to cropped image Straightened image in Photoshop
Your image should look similar to this one.
Before and after crop in Photoshop
This will not work with complicated images as shown with some portions of the edges in the previous example. 
For more Photoshop tutorials, make sure to check out how to perspective crop in Photoshop.

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