How to Crop Digital Photos Using iPhoto

When snapping off photos there can be more in the frame of the picture being taken than is needed or desired. That's why iPhoto makes it easy to crop your digital photos so that they are exactly the way you want them to be.

Instructions

1. Open iPhoto. When iPhoto opens it will default to library view, showing every photo that's stored on the Mac. If there are folders that have been created to organize photos, click on the folder where the image to be cropped is stored.

2. Scroll through the library or folder and find the image that's to be cropped.

3. Double click on the photo in iPhoto that needs to be cropped. The photograph will fill the entire window. With the photograph open, a number of options appear along the bottom of the window.

4. Move the mouse on to the picture where one of the corners will be. The selection tool moves in a rectangle, so make sure the mouse is located exactly where one of the corners of the image will be located.

5. Click and hold down the mouse button, then move the mouse and select the area of the photograph that you want to keep. The area of the photograph that will be kept will remain normal while the area of the photo that will discarded will be whited out.

6. Click the "Crop" button below the image and the whited-out area will be cut away from the image, leaving only the portion of the image that was selected.

7. Click the "Done" button on the lower right of the window. This will save the changes and return you to the library or folder where the photo was stored.

Tips & Warnings

• If the photo needs to cropped to fit a particular format, it's possible to select pre-set cropping options to the left of the "Crop" button. Click the pop-up menu that says "None" and select the size to constrain the photograph and then click the "Crop" button.