OT: Photoshop Elements

I figure someone here is using Photoshop Elements.
I just upgraded from PSE 9 to PSE 14.
I never did figure out how to EASILY do a circular crop in PSE 9.
Hopefully PSE 14 will make it easier.
BUT
Would a PSE user please give me quick instructions on how to easily circular crop.
Naturally I'm going to use it to neatly crop coin images.

 

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Possibly to too much help - but if you have a Mac you can use Preview. Nice and simple.

 

You will use the oval Marquee Tool. Here is a Youtube instructional video to help you out. Go to about the 6:10 mark and you will be set.

 

I have a copy of Photoscape on my computer for that and other reasons, even though I have the PSE14 also. Jim

 

Elliptical marquee tool.

All the photoshops are very unintuitive to use.

 

Photoscape is free.
http://www.photoscape.org/ps/main/index.php

 

You can use the measure tool to get an approximate size, then use the elliptical marquee tool as noted above, but with fixed dimensions.

I typically use the elliptical tool with fixed aspect ratio of 1:1 and just get it as close as I can.

 

Okay, but one important piece has been left out.
How do you save the area selected.
According to all my resources I should us the following steps:
1. Select the Marquee Tool > Elliptical Option
2. Outline my area
3. Then use Image > Crop to select the area; everything outside the area should disappear.
4. It AIN'T happenin'. What am I missing? I can't see ONLY my just cropped image; the other parts outside are still there.

 

Once you outline it, Cut (ctrl-C), create a new image (ctrl-N) which should automatically be the same size as what's in the cut buffer, and paste your cut selection into the new image.

 

Images appear on your computer and online as squares. Instead of painstaking effort to make them round, why not just arrange for the background to be presentable?

 

Ah ha!!! The missing steps, "Cut (ctrl-C), create a new image (ctrl-N)".
And I assume a CTRL-P for the Paste part.

Off to do some testing.

 

Since all my coins are in slabs, all of the backgrounds will be portions of the slabs.

 

Hooray, got it.

And of course I meant CTRL-V for pasting.
(Would have wasted paper and ink with a CTRL-P.)

 

Unless you cut a circle out of black paper the size of the coin to put over the top of the slab. It's also the best way to guarantee zero reflected light into the lens, maximizing the contrast.

See, a circular crop not only involves the software capability to create the crop, it then also imposes the need to create an appropriate background out of thin air. That's a lot of work, man.

 

In my case that's not a significant issue.
I purchase an item and put it in my collection.
It's very rare that I have anything to sell hence there's not a lot of continual imaging and editing.
And because of WHAT I'm collecting I probably average only about one new coin a month.
And since I'm retired time is not much of an issue.

 

Use the guide lines to drop a guide on the top and to the side of the coin. Use the ellipse tool and start from the corner where these lines intersect and drag the circle around the rims of the coin.

 

And once you get used to it, it's like second nature and will take no time at all, especially if you're already combining obverse and reverse photos into one. As for your preferred background (black as an example), once set the software should automatically use it the next time around, or at least it does/did with regular photoshop. Even if you wished to change it, a couple clicks and you're there.

As with much in life, there is no right or wrong, but only personal preference. If this is how you wish to edit your photos, and is what works best for you, let no one tell you differently.