Cropping problem

[Tim Burton]

Apologies if this is a stupid question  , but : when I open a portrait-oriented image in Photoshop, how do I make the crop selection area portrait-oriented too? I've looked through the help file but I've had no luck... I'm getting a bit sick of rotating the image (and my head) 90 degrees to do the crop and then rotating it back. 

[Larry Grace]

Select the Crop Tool

Choose the Crop Tool by clicking on it.
Create Your New Composition with the Marquee

   1. Click and drag to place the Crop Marquee on your image . The area outside the marquee will be darkened; this area will be removed from your image when you complete the crop.
   2. Adjust the marquee by moving the handles.

Rotate the Marquee

Image 3: Photoshop 7 Crop Marquee Rotate the marquee if desired. This is the most exacting part. You must pull your mouse pointer away from the handles a short distance. When you see the rotate symbol Curved Arrow, click and drag to rotate the marquee.

Though you might find this frustrating at first, play with the mouse and try different distances from the marquee until you see the mouse pointer change to the rotate symbol

Sometimes rotating the marquee can alter a photograph's composition more than you might expect. Perhaps this aspect of cropping a photograph could be referred to as taking a photo within a photo!

Hopes this help.


Try these links;
http://wings.buffalo.edu/computing/Documentation/win/PhotoshopCS.htm

http://www.thegoldenmean.com/technique/crop3.html

[Hans Rolink]

As for rotating, it's much more convenient to click on the arrows pointing in opposite directions right between the figures for the dimensions for the crop itself. (sorry, don't know of a quicker way to describe this feature). 
By doing this, you exchange height for width.

Hans.

[Tim Burton]

Thankyou for your replies. No more sore neck now  . I actually can't believe I hadn't noticed how to do it before!