I would like to crop just one element of a picture – one layer – not the whole image.
My suggestion was/is to select that element on that one layer with an appropriate selection tool (e.g. the rectangular marquee, or the lasso or the polygonal tool). Once you have an active selection, go to the "Select" menu and choose INVERSE. That has the effect of selecting all the space you want to get rid of on that layer, preserving the part you want to keep. Then just delete that inverted selection with the Delete/Backspace key on your computer, which will leave you with a transparent (invisible) space around the element you want to keep on that layer, in effect a "hole" through which you can see all other layers. Done. You have now cropped it like you wanted.
IT WORKED!!!! Thank you very much for taking the time to provide me with such a detailed explanation. I am very appreciative of the time you took to help me. Have a great evening and a great rest of the week.
What’s "Big Data"??? I googled it but can’t fathom why anyone would end up with "any layered image data extending beyond the confines of the canvas boundary", or why that can’t be solved through cropping or expanding the size of the canvas if you get in such a bind.
It’s part of the image extending beyond the edges of the canvas.
You end up with it if you move a layer so that part of it extends beyond the edges of the canvas, or by having the "hide" option checked when using the cropped tool (unintuitively, this option only appears once you have started to make your cropping)
Big data disappears when you do a flatten since the background layer cannot extend beyondhte edges of the canvas.
I usually keep the big data since it gives me more flexibility when the customer asks for a change in format.
