Operation Manual

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Processing and developing photos
Last updated 11/30/2015
Retouch photos
Adjust crop and rotation
The Develop module contains tools and controls for cropping and straightening photos. Lightroom crop and straighten
controls work by first setting a crop boundary, and then moving and rotating the image in relation to the crop boundary.
Or, you can use more traditional crop and straighten tools and drag directly in the photo.
As you adjust the crop overlay or move the image, Lightroom displays a grid of thirds within the outline to help you
compose your final image. As you rotate an image, a finer grid appears to help you align to the straight lines in the
image.
Video tutorial: Crop an image
The Crop view in Lightroom allows you to non-destructively crop and rotate a photo. Applies to Lightroom versions 4
& 5.
Crop a photo
1 Select the Crop Overlay tool in the tool strip, or press R.
An outline with adjustment handles appears around the photo.
2 Drag in the photo with the Crop Frame pointer or drag a crop handle to set the crop boundary. Corner handles
adjust both image width and height.
Note: After you drag a crop handle, select the Crop Frame tool to use it.
3 Reposition the photo by dragging the photo within the crop frame using the Hand tool.
4 (Optional) Select Constrain To Warp to keep the crop bounding box within the image area when lens corrections
have been applied. Constrain To Warp prevents the photo from becoming distorted.
5 Click the Crop Overlay tool or press Enter (Windows) or Return (Mac OS) when you’re finished cropping and
straightening.
Press O to cycle through grid overlays in the crop area. To display the grid only when cropping, choose Tools > Tool
Overlay > Auto Show. To turn off the grid, choose Tools > Tool Overlay > Never Show.
Crop to a specified aspect ratio
1 Select the Crop Overlay tool in the tool strip.
The padlock icon in the tool drawer indicates and controls whether the crop controls are constrained.
2 Choose an aspect ratio from the Aspect pop-up menu next to the padlock. Choose Original to specify the photo’s
original aspect ratio. Choose Enter Custom to specify an aspect ratio that is not listed.
Press Shift+A to select the Crop Overlay tool with the last-used aspect ratio.
Lightroom stores up to five custom crop ratios. If you create more than that, the older ones drop off the list.
3 Drag a crop handle to set the crop outline or drag with the Crop Frame tool .
Press Shift as you drag a crop handle to temporarily constrain to the current aspect ratio.