P: Enable Zoom with Crop Tool

[defaultcqa9r4726x9k]

This may have already been suggested, but it would be nice if the zoom feature in Lightroom 4 could be enabled while using the crop tool to make refined adjustments to the crop area. At present, there is only a clumsy work-around using the secondary display for refined crop adjustments.

[Earth Oliver]

How time flies these days... i think Lightroom might be the only image editor around which doesn't allow users to crop while zooming? 
Who does this lack of a standard feature benefit? Is there a large group of users whose workflow would be harmed by allowing them to zoom while cropping?

[nickdclements]

@earth_oliver And the fact that you can zoom while cropping on the mobile version... and Camera Raw for Photoshop... which is the same damn thing!!! is just a slap in the face.

[Earth Oliver]

Here's how i wish that Classic cropped by default, but with the option to also zoom in further to check the edges of the crop.

[Stephen Newport]

yessssss (!).........

[Earth Oliver]

Oh my gosh, they did it! You can finally zoom in while cropping, just like every other application in existence!!!

[Earth Oliver]

Just kidding. We're still stuck in the dark ages and can't zoom while cropping.

[Jerry Syder]

Hahaha!! Nice one, Earth - you got me here. Thought you were losing it actually; this "feature request" is only, just about nine years old. 

[wa-so]

The other reality is, that the circle of my well known photographers is irritated by missing this feature but they never mention it online.

[Victoria Bampton LR Queen]

@wahrmut_sobainsky give them the link to this thread and tell them to come and vote!

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

I'd like to suggest a new feature to the Lightroom Classic cropping tool.

The existing crop tool does not allow for an exact pixel dimension crop, everything is based on ratio. Would it be possible to add a pixel crop to the tool?

Comparable to functionality in Photoshop, maybe even more.

If I have an image and I want to make crop at exact pixel dimensions, when I initiate a crop, there is no feedback on the pixel dimensions of the crop window in real time. Photoshop will display the crop dimensions in pixels next to the mouse curser, assuming the ruler is set to pixels. It would be even nicer if one could simply have a dialog that allow you to enter the pixel dimension in the X & Y dimensions and the tool would just size the window to those dimensions.

In LR Classic, it's kind of hit and miss. I create a crop and then have to look at the cropped dimensions after the crop in the Info display. It usually requires more than one attempt to get the crop exactly on.

As it stands now, I have to export the file to photoshop, and do the cropping there, where it reports the pixel dimensions on the screen in real time. Once I have the cropped defined, I save that image using save-as, and then exit without saving the file in photoshop. It's all a bit cumbersome. It would be nice to be able to do that in Lightroom Classic, as I could create virtual images of the crop and export those over and over again when needed.

Thanks for any consideration you can give to this. 

[Rikk Flohr: Photography]

This thread is being merged into an existing authoritative thread for better tracking and response. 

[Earth Oliver]

and the other, other reality is that everyone who needs to zoom while cropping long ago gave up on using Lr to process their images since it's missing this essential component.

[Earth Oliver]

*Gary_Gray

great suggestion! I like the way a competitor has done it, showing you the pixels dims based on output scaling, but also includes physical dims based on ppi. These are tools that are needed every day by professionals. 

[Chucks1tallguy]

In LRC I zoomed in on an image. Zoom = 49.2%. The portion of the picture that I see is exactly what I want to capture. How do I copy or capture or crop to what I see on the screen?

[gary_sc]

Have you tried clicking on the Crop tool and setting the boundries to those edges? Be sure the Aspect Ratio is set to Custom.

[Chucks1tallguy]

When I click on the crop tool the zoomed image becomes the original unzoomed image. Continous Clicking the crop tool filps from the zoomed to the full image and back. How do I set the Aspect Ratio?

[gary_sc]

Sorry, I thought you had some experience with the crop tool.

Yes, when you click on the crop tool, the image zooms out because LRC does not know how much of a crop you want to do. Also, it zooms out a bit extra to allow room for you to rotate the image on the possibility that you need to correct a non-level image.

Anyhow, what you need to do is to zoom in and mentally note features on all four corners that you wish to use as corners in your final crop. Then select the crop tool and move the corners or sides so that the crop will match your zoomed in view. Do not worry if you make a mistake here because the image itself does not loose any pixels after the crop. If you do wish to correct a crop, you can open up the crop tool again and you will see the region outside the crop grayed out. By moving the line or the corner outward, you will return the missing pixels to display.

Over time you will gain all of the experience you need to crop like a wizard.

Good luck!

[Conrad_C]

Basically the answer you’re getting, which is correct, is that there is no exact feature to do this. There are only workarounds.

One of the workarounds you are already discusssing is to manually re-crop to match what you saw in the window. A major problem with that is Lightroom Classic does not allow zooming in while cropping.

Another workaround is to simply capture the screen as it is, using the built-in screen capture function on macOS (Command+Shift+5) or Windows (Windows key+Shift+S or Print Screen key), bring that image back into Lightroom Classic or into another image editor such as Photoshop, and trim off the parts outside the window. This can work great if you don’t mind the image being only the pixels shown on screen; in other words, if the actual image is higher resolution a screen image won’t capture all that.

A hybrid way to get a full resolution version would be to take a quick screen shot just to note exactly how it was shown in the window, open that in another application as a reference, then manually crop the original in Lightroom Classic to match the reference screen shot.

[Earth Oliver]

I'm posting this "idea," but in my mind, it's more of a bug.

In Lr Classic, we're unable to zoom while cropping. Speaking as an imaging professional, who has spent the past 30 years of my life cropping countless hundreds of thousands of images, seen by billions and billions of eyes, the absence of zooming while cropping in Lightroom makes absolutely no sense. Watch any professional use Ps, C1, or any other imaging app to crop an image for any use and you'll see how essential zooming while cropping is. 

Why Adobe has chosen to not include this in an application with a Print module is anyone's guess. Cropping to the pixel when creating prints is 100% essential, yet we're unable to do so in Lightroom Classic. 

And have you ever tried to crop far into an image? The behavior of Classic is the opposite of what's needed when cropping out a large % of an image. Rather than zooming in for a better view when cropping, Classic instead will zoom out to the entire canvas! On what planet does that make any sense?

Fifteen years ago, when Lightroom was first released, we needed to be able to zoom while cropping. Fifteen years later, we still need to be able to zoom while cropping.

[johnrellis]

Moderators: Please merge with this Idea thread:

https://community.adobe.com/t5/lightroom-classic-ideas/lightroom-enable-zoom-with-crop-tool/idi-p/12...

[Earth Oliver]

@johnrellis Thanks. I searched for that exact thread, but it didn't appear. 

[Rizon Parein]

Does this already exist?

[Earth Oliver]

Nope! Fifteen years of app development and we still can't zoom in while cropping.
I think Lightroom might be the only Adobe app that doesn't have this feature...

[Russell Proulx]

I'm moving from an ACR to a Lightroom workflow (at least I'm trying to ..) and so far I've been adapting well. But I just came across something that has me wondering if I'm missing a hidden feature..

In ACR I can zoom in to see the edges of what I'm cropping and LrC does not seem to have any option to zoom during cropping in the same way that ACR can. I do a fair bit of fine art reproduction and getting the crop right to the edge of a canvas is hard to see without getting in close. I do have a second monitor and see that I'm able to view an enlarged preview while cropping, and that helps a lot. I can also jump into ACR with the images to do the cropping there and then update the previews when back in LrC. But being able to zoom into 100% while cropping in LrC would be the best solution  ... if it existed. There are reasons I need to crop in the Raw processor, so doing it in PS isn't an option.

Thank you,

R

[Chris 486]

Hi Russell!

Good news is that you are not missing anything. Bad news is that you can't crop and zoom in LrC. Your two work arounds are probably the most straightforward if you need precise cropping IMO.