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Gary Gray
Participating Frequently
February 16, 2021
Question

Suggestion for Cropping Tool in Lightroom

  • February 16, 2021
  • 3 replies
  • 707 views

A suggestion for future updates to Lightroom.

I find that when doing image crops in Lightroom, there is one crop method that doesn't really exist. Defining a crop by pixel size. One can do a crop to any pixel size but you don't really know what you have until you do it.


How about including the ability to definie the width and height of a crop by actual pixels and save that crop definition as a preset the same way it stores other custom crops?

 

An example of when this would be handy would be if I wanted to produce a 400x600 pixel crop of an image I'd like to use as an example of fine detail at a websize resolution without having to resize the cropped image to an exact pixel dimension. As it is now, I can get close by watching the result in the Info display, but that's after the fact and it often requires that I play with it to get it where I want it, and it's often difficult to get an exact crop because Lightroom my end up a couple pixels long or short.

 

A small thing, but something I think would be quite useful for many of us.

 

 

This topic has been closed for replies.

3 replies

JP Hess
JP Hess
Inspiring
February 17, 2021

You think you know how Lightroom works, and you think I'm simply rehashing what you already understand. But I don't think you understand what I'm trying to say. However, here is a link to a forum where the developers monitor more closely and you can present your suggestion for their consideration.

https://feedback.photoshop.com/topics/lightroom-desktop-cloudbased/5f5f2093785c1f1e6cc40874 

G
Gary GrayAuthor
Participating Frequently
February 17, 2021

Thank you for the link.

 

Right now, I don't use lightroom to accomplish this, I export the file into photoshop and have an action that will give me a precise pixel crop on an image. Much less work than doing it in Lightroom, but still cumbersome.

 

I'm thinking just displaying the pixel crop as you resize a crop window would work, but now it's hit and miss, as you resize it, then have to execute the crop and look in the info display to see what size it is, then go back and tweak it and repeat as necessary. Most of the times, it's still a couple of pixels off, but that could just be mouse precision. It would just be easier to type in the pixel size of the crop window and then just drag it around the screen.

JP Hess
JP Hess
Inspiring
February 17, 2021

If you choose to show a cropped image in Finder or File Explorer it will show the original uncropped full-sized image because the image hasn't been cropped in Lightroom. It isn't possible to specify pixel dimensions when cropping using Lightroom. It's only possible to specify a crop ratio. Actual sizing on an image has always been a function of exporting, and as far as I know that is the way it will continue to be. I understand what you are asking, but I think that would have to be a feature that you would have to turn to Photoshop for unless you want to try my exporting suggestion. I think I have given all the suggestions I can give on this one. Perhaps someone else will have better insight.

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Gary GrayAuthor
Participating Frequently
February 17, 2021

Me thinks this is the wrong place to suggest new features for Lightoom.
I'll try elsewhere. I know how to use Lightroom and what it can and can't do. Your comments are just rehashing what I already know with explanations that describe the problem that I'm hoping to rectify some day.. The current cropping tool is limited and cumbersome and not precise in some situations. I'm trying to suggest an enhancement that will improve functionality. What I don't know how to do is to get this suggestion to the folks at Adobe for their consideration. I mistakenly thought this forum might accomplish that. This forum is obviously not an an effective way to do it. From my perspective with experience as a programmer, it's looking to me like it would be pretty simple to incorporate and quite useful as well.

JP Hess
JP Hess
Inspiring
February 16, 2021

Since Lightroom does not actually modify the master image, the only thing you can do is specify the crop ratio. Then, when you choose to export a copy of the image, that is when you can specify the actual pixel size that you want the copy to be. It is not possible to change the size of the master image in Lightroom.

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Gary GrayAuthor
Participating Frequently
February 16, 2021

Yeah I know all that, it doesn't address the suggestion.

 

when you create a custom crop in LR one way is to specify a numeric ratio and when you create that custom crop and size the crop using that ratio it reports the actual pixel dimensions of that custom crop in the info display. It knows the pixel dimensions you size the crop to. Instead of creating a custom ratio, simply enter the pixel dimensions and the crop sizes to those dimensions. For example, You shouldn't have to resize the image when exporting to get the pixel dimensions you need the export to be. It has nothing to do with non destructive editing of the raw file, Younare simply creating a custom crop based on actual pixels.I would like to see the ability to grab an actual crop based on a defined slice of pixels. It is not a difficult math problem to solve with programming, it's already doing the math. 

G
Gary GrayAuthor
Participating Frequently
February 16, 2021

Oops, ended the comment too soon.

 

An example of how this would be useful. 

Lets say I want to take a full size image from a dslr and crop it to exact pixel dimensions so I can show a 1:1 zoom of the detail of that image on a web page. If I could crop it to an exact pixel dimension based on actual pixels of the image it would eleminate the need to play with resizing, looking at the new pixel dimensions and then recropping the image to get to the actual pixel dimensions I want to show and the end result would be a cropped image that showed the image in the exact pixel dimensions I gave it. Lets say I want to show a viewer a 100% view of an image at 600 x 400 pixels. I could export that cropped image without resizing it and without changing the resolution of the image when I exported it. Or lets say, I want to emulate the difference between a full frame sensor and a aps-c sensor, I could crop to the exact dimensions of the aps-c sensor and use that crop to demonstrate the difference. There are many other useful things that could be done with cropping to an actual pixel count rather than a ratio and it would be precise.

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