Scale and Rotate - Lens Corrections

Report · Nov 03, 2016

I have been using photoshop to crop and straighten all of my images using the transform scale and rotate tools. I transform the image within the canvas size to crop out what I want. I am fairly new to Lightroom and I am trying to move my workflow over to Lightroom as much as possible. I just discovered the scale and rotate sliders in the Lens Corrections panel. Is there any way to move the image around once I have scaled in to move it left, right, up or down? Or does it automatically scale in to the middle of the image? I hope that makes sense. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Report · Nov 03, 2016

Hi iimerica,

I'm afraid you're using the wrong tool. The lens corrections are for correcting distortion, such as from perspective.

To crop and rotate, use the Crop tool (keyboard shortcut "R") found at the toolbar at the top of the right panels (just under the histogram, looks like a rectangle with dashed outline).

Once in the crop tool, you'll find familiar tools for rotating and for cropping, including different aspect ratio settings. To finish your crop and leave the crop tool interface, click "Done" at the bottom, choose another tool, or switch to another module... or click the crop tool icon to close the tool.

Mike

Report · Nov 12, 2016

Hey Michael!

Thanks for your help. I have tried using the crop tool in Lightroom but it changes the size of my images (MB and dimensions). I have been using the scale and rotate tools in Photoshop to keep the original dimensions the same but just move the image within the dimensions. If that makes sense? When I look at my images after using scale and rotate in Photoshop all of the dimensions are the same (for images taken with the the same lens) and makes them visually pleasing to view when each image isn't a different size. When I crop and straighten in lightroom each image dimension is different and some are way smaller than the next that needed no straightening or cropping.

I hope that makes sense. I might be just too picky for my own good. If this is just the norm for all photographers then maybe I just need to crop in Lightroom and not worry about it.

Thank you!

Report · Nov 14, 2016

Hi iimerica,

When you crop an image, you are cutting off some pixels, and creating an image that is smaller than the original. That's just what cropping is.

In Photoshop, when you scale the image back to its original dimensions after cropping, you are adding new pixels to the image, and PS has some very sophisticated math to do this well. But, you're adding pixels and interpolating their value. The image is irrevocably modified at that point.

In Lightroom, when you crop, (assuming you are keeping the same aspect ratio As the original image) you end up with a smaller image as well. But, when you export that image, whether to a file, a printer, or even to edit further in Photoshop, you have the ability to resize it at that point - maintaining the integrity of the original file. Furthermore, Lightroom's crop is non-destructive - you can go back at any time to the crop tool, reset the crop, and you're back to your original unaltered image.

Both are valid work flows, but if you are in a Lightroom-centric work flow, you should crop in Lightroom without worrying about the exact pixel dimensions, and scale later in the output process. (I'm assuming minor crop/straightening, and not extreme cropping of the image).

Mike

Report · Nov 15, 2016

Okay. That makes sense to me. I would just export it at the original dimensions then to keep it the same canvas size as another image that has not been cropped? I think I am understanding that right. Thank you for your help! I truly appreciate it!