Lightroom - Cropping In

The Crop Overlay sits inside the Lightroom Develop Module and is accessed by selecting the Crop Overlay icon located just under the Histogram. Alternatively, press the short-code R from your keyboard and the tool will open. The most basic edit you can do with the tool is cropping in.

In the example image below, a picture of a Robin, we have a lot of dead space around the bird. By selecting the Crop Overlay, and then selecting and dragging on our image using the grab handles of the grid, we can create a cropped in version of our subject.

If you aren’t happy with your crop, either its location or size, you can either reduce or enlarge it. To do this just drag on the corners near the crop boundary. You use the same technique to rotate the crop, by selecting one of the grab handles at the center of each edge. Further, you can grab from the center of the image to reposition your entire crop.