P: Crop to specific pixel dimensions

[S360]

Its well documented that you cannot crop to specific pixel dimensions and many people have asked this very question. Just google "crop specific dimensions in Lightroom" Heck even someone has built a plug-in to solve the issue.

Do you want this feature? We do.

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

Still nothing in that direction. More: I cannot find the XmpCrop plugin nowhere. Really?!?

[S360]

Welcome to Lightroom! responsive to customers needs, not

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

that would be swell - but it doesn't respect the custom ratio if it is 'too close' to a preset ratio

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

in order to sell my photos, the publisher requires images that are specific pixel dimensions. 
I crop based on art - if I don't think it looks good, I don't try to sell in that dimension.
But, If I'm perfectly happy with the art and appearance of 2697x1518 of my work, it is completely absurd that lightroom will only export 2697x1517!
Is that one pixel important artistically? perhaps.
But, not having it means my image simply will not upload to the publisher.

And, I do have photoshop. But, Lightroom was supposed to streamline the process of sorting and exporting photos for the photographer. 

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

in order to sell my photos, the publisher requires images that are specific pixel dimensions. 
I crop based on art - if I don't think it looks good, I don't try to sell in that dimension.
But, If I'm perfectly happy with the art and appearance of 2697x1518 of my work, it is completely absurd that lightroom will only export 2697x1517!
Is that one pixel important artistically? perhaps.
But, not having it means my image simply will not upload to the publisher.

And, I do have photoshop. But, Lightroom was supposed to streamline the process of sorting and exporting photos for the photographer. 

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

Have you tried the method I posted in my youtube video? Your required aspect ratio (if you indeed need 2697 x 1518) is pretty weird as it reduces by only 3 to 506:899. If the numbers go over 999 you can't enter it! The process may look long-winded, but if you repeatedly need the same size, you can pre-prepare an empty image with that crop ready to copy, and paste it on as many of your photos as you need to upload.

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

I've found threads with similar bugs as old as 3 years ago, and I'm not seeing a fix. 
When resizing in Lightroom, setting a custom crop too close to a default ratio, the crop snaps to the default. This seems to affect export, as exported images are 1 pixel off of the size set with dimensions.
If I choose 2697x1518, that's what I need.
The publishing page simply will not upload a file that is 2697x1517.

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

I guess the only real-world option is: export from lightroom bigger than you need, crop in Photoshop. I know this is a dodgy and time-wasting workaround. I think you won't find a better solution. I gave up.

[Jao vdL]

Rose,

there is one trick that I found and I just tested and it allowed me to create an export at exactly 2697x1518. I just created a blank image of exactly those dimensions in Photoshop, loaded this into Lightroom, and synced just the crop to another image in Lightroom. Then exporting from this with long edge set at 2697 creates an image of exactly 2697x1518 pixels. This might be a solution for you.

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

I have not, although I saw your video last night. My originals vary somewhat in size, but I plan to play with this and see if I can make it work.

Thanks!

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

Thanks! That's exactly what I was hoping to try today.

I hoping to avoid adding multiple photoshop steps for each image.

[S360]

yes still a convoluted workaround. 

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

I just made blank templates in Photoshop for each of the sizes I regularly need. While the crop ratio is _still_ snapped to 16:9; it actually exports correctly!

It's a strange and somewhat silly work-around, but it is surprisingly effective! 🙂
Thanks for all the help! 

[BillPohlmann]

Being able to crop to specific dimensions would allow you to create 100% (1:1) crops at a consistent size for blog or social media posts, whether lens reviews/comparisons, technique articles or just showing off the quality of a shot.  You could just crop to the desired dimensions, say 960x640, then export at full size.

[johnrellis]

I just released the Any Crop plugin, which lets you define aspect ratios that are very close but not identical to Lightroom's built-in ratios, avoiding the bug described here.   You can specify aspect ratios or exact dimensions in pixels, inches, or centimeters.  Any Crop also provides a number of other crop enhancements users have asked for.

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

I don't understand why this would be so hard to implement.  It's in Photoshop.  The code is written.  Just modify it to fit Lightroom (or start over--it's not that hard).  Here's why it's important to me.
I post my photos to Flickr.  I decided that a max size I want up on line is a max pixel dimension of 3500.  When I photograph a bird, I want to crop to get the bird perfectly positioned in the frame (hard to do while shooting the bird on the fly).  So while I crop in Lightroom, I have to go back and forth with the cursor and *try* to get the crop box to be 3500 pixels.  Nearly (or completely?) impossible.  If it comes in at 3546, I'm not going to want an algorithm to reside down to 3500 during the export function.  That would damage the image and for only 46 pixels.  Now I leave it at 3546, but why should I have to?  I can't use the export function *after* my design crop.

This is frustrating, because I know it's not a big issue to fix.

[madbrain76]

Adding myself to this RFE. Simply can't believe that something so basic isn't supported. Even Windows Paint can crop properly at the pixel level.

https://forums.adobe.com/thread/2510581

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

I would like to crop images to a specific size, for example exactly half the width/height of the original photo (in effect a form of digital zoom). Sliding the edges or corners isn't precise enough for this, especially if I'm doing the same for several photos and need continuity between them. Playing around with the aspect ratio settings is no help.

What I suggest is:
• One or two sliders and/or number entry boxes allowing you to set a percentage for width and height.
• Changes to sliders/number boxes should center on the middle of the current crop area.
• Changes by sliding crop edges/corners should also change the sliders/number boxes.

[Hansjürg]

I would like to have a choice in the custom inputs and not only the aspect ratio.
A choice for pixels, centimeters and inches would be nice.

 

[GoldingD]

Cropping in LrC is proportional only. To actually obtain specific dimensions, do that upon export.

[JohanElzenga]

Fixed values rather than an aspect ratio would not make any sense, because that would result in a fixed crop size that cannot be changed, only moved around. The reason is that Lightroom is a non-destructive editor. Edits are stored in metadata, not applied to the original image. But cropping to a certain number of pixels or inches requires resampling the image itself (if you want the crop size be adjustable).

[johnrellis]

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The Any Crop plugin lets you crop a photo to dimensions of exact pixels, inches, or centimeters:

[johnrellis]

Moderators, @Rikk Flohr: Photography, please merge with this existing Idea:

https://community.adobe.com/t5/lightroom-classic-ideas/lightroom-crop-to-specific-pixel-dimensions/i...

[Todd Shaner]

Merging to existing idea request.

[GoldingD]

In my workflow, for when I want to send work to the printers (I use BayPhoto) I crop to the proportion I want, then export to ON1 Resize, where I convert to the exact dimensions I want the photo to be printed at. And I sharpen (only then) specific to the print. The Resize software handles the math to make that photo look fantastic. Note RAW photos, 24 Mega Pixel camera, my typical 16 by 24 inch printed on Metal. I could use the same approach for a publish to web if I wanted.