P: Crop orientation is reversed when drawing a new crop on portrait images

Moderators, ​@Sameer K, ​@nik.m, please move to Bugs. I’ve given a precise description of the bug in my previous reply in this thread.

Totally agree 

The behaviour of the crop box in LrC is counter intuitive and counter productive in relation to the previous format.  This has challenged me, and my massive workflow, for quite some time now, as I encountered the change over a year ago and have struggled ever since

I cannot understand where any improvement is, and why this change was made

If Adobe don’t see the need change the crop box dragging procedure to the previous format, then at least offer users the option to use either the current or previous (legacy) formats, as a setting choice 

I do very much hope this will take place, and restore workflow efficiency 

Thank you 

Since updating to Lightroom Classic 15, the behavior of the Crop tool when drawing a new crop box with the mouse has changed.

I am a high-volume photographer and process around 50,000 photos per year, often in batches of 1,000–3,000 images. For many years, my workflow has been to press R and immediately draw a completely new crop box with the mouse. I do not resize the existing crop by dragging its corners.

Previously, when working on a portrait image with a locked aspect ratio (for example 2:3 / As Shot), I could simply start dragging a tall, narrow rectangle and Lightroom would immediately recognize that I wanted a portrait-oriented crop.

Now, when I start drawing a new crop box, Lightroom keeps the crop in landscape orientation. It only switches to portrait orientation after I drag the mouse a very long distance vertically. In many cases I have to drag almost to the bottom edge of my screen before it finally switches from landscape to portrait. When the area I want to crop is relatively small, there is simply not enough room to make Lightroom switch orientation.

I know that pressing X changes the crop orientation, but that is not a suitable workaround. Pressing X immediately creates/rotates the existing crop box, while my workflow is to draw a new crop box directly with the mouse. Having to draw the crop and then press X for every single image would also add an extra action to thousands of photos.

This behavior did not occur in previous versions of Lightroom Classic. I used this exact workflow for many years without any problem.

I have already reset the Lightroom preferences at startup, but this did not change the behavior. I have also tried explicitly selecting a 2:3 aspect ratio, changing its orientation and then moving to the next image, but the problem returns.

The main issue seems to be the threshold at which Lightroom decides whether a newly drawn crop should be landscape or portrait. That threshold now requires far too much vertical mouse movement.

Could Adobe please restore the previous crop-drawing behavior, or provide an option to control this orientation-switching threshold? For high-volume photography workflows, being able to draw a new portrait 2:3 crop immediately with one mouse movement is essential.

oh! it seems that finally version 15.6 solved that problem?

i'm using 15.6 now and the problem is solved, i guess. Do you have the same experience?

Since updating to Lightroom Classic 15, the behavior of the Crop tool when drawing a new crop box with the mouse has changed.

I am a high-volume photographer and process around 50,000 photos per year, often in batches of 1,000–3,000 images. For many years, my workflow has been to press R and immediately draw a completely new crop box with the mouse. I do not resize the existing crop by dragging its corners.

Previously, when working on a portrait image with a locked aspect ratio (for example 2:3 / As Shot), I could simply start dragging a tall, narrow rectangle and Lightroom would immediately recognize that I wanted a portrait-oriented crop.

Now, when I start drawing a new crop box, Lightroom keeps the crop in landscape orientation. It only switches to portrait orientation after I drag the mouse a very long distance vertically. In many cases I have to drag almost to the bottom edge of my screen before it finally switches from landscape to portrait. When the area I want to crop is relatively small, there is simply not enough room to make Lightroom switch orientation.

I know that pressing X changes the crop orientation, but that is not a suitable workaround. Pressing X immediately creates/rotates the existing crop box, while my workflow is to draw a new crop box directly with the mouse. Having to draw the crop and then press X for every single image would also add an extra action to thousands of photos.

This behavior did not occur in previous versions of Lightroom Classic. I used this exact workflow for many years without any problem.

I have already reset the Lightroom preferences at startup, but this did not change the behavior. I have also tried explicitly selecting a 2:3 aspect ratio, changing its orientation and then moving to the next image, but the problem returns.

The main issue seems to be the threshold at which Lightroom decides whether a newly drawn crop should be landscape or portrait. That threshold now requires far too much vertical mouse movement.

Could Adobe please restore the previous crop-drawing behavior, or provide an option to control this orientation-switching threshold? For high-volume photography workflows, being able to draw a new portrait 2:3 crop immediately with one mouse movement is essential.

I agree with you, we expect a quality that Lightroom seems to have lost, I'm upset with mine, and it’s anormal that after so many years we have problems with new version without any information from ADOBE to solve the problem. During photo-report I have to take my ancien MAC with the LIGHTROOM 3 !!!!!

I think there are mouse actions that are designed to convert portrait to landscape or vice versa. As I don’t use them much, I don’t think I can adequately describe how to do this. However, it would be very helpful if we could see a screen capture video of your cropping process, starting from the time you activate the crop tool by clicking the crop tool icon (or pressing R), and continue until we can see that it does the wrong thing.

Alternatively, pressing X in the crop tool switches the orientation (in your case, back to portrait)

Also please go to Help->System Info and copy and paste the information there into your reply.

I have a vertical photo. I want to make it tighter. I don’t crop by grabbing one of the photo’s edges, instead I always grab anywhere in the photo. It changes orientation to horizontal. Never had that before updating to newest version. I pay money for your product and expect quality.