Lightroom Tip: Using “Light’s Out” as a cropping guide

Lightroom Tip: Using “Light’s Out” as a cropping guide

Today’s tip is to help all of you who love cropping your images in Lightroom. Did you know that you can enable the “Light’s Out” feature in Lightroom to help you visualise your crop without the distraction of the visible panels in the Lightroom Interface?

Once you select the Crop function, press the “L” key on your keyboard, and you’ll go into a semi-translucent “Light’s Out” mode, where you’ll see your crop against a black field that’s slightly transparent enough that you can just make out the interface (the left-hand image). If you press the “L” key again, you go into full “Light’s Out” where everything else outside your crop goes pitch black (the right-hand image), allowing you to adjust your crop without any distractions. Press the “L” key a third time to return to normal view (where all the panels are visible).

It’s a great way to check that you’re happy with your composition within the crop and that you don’t include any distractions in your cropped composition.