How to custom crop an image in a single layer

[treborokram]

I'm trying to create a collage with several images but need to create a custom crop based on the layout for several images. In Photoshop you would just select a layer and use the marquee tool to select which part of the image of remove or cut out. But in Affinity I don't see where I can do the same thing. I see the crop tool but it seems to only work for the entire document and not any single layer. I went through the tutorials but none of them seem to address this function. Any ideas would be helpful. Thanks!

[Sara72]

Hi,

There is no 'Crop to Selection' in Affinity Photo, the crop tool is document based and none destructive, so you can still move your image around within the crop. If you want to make the crop permanent on that image, right click on the image in the layers and click on: Rasterise & Trim. If you want to return the document back to original size that also got cropped , go to: Document>Clip Canvas.

If your working with a lot images, it might be better using the Export Persona and making slices of area's of the images you want, then exporting and saving: Affinity Photo - Exporting slices

[Murfee]

Hi @treborokram 

Not sure if this will work for you, if you add a rectangle shape (or any shape) then you can drag the rectangle layer over the thumbnail of your image layer you will see a short vertical line next to the thumbnail, now you will have nested the shape and it acts like a crop but your image is still intact. The other way is to drag the image layer towards the rectangle until you see a shorter blue horizontal line, you can now click on the image under the rectangle and move it around to reposition inside the rectangle. If you look at the layers in the screenshot you can see that both methods have been used.

[Jeremy Bohn]

To go the destructive route, use the marquee like you mention, to select the part of the image you want to keep. Then inverse the selection and delete the rest of the image. The downside is that this only deletes parts that are visible so if you have some image outside the canvas that part will not be deleted.

[treborokram]

20 hours ago, Jeremy Bohn said:

To go the destructive route, use the marquee like you mention, to select the part of the image you want to keep. Then inverse the selection and delete the rest of the image. The downside is that this only deletes parts that are visible so if you have some image outside the canvas that part will not be deleted.

I'm trying that but the whole image deletes instead of just what I select, even inverted. I'm uploading a video screen cap showing me doing it both ways. It just deletes the layer not the selection.

[Sara72]

Hi,

I think you need to rasterise your image first, does it say image or pixel after the name in the layers? Most of the tools will only work on a pixel layer, see this thread: What are Pixel Layer & Image Layers

[Jeremy Bohn]

I think you're right, summersara. So pressing the delete key is actually deleting the layer which you can see disappears from the Layers panel.

And I'll say it again, the app needs to either offer to rasterize or do something to warn the user. I run into this problem all the time, forgetting that I haven't rasterized a layer and wondering why a tool isn't working. The concept is simply FOREIGN to Photoshoppers.

[Fixx]

If you have several images in your Photo document you might want to mask them with rectangles; it effectively works as single image layer crop.