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About this lesson
The straighten feature is a quick way to re-orientate an image or a photo that is crooked. This is a great tool for quickly processing architecture and retail photos.
Exercise files
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Quick reference
Topic
The straighten feature in Photoshop.
When to use
The straighten feature is a quick way to re-orientate an image or a photo that is crooked. This is a great tool for quickly processing architecture and retail photos.
Instructions
The old and cumbersome method of changing an image orientation.
- Drag a guide from the top ruler to the position that you want.
- Convert your background into a layer (if it is not already)
- Enter ‘free transform’ mode from the ‘edit’ dropdown menu
- Adjust the rotation to suit
- Finally, crop the image to clear the side angles.
A faster way
- In the tools bar on the left select the ‘Ruler Tool’
- Use the ruler tool to draw a line against the object in the image that you want to be straight.
- Press the ‘straighten’ button on the menu bar on top.
- This will do the above operations automatically.
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- 00:02 Hi everyone, Howard here. In this video, we’re going to take a
- 00:05 look at a hidden gem in Photoshop,
- 00:07 a feature that is present in the application
- 00:10 but usually overlooked by most users. We're going to be taking a look at the
- 00:13 straighten feature, which is hidden within the ruler tool.
- 00:14 To the average user, straightening out a photo
- 00:18 isn't as simple as it seems.
- 00:19 You have to drag out a guide to define where the horizon should be,
- 00:23 and your free transform, too… Oh, before you can do thatm
- 00:26 you have to convert your background into a layer - now you can enter free transform mode
- 00:29 and rotate your image until you think it’s straight.
- 00:32 Once its 'sort of' straightened, you need to fiddle with the crop tool in order to remove
- 00:36 the transparent areas.
- 00:37 What a mess. Let me make it that much easier for you.
- 00:40 This method works from the second you open your image.
- 00:44 In the tools bar, find the ruler tool -
- 00:45 it's probably hidden with the eyedropper tool. Once the ruler is active, draw a line
- 00:49 across the object that should be straight.
- 00:50 In this case, the horizon. No need to guess like you were before.
- 00:54 Once the ruler is drawn-out, there's a wonderful straightening button
- 00:57 under the Options bar. Boom! No need to rotate. No need to crop.
- 01:01 Photoshop does it all for you. So, the next time you take a beautiful but
- 01:05 crooked picture of the sunrise,
- 01:06 remember that the ruler tool is your best friend. Take care.
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