Photoshop Tips?

Professor Snugglesworth

So I have a couple of Photoshop questions regarding image cropping. Usually I just use the crop tool to cut out the part of an image I like, and then change the size for whatever resolutions I want (such as the hxw requirements for a forum sig).

To speed things up, I was wondering how I could create a custom crop border, so I could merely hover it over an image and properly align it so I'm cropping it the way I want it.

I also wanted to know how the easiest way to put two images together, like as a column, at the same time and save it as one jpeg file.

Kind of wish I didn't drop that Photoshop class way back.

wakkawa

Here is what I would do.

Make an action that brings up a fixed sized rectangular selection tool. (On the top options change style to "Fixed Size" then enter your dimensions). Drag that selection tool to fit your picture. Then automate it to all the pictures you currently have opened in photoshop. File-> Automate > batch. Choose the action you just made and apply it to all opened pictures.

Move the selection around so it is cropped to where you want everything cropped. Now, make a new action that crops the selection (image -> crop). This will crop and resize the image to what you have set the first action too. After that, go to file -> save as into a new folder (name it cropped images or something) then close the file. Stop the action.

Now go to automate -> batch and apply the second action to all the opened images again. This will crop, save, and close all the images you have opened.

At first this sounds like a lot of work, but if you are editing hundreds of photos its a huge time saver.