Default crop aspect ratio wanted!

[Pär Wallgren]

I struggled with the crop aspect ratio drop down and the padlock but now knowing they aren't connected I would now like to suggest it to be.

I mostly want the same aspect ratio on all my crops and I want the crop frame to default to my aspect ratio instead of starting on full image size.

Maybe this requires a new button below "original" (aspect ratio) that means "lock default crop aspect ratio from now an until I change it".

And when choosing the crop tool (r) should show the crop frame  by default but on top of the full image.

I'm also missing the old possibility of starting a crop (any aspect ratio choosed) from zero. Just put the cursor on the image and drag. This will be a far quicker way instead of chasing the corners on the crop area grid.

And I don't like that you have to slide the image inside of the crop. It's backwards. I want to slide the crop frame over the image.

[richardplondon]

How LrC slides the image around "underneath" the crop window, and rotates its horizon etc, is something one just has to get used to IMO. 

One way to set a default aspect ratio different than the sensor's native one, is to select that in the camera - if the one you want is available there. As part of many camera models' Raw support, the in-camera-set aspect ratio gets read and used as a starting point by LrC's own nondestructive crop (and thus, can still be later revisited). This same in-camera setting will, though, AFAIK act as a destructive crop for camera JPG.

[Pär Wallgren]

Hi Richard,

I think you missunderstand what I mean here.

Lets say I shoot birds. The birds are a bit too far away for my lens to be good so I need to crop 100 photos in full format. Each bird needs their own composition but i want the final crop (image) to be 16x9 landscape.

I could choose 100 photos and set 16x9 and then shuffle each one around in the crop box for best composition.
But wait all photos in the set is'nt birds so I need to each time I crop a photo,  set 16x9 manually and then make the crop. Is that a better way to express it?

Or even simpler. I shoot full frame, but all my prints in all future is 16x9 so why do I need to set 16x9 each time?

Hope that explains it better.
 

[Pär Wallgren]

Forgot to add a screenshot as example.

[richardplondon]

One thing you can do: set 16:9 in the camera, and (most likely) that will get used as the default crop aspect ratio by Lightroom Classic. So long as the 'aspect ratio' padlock is closed that will persist. You can switch between portrait / landscape crop with X key. 

One easy way to bulk-set anything (not just crop shape) onto many photos: highlight them, turn on AutoSync, make the change. It's a good idea to turn AutoSync off afterwards, if you are not accustomed to working in that way - since it is easy to make a lot of unintended changes if you forget that AutoSync is active. But it is great for "batch processing" a number of similar photos. 

Another way to set the same aspect ratio onto a number of photos: select them in Library module Grid view (not in Develop). Then the Quick Develop panel allows you to change all their crop shapes to 16:9.

You can also copy-paste Aspect Ratio from one photo onto many others

but (unaccountably IMO) there is no ability to record a crop aspect ratio into a preset as far as I can tell.