New To Lightroom

I've been using PS CS6 since it first came out and have been happy with it so far. But since I've switched to Mac OS I can no longer install CS6 as the copy I have is for Windows only. So I'm testing out PS CC and Lightroom Classic to see how I like them. The look of PS certainly has changed and there are some new things to get used, to but I'm figuring them out. But LR is not a program I've used at all but want to give it a good try.

There is something I have some difficulty with while using LR. After picking a shot to work on out of the library I'm in develop mode. After making some adjustments and getting things looking good I decide to zoom in bit to a point where I'm happy. So I get the crop tool so I can crop the shot the way I want. The trouble is that as soon as click on the crop tool the shot is no longer zoomed in. I must be doing something wrong as I'm sure you must be able to zoom in on a shot and crop it. The only thing I've been able to do is hand the shot over to PS to crop. Hope someone can enlighten me.

Thanks

In Lightroom when you activate the crop tool the display of the photo will go to the fit mode. If it didn't you would not be able to see the crop handles.

Crop in to the area you want and hit return. Then only the area you have selected will show and it will fill the photo display area.

If you want to adjust your crop select the crop tool again and you will be able to adjust your crop to more or less of the original file. Remember, nothing you do in Lightroom is destructive to the original file so you can always go back, and undo anything you adjust and even start over if you need to.

In my opinion Lightroom is a wonderful tool to process your photos in. There are thousands of videos on YouTube to help you get started.

I wish there were a way to zoom in, then crop to that. I've looked and I don't think there's a way.

You can draw a rectangle around the crop area and it will crop to that. I've found that helpful to get a first cut at a small portion of the frame.

bpalermini wrote in post #19504567
In Lightroom when you activate the crop tool the display of the photo will go to the fit mode. If it didn't you would not be able to see the crop handles.

Crop in to the area you want and hit return. Then only the area you have selected will show and it will fill the photo display area.

If you want to adjust your crop select the crop tool again and you will be able to adjust your crop to more or less of the original file. Remember, nothing you do in Lightroom is destructive to the original file so you can always go back, and undo anything you adjust and even start over if you need to.

In my opinion Lightroom is a wonderful tool to process your photos in. There are thousands of videos on YouTube to help you get started.

drsilver wrote in post #19504586
I wish there were a way to zoom in, then crop to that. I've looked and I don't think there's a way.

You can draw a rectangle around the crop area and it will crop to that. I've found that helpful to get a first cut at a small portion of the frame.

Thank you both for your responses. Lightroom certainly does look to be a tool with awesome potential once I get used to it. Guess it's time for me to binge watch some Youtube videos.

jm4ever wrote in post #19504689
Thank you both for your responses. Lightroom certainly does look to be a tool with awesome potential once I get used to it. Guess it's time for me to binge watch some Youtube videos.

Since all the masking advances in LrC I rarely use PS anymore. Try the Auto feature in both LrC and ACR. They call it Sensei which is AI based and trained on thousands of professional edits. It's pretty good most of the and it saves a lot of the basic work like adjusting for black and white clipping. You may like it. If you select multiple files and flip the switch to Auto Sync it will analyze each file individually. A big help for me when I shoot an occasional charity.

Not sure if you know this but the plan comes with a personal website - Portfolio that is integrated with LrC.

When you're in the Develop module and you zoom in on a photo, the crop tool will automatically reset the zoom to fit the entire photo within the crop frame. However, you can easily zoom back in by holding down the Control key (or Command key on a Mac) and using your mouse's scroll wheel to zoom in and out. Alternatively, you can use the Loupe view mode to zoom in on a specific area of the photo, and then use the Crop tool to adjust the framing. To enter Loupe view mode, simply press the E key on your keyboard while in the Develop module. I hope this helps!