- Cropping Photos
- Cropping Using the Rule of Thirds
- Auto-Cropping to Standard Sizes
- Cropping to an Exact Custom Size
- Cropping into a Shape
- Cropping without the Crop Tool
- Using the Crop Tool to Add More Canvas Area
- Auto-Cropping Gang-Scanned Photos
- Straightening Photos with the Straighten Tool
- Straightening Crooked Photos
- Resizing Digital Camera Photos
- Resizing and How to Reach Those Hidden Free Transform Handles
- Making Your Photos Smaller (Downsizing)
- Rule-Breaking Resizing for Poster-Sized Prints
- Automated Saving and Resizing
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
Straightening Photos with the Straighten Tool
In Elements 4.0 there's a new way to straighten photos, but it's knowing how to set the options for the tool that makes your job dramatically easier. Here's how it's done:
Step One
)
Open the photo that needs straightening. The photo shown here looks like the building is tipping to the left.
Step Two
)
Choose the Straighten tool from the Toolbox (or just press the P key).
Step Three
)
Take the Straighten tool and drag it along an edge in the photo that you think should be perfectly horizontal, like a horizon line (although in this case, we dragged out the tool along the top of the step).
Step Four
)
When you release the mouse button, the image is straightened, but as you can see here, the straightening created a problem of its own—the photo now has to be re-cropped because the edges are showing a white background (as the image was rotated until it was straight). That's where the options (which I mentioned in the intro to this technique) come in. You see, the default setting does just what you see here—it rotates the image and leaves it up to you to crop away the mess. However, you can have Elements do the work for you (as you'll see in the next step).
Step Five
)
Once you click on the Straighten tool, go up to the Options Bar, and in the Canvas Options pop-up menu, choose Crop to Remove Background.
Step Six
)
Now when you drag out the tool and release the mouse, not only is the photo straightened, but the annoying white background is automatically cropped away, giving you the clean result you see here.