Why is doing a circle crop sooo hard to do?

[invisibleflash]

I have a lot of circular fisheye images that need to have all the black background cutout. I want to be left with only the circle image. Here is a sample of an image that needs to be cropped into a circle.

(nsfw)

http://zonefocused.tumblr.com/image/87016869234

I need to make circle crops as easy as it is to do rectangular / square crops in LR. I hope they add it to upcoming versions of LR. From my limited research there is not an easy way to do it with the current photo software on the market.

I need simple! I can use LR pretty good, doing all the same things I did in the wet darkroom. But I don't not use Photoshop or any other complex computer methods.

I tried Gimp and Softonic Splashup. I don't understand how they work.
Useless for me. Why do they make everything so fudging complex.

Any other suggestions out there using LR style cropping tools and not a host of bullshit computer commands?

Thanks!

[Bob Salomon]

What is difficult? You select the black area with the selection tool and delete it.

[Drew Wiley]

Aliens do crop circles all the time. Ask them.

[Peter Mounier]

From my limited research there is not an easy way to do it with the current photo software on the market.
Photoshop can do that easily. Do you have PS?

[invisibleflash]

What is difficult? You select the black area with the selection tool and delete it.

Is that with LR?

[invisibleflash]

Photoshop can do that easily. Do you have PS?

Just LR, I am an old film photog, not much of a computer guy. I only do basics, dodge, burn, crop with LR...and some beloved HDR hyper real software.

Maybe you computer guys can make some software called 'Crop Circles.' Have all sort of easy to use geometric crops on it as well as the humble circle.

[Michael Chmilar]

You are thinking about it the wrong way. "Cropping" is not the operation you want, and the cropping tools will not do what you are trying to do.

What you really want to do is make the portion outside of the image circle to be transparent. Then you can do such things as print the image, and the transparent part will not print anything; or put the image over a background color (white, black, red, etc.) and the background color shows through the transparent part.

As Bob has already stated: "select the black area with the selection tool and delete it". Deleting the black area makes that part transparent.

Your image file will always be rectangular. There is no way to avoid that. But, using transparency, you can make the visible part of the image any shape you want.

[matthewlacroix]

Assuming you want an image circle with a white background, like this:

116034

To do this in Lightroom:

1. Crop & Straighten Tool: Crop to square/rectangle, so circular image is in centre of the square/rectangle.

2. Post-Crop Vignetting: Slide sliders to produce desired effect. These settings might get you close.

116033

Lightroom can produce a white or black vignette like this. If you need a different colour of background, a transparent background, or better control of the circular shape, then a pixel editor (such as Photoshop) would be the appropriate tool.

[invisibleflash]

Assuming you want an image circle with a white background, like this:

116034

To do this in Lightroom:

1. Crop & Straighten Tool: Crop to square/rectangle, so circular image is in centre of the square/rectangle.

2. Post-Crop Vignetting: Slide sliders to produce desired effect. These settings might get you close.

116033

Lightroom can produce a white or black vignette like this. If you need a different colour of background, a transparent background, or better control of the circular shape, then a pixel editor (such as Photoshop) would be the appropriate tool.



If I can't get any better that may be the best 2nd choice.

Thanks!