*Program Basic
PROGRAM BASIC: Cropping Photos into Shapes in Photoshop Elements 2
By and © Stacy Fox-Myers
Apr 6, 2005, 22:39

Even though PSE 2 does not have the Cookie Cutter tool that was introduced in version 3, you can still crop photos into shapes with few extra steps. This tutorial will show you how to crop a photo into a fun shape.

1. Start with a photo already placed in a layout on its own layer.
   
2. Open the Shape tool and make sure to select the Custom Shape icon.
   
3. Click the down arrow next to the shape preview and select the shape you ultimately want your photo cropped into.
   
4. Click the down arrow next to Shape Options to force the shape to stay in its original proportions, original size or a fixed sized.
   
5. Draw the shape on top of the photo.
   
6. Adjust the opacity of the shape layer in the Layer Palette to ~50%. Now you can see through the shape to your photo.
   
7. Adjust the size, angle or location of the shape relative to your photo so that the shape covers the portion of your photo that you want to keep.
   
8. In the Layer Palette, hold down the CTRL key while you click on the shape layer. This selects the outline of the shape.
9. Invert your selection (in the main menu Select>Inverse).
10. With the photo layer as your active layer, hit the delete key.