# Why no aspect ratio filter in Lightroom?



## Jean-Claude (Aug 15, 2012)

Why is there no way to filter by specific aspect ratio (4:3, 3:2, 16:9, etc) in Lightroom like there is in Adobe Bridge?  There is a filter called "Aspect Ratio" which filters only by "Portrait", "Landscape" and "Square" options.  Except for the square option, these are not aspect ratios, they are image orientation.

Jean-Claude


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## clee01l (Aug 15, 2012)

Actually in the broadest sense, Portrait, Landscape and Square are Aspect ratios. I agree it would be nice to filter by a specific Aspect ratio  or even the defined rations in the crop tool, but LR does not maintain the Aspect ratio used in the crop only the cropped dimensions. Any filter would have to calculate an aspect ratio for each before presenting results. Perhaps a feature request might get what you want in a future release of LR.  Uncropped images are not exactly 3:2 but usually close.  So how would you want LR to treat these?  Also 3:2 is not 2:3.  How should LR handle these differences?


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## Jean-Claude (Aug 15, 2012)

I'm not a programmer, but I assume that if Bridge is able to do this, why not LR?  When images are not exactly a standard ratio, it labels it to the closest available ratio.  I'm looking right now at one of my folders in Bridge and a glance at the Filter panel tells me that this folder contains 7 images at 1:1, 14 image at 2:3, 4 images at 3:4, 27 images at 4:5, and so on.  I can just click on this list to show only the images with the ratio I'm looking for.  This can be very useful.

You say 3:2 is not 2:3 but according to Bridge, it is.  All my RAW DSLR images have a 3:2 ratio.  Bridge labels them all 2:3, regardless of their orientation.


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## clee01l (Aug 15, 2012)

Jean-Claude said:


> I'm not a programmer, but I assume that if Bridge is able to do this, why not LR?


The functionality is not currently included in the LR specifications.  It is in the Bridge specifications.  Someone at Adobe needs to decide this feature is worth the coding effort assign it to a programmer and schedule it for some future release of LR.  Hence, the suggestion for a feature request.  If enough people request this feature, the Adobe developers will rank it worthy of inclusion.


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## johnbeardy (Aug 15, 2012)

The filtering and smart collections are only half baked. I think Adobe know that's the case and would like to finish the job, but it never seems to be a priority. Sadly, we just become accustomed to such things.


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## Jean-Claude (Aug 15, 2012)

I thought there might be a logical explanation for this, but, following the suggestion that was made, I have submitted a feature request to Adobe. Thank you.


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## djboshh (Feb 19, 2015)

There is a Freeware program that's designed to sort by aspect ratio (the same as adobe bridge):
http://skwire.dcmembers.com/fp/?page=arti


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## clee01l (Feb 19, 2015)

djboshh said:


> There is a Freeware program that's designed to sort by aspect ratio (the same as adobe bridge):
> http://skwire.dcmembers.com/fp/?page=arti


Welcome to the forum.  The real problem with a defined crop (aspect ratio) in LR is that the underlying image does not have anything other than the original dimensions.  The Windows only app that you mention and Bridge work on actual image files.  What is needed is an aspect ratio (crop dimensions) filter that will work in LR on the last applied crop as stored in the LR catalog.


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## djboshh (Feb 19, 2015)

Hi *clee01l* 

Thanks for the reply. Yes, i understand that Lightroom can't filter by aspect ratio like how Bridge does (i.e by 3:2 or 4:3 etc). That's why i had 'Arti' written for me. It is not a Lightroom add-on/plug in, but a standalone program. It's purpose is to allow me to check my exported images, to make sure i had remembered to crop them all, and to the correct aspect ratio, before i then print them. If any images were found to be wrong then i would just re-open Lightroom and correct them.


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## johnbeardy (Feb 19, 2015)

My ListView plugin already allows you to sort by original or cropped dimensions, and the next version will include aspect ratio and a simple landscape/portrait column.


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## gedstrom (Jan 2, 2016)

I would like to see an aspect ratio filter that says to select pictures with an aspect ratio of greater than some amount.  I do a number of panorama pictures with my iPad.  Both the width and height of those pictures vary, so filtering on fixed aspect ratios is not an option.  Currently, I manually apply an "Panorama" keyword that I have created for this purpose, but I can easily forget to apply that keyword when importing new pictures.  Since the standard aspect ratio of an iPad picture is 4:3, it would be nice to have a filter that says to select pictures with an aspect ratio greater than 1.33 and to be able to base that on either the cropped or uncropped version of the picture.


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## Johan Elzenga (Jan 2, 2016)

You can do that with the 'Any Filter' plugin from John Ellis (http://www.johnrellis.com/lightroom/anyfilter.htm)


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## gedstrom (Jan 4, 2016)

JohanElzenga said:


> You can do that with the 'Any Filter' plugin from John Ellis (http://www.johnrellis.com/lightroom/anyfilter.htm)


Thanks for the pointer. I will investigate.


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