How to Crop & Straighten in Lightroom
Lightroom has many useful features. One of the most important is its ability to crop photos and straighten them. This will give your images a professional and polished look. You can use Lightroom to crop and straighten photos in order to eliminate distractions, enhance composition or even align a crooked skyline.
This tutorial will provide you with step-by-step directions and helpful tips that will help you crop and straighten photos effortlessly, releasing their full potential.
Select the image you wish to crop or straighten in Lightroom. This can be done in either the Library Module or Develop module.
STEP 2. STEP 2.
Open the Crop Tool once your image has been selected. It is located in the Development Module, just above the Basic Panel (alongside many other useful tools). The crop tool icon is a rectangle that has handles on the corners. It represents the idea of cropping a photo and adjusting its composition.
STEP 3. STEP 3.
Cropping your image is simple. Once the Crop Tool is open, a The tool will then change into a “curved-arrow” which will allow you rotate the crop in order to straighten the photo or to provide a new perspective.
You can adjust the angle by using the “Angle Slider”, which is located in the Crop and Straighten Tool Panel.
STEP 5. STEP 5.
Click the “Done button” in the toolbar or press the “Enter” or “R” keys on your keyboard to commit the crop.
Remember that the crop can be redone any number of times. You will also always have access to your original crop in camera by selecting “Reset” in the Crop Panel.
STEP 5. STEP 5.
After cropping the image, you can save it. Select File and click on Export.
The crop will be applied when you export your photo as a JPEG.
Additional Crop Tool Options
Let’s explore some of the additional features that Lightroom’s crop tool has to offer.
- Crop Tool : (the intersecting square rules): Clicking on this tool allows you to drag a box similar to how Photoshop typically does if that’s what you prefer to do.
- Aspect ratio: By clicking the double arrows beside the words “original”, you can select the aspect you want to crop. You can choose from a variety of pre-set aspect ratios, or you can select “Enter Custom” from the dropdown menu to enter your own custom dimensions. Don’t forget: Change your mind as often as you want!
- Lock – When the lock appears closed, you can drag the aspect rate without fear of losing it. The lock can be opened by clicking on it. Once it’s open, you can crop any way you want.
- Angle: This tool will straighten out any crooked line or horizon (flagpole, building, etc.). Click once to select the tool, then click and drag an straight line across your crooked skyline. Lightroom will automatically rotate/crop the photo to make the horizon straight (or whatever you drag).
- Angle Slider : You can rotate your photo by using the slider located next to the angle tool. Crop handles can be used on the photo. You can also use the crop handles on the photo.
- Constrain Image is a rarely used tool. You’ll need it only if you use a Lens Correction. This will ensure that the image data and not the white spaces created by the corrections are visible.
CONCLUSION
The crop tool can be used to enhance photos in Lightroom and improve your editing abilities. Following these instructions step-by-step, you should be able refine your photos with a well placed crop quickly and easily.