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Crop Guide Overlays
Cropping and/or straightening your photos can be initiated in one of three ways:
- tapping the “r” key,
- selecting “View” and then “Crop” from the menu, or
- clicking the “Crop Overlay” button displayed in the command bar underneath your photos in the Develop module.
All three are equivalent. Once invoked, the command will overlay a grid of two evenly–spaced vertical and two evenly–spaced horizontal lines on your photo to make cropping your photo with the “rule of thirds” and/or straightening your photo with a plumb vertical line a snap.
A sample is displayed below:
What you might not realize (unless you go to the trouble of using the menu command) is that overlays other than the rule of thirds are available. The following options are also available from the “Crop Guide Overlay” menu under “View”:
 Grid |
 Diagonal |
 Triangle |
 Golden Ratio |
 Golden Spiral |
Cycling through the different overlays is as easy as tapping “o” on your keyboard when the crop tool is displayed (because the Golden spiral and diagonal overlays are asymmetrical, their orientation can be altered using “Shift + o”).
Although their appeal might not be felt immediately, browse through your photos with the different overlays turned on to see where these patterns shine through and to plant the seeds where they might be used in the future—some interesting compositions can be made!
Now, if only camera makers could put these in the viewfinders of their SLRs…
Comments (7)
David,
I imagine there are camera repair people that are willing to scribe removable screens on SLRs. I know of one. I had my screen for my OM4t scribed with the "rule of thirds" grid and I believe the same fellow can also scribe screens for the E-1. He might be open to scribing removable screens from other manufacturers as well. The golden spiral pattern might be a bit of a challenge though. :)
Nice tip. I've wanted something like the Grid display occasionally.
To your closing remark:
> Now, if only camera makers could put these in the viewfinders of their SLRs…
That's one thing I miss in my new DSLR that my DSLR-wannabe (Panasonic FZ30) had, was the electronic viewfinder could cycle through various displays including a Rule of Thirds display, which I really liked.
Now that I see Richard's comment, I'm remembering my old Olympus OM-1 had a changeable focus screen that had Rule of Thirds lines etched in it! Why did manufacturers walk away from that?
That's what I'd like to know! :)
Stew,
I believe you are thinking of the 1-10 Olympus screen that has 3 horizontal and 5 vertical lines. If you wanted a true "rule of thirds" (2 vertical and 2 horizontal) you needed to have a screen custom scribed. I guess you could still locate your power points with the 1-10 though not very easily.
I love the LR options - ingenious.
However, I don't see the value of an inscribed viewfinder. Those lines should be "inscribed" - figuratively, of course - on our mental viewfinders from constant practice.
I suppose a digital one that could be turned off would be cool.
David,
Thanks for this entry, it solved a problem for me.
The other day I hit some button on the keyboard by mistake while working in Lightroom and my beloved thirds-ruler changed. I just could not find how to get it back until now. :-)
Thanks again.
Tibor