Cropping is the process of removing portions of a photo to create focus or strengthen the composition. Use the Crop tool to crop and straighten photos in Photoshop. The Crop tool is non-destructive, and you can choose to retain the cropped pixels to optimize the crop boundaries later. The Crop tool also provides intuitive methods to straighten a photo while cropping.

For all operations, visual guides provide an interactive preview. When you crop or straighten photos, real-time feedback helps you visualize the final result.

For more information on cropping, see the video Crop a photo.

The following updates were introduced in the Creative Cloud release for Photoshop CS6:

• Front Image and new presets in the Aspect Ratio menu.
• Clicking the double-arrow icon changes the crop orientation by swapping the Width and Height values. This icon replaces the Rotate Crop Box button.
• Choosing W x H x Resolution from the Aspect Ratio menu displays a Resolution field in the options bar and auto-fills the Width and Height values.
  
• Clicking the Clear button clears the values in the Width and Height fields in the options bar. If displayed, the value in the Resolution field is also cleared.
  
• The keyboard shortcut for Front Image has changed from F to I for both the Crop tool and the Perspective Crop tool.

Introduced in Photoshop CC 2015.5 release

Photoshop CC now uses content-aware technology to intelligently fill in the gaps when you use the Crop tool for straightening or rotating an image, or expanding your canvas beyond the image's original size.

Follow these steps:

1. From the toolbar, select the Crop Tool (). Crop borders display on the edges of the photo.
2. In the Options bar, select Content-Aware. The default Crop rectangle expands to include the whole image.

3. Using the handles around the image, straighten or rotate it. Alternatively, expand the canvas beyond the original size of the image.
4. When you are satisfied with the results, click  in the Options bar to commit the crop operation. Photoshop intelligently fills in the white/gap areas in the image.

Examples: Content-Aware Fill on Crop

You can straighten a photo while cropping. The photo is rotated and aligned to straighten it. The canvas is automatically resized to accommodate the rotated pixels.

See Straightening a crooked image to watch a video explaining straightening an image using the Crop tool.

The Perspective Crop tool lets you transform the perspective in an image while cropping. Use the Perspective Crop tool when working with images that contain keystone distortion. Keystone distortion occurs when an object is photographed from an angle rather than from a straight‑on view. For example, if you take a picture of a tall building from ground level, the edges of the building appear closer to each other at the top than they do at the bottom.

See the video Adjust perspective in a photo for more information.

You can use the Crop tool to resize the image canvas.

To resize the canvas, you can also choose Image > Canvas Size. See Change the Canvas size or the tutorial video Understanding canvas size for more information.