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.

[Russell Proulx]

Thank you. Chris. I'm glad to hear that I can stop searching 🙂

R

[johnrellis]

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

https://community.adobe.com/t5/lightroom-classic-ideas/p-enable-zoom-with-crop-tool/idi-p/12249267

[C.Cella]

How come this idea/feature request has no status and it's still in limbo !

First we need it second t's really an industry standard-...Lr is not better without this basic behavior!

At this point is logical to ask: Adobe, what is the technical challenge here, what is preventing us to have it in Lr ?

[Rizon Parein]

Couldn't agree more... For instagram I often crop on my Iphone, just zooming in and taking a screenshot. It's actually a very intuitive way of cropping.

I recently bought a Leica Q2, a 28mm 60mp camera. It's high resolution allows you to crop your shots to a focal length of 80mm. Unfortunately with the current crop tools it's very hard to get a feel of what you doing, adjusting the handles is a nightmare.

[Earth Oliver]

@C.Cella This feature request has been in limbo since v1 in 2007. At this point, i think that Adobe just doesn't want to admit that they were wrong about cropping. 

[C.Cella]

@Earth Oliver 

If there is a technological challenge here like "we would need to re-code entirely LR to get zoom to work while cropping" then I would understand the situation.

If not then it's just about giving customers what they are asking for.

Obviously there are more than 88 people on the planet that need this.

To Adobe I would suggest to do the following: make a global survey.

Send all LR users a simple question : would you want to have the ability to chance zoom while cropping?

Add video/image example jsut to make it obviously clear.

I am sure thousands and thousands of users will say they want it.

[Earth Oliver]

@C.Cella Even if there was a tech challenge here (i'm positive that's not the case), it's an essential feature that should be implemented regardless of hurdles.What kills me about the current behavior is that the more you crop in, the more Lr zooms out! Why would i ever need to see the outside edges of the image i'm cropping? This just goes to show that whoever designed the thing had never cropped an image before. It's totally ridiculous.

[solutionboy]

Amazed to see this is still an ongoing request! I may have even commented here several years ago 😄 I also need to make fine crops on paintings and artwork, Currently when cropping, I just cannot see if I am including areas outside the painting frame, or removing part of the frame from the image. If it is an extreme panorama painting, just forget about it. It can't be hard to implemet surely, even a floating 'loupe' ove the crop corner when dragging would be fine.

[solutionboy]

I actully just remembered, there is already the exact feature we need in place, on the Transform tool: when you are choosing your tranform points, you have a floating 100% modal window next to the cursor to assist you in placing the points accurately. Just switch that on for the crop tool as well. Simples.

[Earth Oliver]

@solutionboy Yes, it's totally mind-boggling that this feature is absent. At this point, i think they're just ashamed to admit that they were wrong to not implement it way back in v1, and that's why they've neglected to include it since then. 

[Bob Somrak]

@solutionboy 

The same magnifier tool that is in transform would be great. Adobe hass definately been ignoring this feature request for a LONG time.  My bigger issue is ignoring long standing bugs.

[SuperFabe]

In Lightroom Classic, Develop module. When trying to straighten an image under the Angle adjustment in the Crop & Straighten, you get lame targets that are difficult to get precise locations.

Using the Transform panel Guided brings up a simple cross hair with a zoom box that hovers nearby.

I would like to see the same cross hair & floating zoom box be used in the Angle adjustment under Crop & Straighten.
It's reusing the same code that already exists and making the product have a consistent look and feel.

[Bob Somrak]

Agree 100%. This has been asked for several times but unfortunately Adobe doesn't seem interested in improving the crop/straighten tools.

[johnrellis]

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

https://community.adobe.com/t5/lightroom-classic-ideas/p-enable-zoom-with-crop-tool/idi-p/12249267 

That thread discusses the same issue, making fine crop and straighten adjustments.

[mr_blueeye]

Adobe, are you slepping ten years or what?????

[Scott_Martin_]

I agree. I work with 400MP files and need greater precision when cropping. 

[Earth Oliver]

Yes, not being able to zoom in while cropping large images is about as bad as it gets. And the larger your image is, the further Lr zooms out! 

[Scott_Martin_]

I agree Earth Oliver. The current tool was just fine with 20mp camera files but is becomeing more and more inadequate as camera resolutions increase. Cropping 400MP camera files on a laptop display is a joke...

[.jake.]

A regular task I encounter is editing reproductions of artwork, such as paintings so that artists can display them in portfolios, make prints, etc... Often I am cropping in to the edge of a canvas and like to preserve as much of the painting in the frame as possible without a sloppy edge that reveals the background. I can zoom in and see within a pixel or two in the photoshop crop tool, but I do the brunt of my adjustments to straighten these pieces of artwork and adjust their color and exposure in Lightroom Classic, so it would save me some hassle if I was able to more acurately crop right from LRC. This is something that has nagged at me for quite some time and which I would like to see added. Simiar execution to how the little loupe box appears when placing guides in guided transform would be excellent.

[solutionboy]

@.jake. This is the exact same situation I am in - cropping/rotating high resolution paintings. Hopefully Adobe will eventually pick up on this thread & see that the solution already exists in the guided transform tool, as you mention.

[johnrellis]

[This post contains formatting and embedded images that don't appear in email. View the post in your Web browser.]

I just released the next version of the Any Crop plugin, which includes the new Adjust Crop command for making fine adjustments to crops while zoomed in Develop.  It's not as convenient as having it built-in, but it should get the job done for most uses.  See it in action:

 

Thanks to @C.Cella for urging me to think about the issues.

[Scott_Martin_]

Wow JOhn the AnyCrop plugin looks really exciting! I just downloaded it and get a "An internal error has occured" message when I try to use it. I'm on an M1max Mac using the latest OS (12.6) and Lightroom Classic(11.5). Would love to hear a way to get this to work!

[johnrellis]

"I just downloaded it and get a "An internal error has occured" message when I try to use it. "

Please contact me at the support email address, and include details of what you were doing (a screenshot or two could be very helpful).

[C.Cella]

I am having a blast with this new addition to Any Crop.

Adjust Crop finally gives us the ability to crop precisely in LR, it's a true evolution.

This is a vital tool for all LR users.

.

[Scott_Martin_]

Reinstalled and got it to work. This is amazing. Finally, preciese cropping in Lightroom! Thank you for this!