focal length: 45 mm
shutter speed: 1/100
aperture: f/6.3
ISO: 200
flash: none

St. Anne Basilique just outside of Quebec City was one of the most beautiful churches we visited on our trip. It was pouring rain that day so I was only able to take a few shots of the exterior from the car. The original photo was drab and misty but I was able to pull out some contrast and clarity using Lightroom. I also had to clone out an offending sign post near the bottom left corner.

Quite an improvement from the SOOC, shown here:

Yesterday, I went on about how much I love the cropping tool in Lightroom because of the ease of use and especially because of the built in Rule of Thirds grid. The straightening tool is also one of my favourite features in Lightroom as well. When I hover my mouse just outside the photo while I’m using my cropping tool, my mouse icon becomes a semi-circle double-headed arrow.

By simply clicking and holding the mouse down while I move it slightly up and down, I am able to straighten the photo easily. You can also use the slider to make adjustments to the angle, or change the numerical value (found in the develop panel on the right) but I prefer using the mouse. The best part of this tool is the grid, as was the case for the cropping tool. The grid changes from the Rule of Thirds grid into a one with many more lines, so it’s easy to line up my horizon or verticals that are positioned anywhere in the photo. Awesome!

I do all my cropping and straightening in Lightroom because it’s the easiest and so well implemented, in my opinion at least. What do you use to crop and straighten?

Laura is a Vancouver portrait photographer. Visit Dolce Life Photography.