Today’s Question: Suddenly, I can’t find the Develop module overlays [in Lightroom] that used to be there: the straight ‘horizon’ line, the rule of thirds grid – or whatever other choice the person processing might make. I think I’ve searched everywhere for them, and think I must have inadvertently turned them off???
Tim’s Quick Answer: The overlays you are referring to are the “Crop Guide Overlays”, which are only available when using the Crop tool. With the Crop tool active you can press the letter “O” on the keyboard to cycle through the available options, or you can choose an option from the menu by selecting Tools > Crop Guide Overlay.
More Detail: Lightroom includes a number of options to choose from, including a Grid, a Rule of Thirds display, a Golden Spiral, a set of Aspect Ratios you can choose from, and a few other options.
You can choose which specific overlays will actually be included when you cycle through using the “O” keyboard shortcut. To select which overlays to include or exclude you can go to the menu and choose Tools > Crop Guide Overlay > Choose Overlays to Cycle. This will bring up a dialog where you can select which of the overlays you’d like to include when cycling through using the keyboard shortcut.
You can also choose which specific aspect ratios will appear when you select the Aspect Ratios overlay by going to the menu and choosing Tools > Crop Guide Overlay > Choose Aspect Ratios. Selecting this option will bring up a dialog where you can select the individual aspect ratios you want to have visible when you select the Aspect Ratios overlay option.
But once again, keep in mind that you can only configure and display the crop guide overlays by first selecting the Crop tool from the small toolbar below the histogram in the Develop module.