Manually cropping a photo

This article shows you how to use the Crop Photo dialog to choose exactly which part of a photo shows inside a photo layer's frame — and how to adjust, redo, or remove a crop later.

When cropping is available

Manual cropping works on photo layers set to Cover fit mode. In Cover mode the photo is scaled to fill the frame and any overflow is hidden; the Crop Photo dialog lets you decide which part of the photo fills that frame.

Cropping is not available on layers using Top Fill (face placement) mode — face placement positions photos automatically using the subject's face instead. If the Crop photo button is greyed out, check that the layer's fit mode is set to Cover and that a photo has been uploaded.

Open the Crop Photo dialog

There are two ways to open the dialog:

Select the photo layer on the canvas or in the layer list, then click Crop photo in the properties panel on the right. If a crop is already applied the button reads Recrop photo instead.
Select the layer and press c on your keyboard (when no text field is active).

Crop Photo dialog showing a photo inside a white-bordered frame with a Scale slider and Apply button

Pan and zoom inside the frame

The dialog shows your photo behind a white-bordered frame. The frame represents the layer's exact proportions — only what sits inside the frame will appear in the final render.

Pan — click and drag the photo to reposition it inside the frame. Drag left to reveal the right side of the photo; drag up to reveal the bottom.
Zoom — scroll the mouse wheel over the dialog to zoom in or out, or drag the Scale slider at the bottom. Scale 1.00× is the default centered cover-fit; higher values zoom in and make the subject larger within the frame.
Preview your framing in real time — the darkened area outside the frame will be hidden in the output.

How the crop is stored

When you click Apply, the crop is saved as a rectangle in the source photo's original pixel coordinates. This means:

The full-resolution original is always preserved — you can recrop at any time without quality loss.
If you resize the layer on the canvas after cropping, the crop scales proportionally with the layer. The same region of the photo stays visible.
The crop carries through identically to the final render — what you see in the dialog is what you get in the output.

Recrop or reset a crop

To adjust an existing crop, select the layer and click Recrop photo (the button changes label once a crop is applied). The dialog re-opens with your previous crop loaded, ready to adjust.

To remove the crop entirely and return to the default centered cover-fit, click Reset crop next to the Recrop photo button. The photo snaps back to its default position filling the frame.

Inside the dialog itself, the Reset button (bottom-left) restores the default centered crop without closing the dialog, so you can compare and re-adjust before clicking Apply. Cancel discards any changes made in the current session of the dialog.

Reset crop on multiple layers at once

If you have several photo layers cropped and want to clear them all:

Select all the affected photo layers (hold Shift or Cmd/Ctrl and click, or use the layer panel).
In the multi-layer properties panel, click Reset crop on selected. This removes the crop from every selected layer in one step.

Reset crop on selected only appears when at least one of the selected layers has a crop applied.

Multi-select properties panel showing the Reset crop on selected button