Lightroom: 6 overlays to aid composition

[Aleix]

Hello,

I've been using Lightroom for a long while and didn't know this could be done, because the controls are a bit hidden. So I thought I'd share this website, for all those who still don't know it can be done, or how to:

Lightroom can display a number of different compositional aids as overlays when using the Crop / Straighten tool, these can be used to help improve the composition when you're cropping or just to examine how your images comply with various composition guidelines. There are six overlays to choose from (as shown below) and where appropriate these can be rotated.

• Grids
• Thirds
• Diagonal
• Triangle
• Golden ratio
• Golden spiral

Select the image you want to experiment with and press R to go into the Develop Module with the Crop / Straighten tool loaded.

Now press Ctrl+Shift+H to show the Crop Overlay, other options can be found in the View - Tool Overlay menu

Select different overlays either by pressing O or by selecting them from the View - Crop Guide Overlay menu

Finally, the Triangle and Golden Spiral can be rotated by pressing Shift+O or selecting it from the View - Crop Guide Overlay menu

Source: Lightroom 1.1 / 1.2 - Crop overlay to aid composition | Photography

Regards

[Bluenoser]

Thanks for sharing that tip Aleix.

[g1mp3r]

Thanks for the great tip!

[AshNZ]

Thanks, didn't know about this feature.

[kirbinster]

Well as long as we are on lightroom tips, here is another useful one. When using the brush tool, if you hit the "O" key once it will turn on a green mask so you can see where you have brushed. I use this all the time. Once I have the mask everywhere I want it I hit the "O" key again to turn it off and then adjust the exposure or whatever I want to change. This really helps you know exactly what you have covered with the brush strokes.