Graphics Programs Reference
In-Depth Information
Straightening
If you've got a crooked photo, Lightroom's got three great ways to straighten it.
One of them is pretty precise, and with the other two you're pretty much just
“eyeing it,” but with some photos that's the best you can do.
Step One:
The photo shown here has a crooked
horizon line, which is pretty much instant
death for a landscape shot. To straighten
the photo, start by clicking on the Crop
Overlay tool, found in the toolbox, right
under the histogram in the Develop mod-
ule's right side Panels area (as shown here).
This brings up the Crop Overlay grid around
your photo, and while this grid might be
helpful when you're cropping to recompose
your image, it's really distracting when
you're trying to straighten one, so I press
Command-Shift-H (PC: Ctrl-Shift-H)
to hide that grid.
Step Two:
As I mentioned above, there are three
different ways to straighten your photo
and we'll start with my favorite, which uses
the Straighten tool. I think it's the fastest
and most accurate way to straighten photos.
Click on the Straighten tool, found in the
Crop & Straighten options (it looks like a
level), then click-and-drag it left to right
along something that's supposed to be
level in the image (as shown here, where
I've dragged it along the top edge of the
structure on the left). See why I like straight-
ening like this? However, there is one catch:
you have to have something in the photo
that's supposed to be level—like a horizon,
or a wall, or a window frame, etc.
