Setting crop tool in Lightroom 3.6

[ma...@bkwds.comcast.net]

Newbie to Adobe image editing here.

Have installed 30-day trial of Lightroom 3.6 and although there are many
professional features, there's difficulty in setting the crop boarders.
Looking for precise crop SIZE display in pixels or even a field to type
crop width and height. How does on set the crop tool accurately? Need
to dial in crop to multiples of 5-pixels. Yes, already aware of the VIEW
menu.


-Ed

[Savageduck]

With LR you should be in the "Develop" module.

The first thing to remember is, LR crops to set aspect ratios. Those
crops are sized for output with the aspect ratio maintained. I am
curious as to why you need this degree of precision.
To be able to make true custom pixel crops sized crops Photoshop is
going to be a better fit for you.

Select the crop tool
You will then have the "Crop & Straighten" panel open.

On the left you will see the symbol for crop tool to make a crop to
specific dimensions or aspect ratio. The default is to restrain to the
original aspect ratio. To change to one of the presets, or to create
your custom ratio or crop size, make sure the "padlock" on the right is
open. Click on the word "Original" and a menu will open. from this menu
you can select a preset or enter a custom size/ratio. The new ratio can
be set to 3 decimal places on each side.

I hope this is exact enough for you. If not, you can edit/crop your
image in Photoshop or another piece of external editing software. Your
externally edited file will be brought back into LR once you are done.

--
Regards,

Savageduck

[ma...@bkwds.comcast.net]

On Sun, 6 May 2012 18:38:27 -0700, Savageduck
<savageduck1@{REMOVESPAM}me.com> brought the following to our attention:

>On 2012-05-06 07:22:35 -0700, ma...@bkwds.comcast.net said:
>
>> Newbie to Adobe image editing here.
>>
>> Have installed 30-day trial of Lightroom 3.6 and although there are many
>> professional features, there's difficulty in setting the crop boarders.
>> Looking for precise crop SIZE display in pixels or even a field to type
>> crop width and height. How does on set the crop tool accurately? Need
>> to dial in crop to multiples of 5-pixels. Yes, already aware of the VIEW
>> menu.

Thanks.. that's a very good reply. I'm able to do what you advise
without difficulty. When enabling the details overlay, I see the corp
size being displayed, but not in real time, only after releasing a crop
edge drag. The view interface responds WAY too slowly for any real
time crop setting, especially to a single pixel resolution. I can export
to Jasc PSP7 for editing, but that defeats the purpose of LR.

Next I try to resize, and find out there is none. Only in a batch
export? Basically I do technical image editing and a LOT of photos with
Canon PowerShot cameras. None of these are formatted for printing,
mostly prepared as content for web presentation.

Have been unhappy with what Corel has done to PSP as have many
other users. PSP14 is loaded with annoying bugs, and they talk of
"workflow" but its interface is slow and clumsy. LR was intended to
ditch Corel. Maybe I need to look at PS (or CS)? It's just too
expensive for the average Joe. I'm not doing this as a business to
support the expense, and think $150 for Lightroom is a bit steep.


Additional note: LR created folder or 'catalogs' for each of my camera
collections, and another for ONE technical folder. These Catalog Preview
snippets have created a disk defrag nightmare. It has taken hours and
multiple time consuming passes, and the defrag utility is STILL trying
to sort the MFT on that drive. There are >12,000 snips in >11,000
folders. YIKES!!

I may not make it to day 3.

[o...@two.three]

On Mon, 7 May 2012 13:39:17 +0100, ma...@bkwds.comcast.net wrote
(in article <giffq7909rfpkp00n...@4ax.com>):

> ditch Corel. Maybe I need to look at PS (or CS)? It's just too
> expensive for the average Joe. I'm not doing this as a business to
> support the expense, and think $150 for Lightroom is a bit steep.

Maybe Gimp would help. Its Crop tool gives an instantly updated read-out in
pixels of the area selected which I think is what you are asking for.

Worth a punt (and the price couldn't get any better).

http://www.gimp.org/

[Savageduck]

I would add that using CS, GIMP or another editor or plugin for
additional editing, using LR as the center piece of the workflow is not
a bad solution.
LR provides a very good non-destructive workflow solution for a large
group of digital photographers, which also allows you to use third
party software such as NIK & OnOne products and HDR software for those
who might care.
So with LR you have importation, RAW processing, strong editing and
image correction, a good print module, and web gallery creation. All
with a powerful cataloging system.


--
Regards,

Savageduck

[ma...@bkwds.comcast.net]

On Mon, 7 May 2012 08:24:46 -0700, Savageduck

<savageduck1@{REMOVESPAM}me.com> brought the following to our attention:

>I would add that using CS, GIMP or another editor or plugin for
>additional editing, using LR as the center piece of the workflow is not
>a bad solution.
>LR provides a very good non-destructive workflow solution for a large
>group of digital photographers, which also allows you to use third
>party software such as NIK & OnOne products and HDR software for those
>who might care.
>So with LR you have importation, RAW processing, strong editing and
>image correction, a good print module, and web gallery creation. All
>with a powerful cataloging system.

However as I mentioned earlier, LR 3 created over 11,000 small-file
catalog preview snips for my images in 12,000 folder. This has caused
a defragmentation problem, and I wonder why Adobe chose such a
thumbnail structure? 11,000 small files in 12,000 subfolders? q:-]


-G

[Savageduck]

Not being a Windows user I can't address that particular problem
directly. I would suggest checking with one of the Adobe forums, or
finding a Windows user familiar with LR.

However the small entries you are seeing is the manner in which Adobe
records the non-destructive edits and adjustments to your original
files. Everything done in LR is non-destructive and reversible. This is
where virtual copies are created. Note each of these files is usually a
relatively small xmp sidecar file somewhere in the 8-12KB range.

In my case I am using Mac OSX and the fragmentation issue is not
critical. LR does create a set of files to perform its cataloging
function and to relate the non-destructive adjustments to the original
image file, along with a backup of the catalog file. So you should be
able to find in a "Lightroom" folder or directory four files, where "x"
is the version number; "Lightroom x Catalog.lrcat", "Lightroom x
Catalog.lrcat-journal", "Lightroom x Catalog.lrcat.lock, & "Lightroom x
Catalog Previews.lrdata".

Then you will have the "Backups" folder which will contain the backup
"Lightroom x Catalog.lrcat" file, and the imported image folder, in my
case, "Lightroom DNG Images". That is where LR will stash imported and
converted image files which show up in the LR Library.

Personally I have not heard of Windows LR users having a major issue
with fragmentation. As a matter of fact I understand that Windows 7
addressed many of those particular issues.

Still, I would suggest that you use the full 30 day trial to get a
little more comfortable with the eccentricities of LR before rejecting
it out right. Just remember, while LR does a good job as a stand alone
cataloging and editing software, it becomes truly powerful when working
together as a gateway to other software such as CS.


--
Regards,

Savageduck

[ma...@bkwds.comcast.net]

On Mon, 7 May 2012 17:26:35 -0700, Savageduck

<savageduck1@{REMOVESPAM}me.com> brought the following to our attention:

>On 2012-05-07 16:31:51 -0700, ma...@bkwds.comcast.net said:
>
>> However as I mentioned earlier, LR 3 created over 11,000 small-file
>> catalog preview snips for my images in 12,000 folder. This has caused
>> a defragmentation problem, and I wonder why Adobe chose such a
>> thumbnail structure? 11,000 small files in 12,000 subfolders? q:-]
>>
>>
>> -G

Short answer top posting. I've moved the catalog files to a bigger and
faster drive in system (not the OS drive) and LR is working much better!
The bigger drive is quieter and faster, and defrags easily.

I'm having trouble importing (or synchronizing) PNG files. These are
CRITICAL, and as a Paint Shop Pro user for years (and now Corel - gak
gak) with all my file edits saved as PNG, it's hit of miss importing
these files. Not sure why. Will have to ask in the LR forum on Adobe.

-Ed