You may have noticed that once you specify a crop in Lightroom and then try to move the crop frame, that it goes in the opposite direction from what you expect. Instead of thinking of yourself clicking and dragging inside the crop frame to move the crop frame, think of yourself as clicking and dragging inside the crop frame to move the photograph. Once you adjust your thinking, you will find that it performs exactly as expected.
Define initial crop
Clicked and dragged to the right to move photograph
I’ve always found this to be one of the most annoying, counter-intuitive features of Lightroom. I get the metaphor, if you are working on a light table, you are moving physical photographs around.
Sadly, I’ve never worked on a light table or with film, so this is lost on me.
I’ve gotten used to how this works, but it works exactly the opposite of how I think it should. I suspect I’m not alone here.
Btw, thx for the tip and love your blog. Just discovered it today.
Cheers,
Randy
I agree with you, Randy — thinking of it differently has helped me get used to it, but I still prefer it the other way. Thanks for writing!
Laura
Here’s a tip that helps make this easier to get used to and is a great way to crop: Once the crop tool is active hit L twice to go into lights out mode. Now all you see is the cropped image. Drag the image where you want or adjust the crop. It’s a cool way to concentrate on the crop without the distraction of the interface or how you think the crop tool should work.
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