Lightroom Tutorial: Crop and Adjust Perspective

Cropping and adjusting perspective are two of the most important tools for improving your photos in Lightroom. Cropping allows you to remove unwanted elements from your photo and to focus on the most important elements. Adjusting perspective allows you to correct any distortions in your photo caused by the angle at which you took the photo.

To crop a photo in Lightroom:

1. Select the Crop tool from the toolbar on the right-hand side of the window.
2. Drag the crop handles to resize the crop box.
3. Click the Aspect ratio button and select the desired aspect ratio.
4. Click the Straighten button to straighten the crop box.
5. Press Enter to apply the crop.

To adjust perspective in Lightroom:

1. Select the Geometry panel from the right-hand side of the window.
2. Click the Upright button and select the desired upright option.
3. Drag the sliders under the Guided tab to fine-tune the perspective correction.
4. Click the Constrain Crop button to ensure that no pixels are lost when the perspective is corrected.
5. Press Enter to apply the perspective correction.

Here are some tips for cropping and adjusting perspective in Lightroom:

• When cropping, try to follow the rule of thirds. This is a compositional guideline that suggests placing the most important elements of your photo at the intersections of two horizontal lines and two vertical lines that divide the frame into thirds.
• When adjusting perspective, be careful not to overdo it. Too much perspective correction can make your photo look unrealistic.
• Use the Constrain Crop button to ensure that no pixels are lost when the perspective is corrected.

Here are some examples of how to use cropping and perspective correction to improve your photos:

• Crop to remove unwanted elements from your photo. For example, if you are taking a photo of a person and there is a tree branch in the background that is distracting, you can crop the photo to remove the tree branch.
• Crop to focus on the most important elements of your photo. For example, if you are taking a photo of a landscape and there is a beautiful mountain in the background, you can crop the photo to focus on the mountain.
• Adjust perspective to correct distortions caused by the angle at which you took the photo. For example, if you are taking a photo of a building and the building is leaning to the side, you can use perspective correction to straighten the building.

With a little practice, you will be able to use cropping and perspective correction to improve your photos and create more professional-looking images.