cropping perfectly in Lightroom?

kevinpw

Hello,

How do you guys crop a picture perfectly in Lightroom? When I crop using Lightroom I have to eyeball the length and width of the crop so that it's still a standard picture size. Most of the time this results in an unusual size, either too long or too wide. Is there a tool in Lightroom to help easily crop?

Thanks!

Elaine

I love the crop tool in LR! Click on the crop tool and then click on "Original" (far right side). A menu will pop up. "Original" refers to the crop ratio from the original photo. Depending on the camera, this may vary. My Canon 40D provides a 2:3 ratio photo, so it's already in a 4x6 format. I can test this by choosing "4x6" and see that the crop box doesn't change at all. The menu also provides a number of other sizes to choose from. And you can also enter your own custom size.
Another fun thing about the LR crop tool are the overlay grids it provides. Select the crop tool and you'll see a classic rule-of-thirds grid overlay. Hit the "O" button on your keyboard it and will bring up a new grid. Keep hitting "O" until you find the one you want or it comes back to the first one.

Hope that helps!

woody

Crop - Lock aspect ratio
Also, When you're in crop mode, make sure the lock button is "Down" in the lock position. That "Locks" the aspect ratio (4x6, 8x10 etc...).

kevinpw

exactly what i was looking for. thanks!

Zerodog

You can also pick standard paper sizes from the list. So 8x10 8.5x11 5x7 are all there. It snaps your crop tool to the right ratio.