(The Lightroom video tutorial in this post is just under the introductory text below. The working files for this Lightroom video tutorial can be found just above the video.)
The Lightroom Cropping Tool is so powerful that you are not going to want to crop your images in any other application. In fact, I often find myself creating and importing small catalogs strictly for cropping my images.
This Lightroom video tutorial is designed to teach you how to crop an image in Lightroom, as well as to help you understand and master Lightroom’s Cropping Tool along with all of its features.
Major cropping is when we need to make significant changes to the composition of an image. Major cropping is useful when the composition of your image is wrong or if you simply want a different composition for the image, even if the original composition was fine.
When we crop in so severely however, a lot of resolution (megapixels) in the image are lost. As a result, we need to make some extra detail enhancements to the image to make up for the loss of resolution. In this tutorial, we will also demonstrate how to make these compensations for detail enhancement correctly.
Watch the video or continue reading the article below!
Watch the Video
How to Make a Major Crop to an Image
Crop Overlays
To cycle to Full Screen Mode in Lightroom, press “F.” Then, press “R” to select the Cropping Tool. As mentioned earlier, although the original composition of an image might be fine, we could still add a major crop to the image and change the composition. This particular image was purposely shot to include a lot of negative space and there is nothing wrong with the composition. If we cycle through the Crop Overlays (press “O” repeatedly), this image fits the Swirl Crop Overlay.
However, if we want to crop this image to the Rule of Thirds Overlay, then we need to make a significant crop to our image since this image does not follow the Rule of Thirds. Press “O” to cycle through the Crop Overlays until you get the Rule of Thirds Overlay.
Constrain the Proportions
There are two ways to constrain the proportions of the image and retain the original image aspect ratio. The first is to hold down “Shift” while adjusting the image with the Cropping Tool. Another way to constrain the proportions is to keep it locked. If this icon is displayed as unlocked, then it is going to free-transform unless you hold down the “Shift” key. If you hold down “Shift,” the proportions are still constrained, regardless if the icon is locked or unlocked. To unlock or lock, simply click on the icon.
Making a Major Crop
First, we are going to pull with the Cropping Tool from the left edge of the image. Keep dragging it until the bird is right on the One Third Line. Leave a little bit of space above the bird’s head, but be careful not to leave too much space since that will look a bit awkward.
Below, the bird is right on the One-Third Line.
Now, if there were some clouds or a better horizon line in this image, we would probably leave the crop on the Two Third Line on the horizon line and the One Third Line on the bird, as pictured below.
However, the water in this image looks better than the horizon and mountains, so we are going to pull the image down a little more.
Below is the final crop of our image, which now follows the Rule of Thirds.
A Quick Tip
When traveling, it is usually inconvenient to bring really long telephoto lenses. I usually bring a 70-200mm lens and shoot at full RAW, instead of mRAW or any other resolution setting. The reason why is because if I shoot something that is not close enough, I can crop in and get a little bit of an extra zoom digitally by cropping in on my image in post production. So, we highly recommend that you shoot in larger RAW format so that you can actually crop in later on and still have enough detail in your image.
How to Make Correct Detail Enhancements
We have cropped about 20% off from the original image, which is a pretty major crop. As a result, we need to enhance the details a little more than normal.
Sharpening in the Detail Panel
If you want to enlarge and print your image, especially after performing a significant crop, we recommend that you first take the image into Adobe Photoshop, enlarge it there, and then apply the detail enhancement adjustments once you are back in Lightroom.
To expand the Detail Panel, press “Ctrl + 5.” Next, zoom in to 1:1. For this particular image, we will bring Amount up to 85 and Radius to 1.5. Next, bring Detail up to 30 and leave Masking at zero.
If you do not want to sharpen the smaller details too much, then bring up Masking. In our previous tutorial, we discussed how holding down “Alt” while moving the Masking slider will bring up the Sharpening Mask. This mask lets you see exactly what part of the image the overall sharpening adjustment will affect. For example, if we take Masking up to 20-25, most of the grain in the image is removed while only the stronger lines are enhanced with the Sharpening effect. For now, we will leave Masking at 0.
Below is the Sharpening Mask on our image zoomed in 1:1, and you can see that the sharpening is affecting the subject much more than the background, just like it ought to.
Noise Reduction in the Detail Panel
To reduce the noise in our image, bring Luminance up to 25. Be careful not to bring Luminance up too high; we’re looking for a balance that gives us a smooth background bokeh without taking away too much detail in the feathers etc.
In our image below, we brought Luminance all the way up to 70. As you can see, we have lost a lot of detail in the feathers. Now, the feathers look like a smoothed over painting… So that is why we’re leaving Luminance at about 25.
Next, we are going to check what ISO this image was shot at to see if we need to do any Color Noise Reduction. In our previous tutorial, we explained what Color Noise is and how to fix it. Press “I” to toggle the information. Our image was shot at ISO 800 so we will need to reduce the Color Noise since this is a relatively high ISO. If we zoom in 3:1, we can see that the noise has a color shift to it. If we were to bring Color down to zero, we start to see differences in color within that grain.
Raise Color up to 40 so that the grain is just one standard color. Below is the final settings for Noise Reduction in the Detail Panel for our image.
Below is our final image with the detail enhancements and major crop.
Conclusion & Learn More!
Once you have finished making the detail enhancement adjustments, check your image at 1:1. Make sure that you have reduced some noise but not enough to kill important details in the image. Now that we have enhanced the details of the image, our cropped file will print out much better than if we were to just crop and not make any detail enhancement adjustments. If you want to increase sharpening, that is up to you. However, around 85-90 is good and should be sufficient enough.
In this video, we will demonstrate how to make minor crops to our images in Lightroom. In our previous article, “The Cropping Tool: A Simple but Powerful Tool in Lightroom,” we explained what the Cropping Tool does and how to use it. In this tutorial, we will now use some images as examples to demonstrate how to make minor crops to our images with the Cropping Tool.
Watch the video or continue reading the article below!
Minor Cropping
Sometimes your overall composition is great but a small crop adjustment needs to be made to correct a horizon, or any near-the-edge lines in an image. Of course you should try to compose your shots perfectly in-camera, and if necessary you can use your focal points or in-camera grid lines to line up the horizon before you click a shot. This will save you a lot of time in post production!
However, we can’t square-up every line perfectly every single time, because we simply do not always have all the time in the world while we’re shooting something active. Anyways, whenever we straighten and crop our image, we need to crop to the strongest line. If we crop to the wrong line in the image, for example if there is an odd perspective that causes vertical walls and a horizontal ceiling to appear at an angle other than 90 degrees, we will notice that something doesn’t look quite right about our photo. Some images might also have distortion, which naturally occurs from the camera lens. Lens distortion is often confused with the slanted lines of perspective or composition in an image, but just be aware that these two are different. The horizon of an image might look crooked and bent, but it actually may be from the lens distortion instead. In this tutorial, we will be making slight crop adjustments to our images. In fact, the majority of these examples are good enough; however, for the purpose of this tutorial, we want to show you guys a few examples.
Keyboard Shortcuts
To have more space in Lightroom when editing images, you can go into Full Screen as well as remove the Identity Plate. To cycle to Full Screen Mode, press “F.” To remove the Identity Plate, press “F5” or simply click on the top edge of the Identity Plate. If the image information appears on your image, press “I” until it toggles off. If you ever need to select the Cropping Tool, simply press “R.” To reset the crop of an image, simply press “Ctrl + Alt + R.”
The Cropping Tool
We have a couple options with the Cropping Tool. First, we can just click-and-drag and try to manually line up the crop lines with a horizon by eyeballing it.
Or, we can use the Straighten Tool if there is a nice straight line in our image. You need to have the Cropping Tool selected (“R”) in order to select the Straighten Tool.
To use the Straighten Tool, simply click on the leveling icon to the left of the angle slider, then click-and-drag along the horizon in the image. Once you let go of the mouse, it will automatically set the crop of your image so the line you just drew is perfectly leveled. If you have trouble drawing a straight line across, then just reset it and try again, or manually fine-tune the crop.
To check to see if the horizon line of our image is now straight, use the Grid Overlays by pressing “O.” Continue pressing “O” to cycle through the various different Grid Overlays.
Examples of Minor Cropping
Now that we know how to use the Cropping Tool, let’s go over some examples of minor cropping.
Lens Distortion
As mentioned earlier, it is natural for distortion to appear in an image, due to the camera lens. The horizon line of the image may look crooked and tilted at one end, but it might actually be from the lens distortion instead.
Our image below is slightly crooked, so we are going to drag and pull down to manually fix the crop and straighten out the edges a bit. In addition, our image has some distortion so the horizon of our image may still appear a little crooked or curved. However, we will not be adjusting distortion in this tutorial.
In our next image, most of what we see is actually lens distortion but this image could still use a bit of cropping. In this particular image, we are going to pull up just a bit on the left side. The rest of the curve in the image is from the lens distortion.
Multiple Lines
The rule in cropping is always crop to the strongest line! Sometimes, there are multiple strong lines in the image, making it hard to tell which one is the correct line. However, there is always going to be one line that will have all of the weight and that is the line you want to place the crop on. Use the Cropping Tool and test what the strongest lines are in your image. If you crop to the wrong line, you will be able to tell that your image looks a bit off.
In our image below, the strongest line is probably the bike frame, so crop to that line. Then, double check your image to see if the crop is correct. For our image, we can leave that crop at the bike frame, but we’re keeping our eye on that painted stripe on the road behind them.
Our next image is a little bit trickier since there are two different lines that we can straighten to: either the pool table or to the stairs. First, we will try and straighten based on the stairs. Select the Straighten Tool and drag it across the staircase. However, once we let go of the Straighten Tool and the crop sets, we can tell that the image looks crooked and the pool table feels like it is slanting down. In other words, we have corrected to the wrong line in the image, even though the stairs in our image are now straight.
We need to reset our crop (“Ctrl + Alt + R”) and straighten again. This time, we will straighten to the pool table in our image. Select the Straighten Tool again and straighten to the pool table. Then, select the Cropping Tool to tweak and center the image. Our image is now cropped and straightened correctly.
Creative Twist
One thing to be careful about, especially new photographers, is the dreaded creative twist or tilt. Sometimes we twist too much on an image, thinking that it looks artistic when in reality, everything in the image looks like it’s falling over. So, be careful not to twist too much. With creative twists, we normally would not crop the image unless that twist does not work out and the image does not look good. In addition, we highly recommend that you do not do creative twists when there is a strong horizon line, as this can give you the “sinking ship effect”… Here is an example of when a “creative tilt” is okay, and the image could work either way.
Conclusion & Learn More!
The adjustments made to the majority of the images in this tutorial were pretty small, so it is a little hard to see a difference. However, we hope that these examples on minor cropping have given you a better understanding on how to get a more perfect crop for your images.
