Techniques for straightening

leinsterman

Since Fajitas was "advising" (I use that term carefully ... since it was more like an order ) me to straighten one of my photos from Charleville on my (recently launched) Flickr account it got me thinking that there must be a better technique to my simple method which is (in CS2) -

1. Select the entire image using Ctrl-A
2. Press Ctrl-T to launch free transform
3. Rotate the entire image using the cursor to the new straightened position
4. Hit enter to confirm the transformation (you now have an odd shaped star of david with white triangles at the sides) ... so
5. Crop the image to bring it back to a rectangular shape

The problem with this technique is you can lose a lot of the image in the crop and very often end up with limited cropping options ... is there a better one ?

Fajitas!

I either do that, or do very similar in lightroom.

Remember to use your rulers!

CONMIKE12

The way I do it is to choose the measure tool.Draw a line along ,say the horizon,that i want to be straight,then go to Image/rotate canvas/arbitrary .A dialog box comes up telling you in degrees ,how much the shot is off,and whether to rotate it Clockwise or counter clockwise.Click ok and you end up the image being straight along the line you selected. Works for vertical stuff too.

Valentia

CONMIKE12 wrote:

The way I do it is to choose the measure tool.Draw a line along ,say the horizon,that i want to be straight,then go to Image/rotate canvas/arbitrary .A dialog box comes up telling you in degrees ,how much the shot is off,and whether to rotate it Clockwise or counter clockwise.Click ok and you end up the image being straight along the line you selected. Works for vertical stuff too.

That's what I do too.

leinsterman

deadly buzz ... I'll give it a go next time ...

mikeanywhere

Using the ruler tool saves a lot of time and guesswork, I only use it now!!

Covey

CONMIKE12 wrote:

The way I do it is to choose the measure tool.Draw a line along ,say the horizon,that i want to be straight,then go to Image/rotate canvas/arbitrary .A dialog box comes up telling you in degrees ,how much the shot is off,and whether to rotate it Clockwise or counter clockwise.Click ok and you end up the image being straight along the line you selected. Works for vertical stuff too.

Thats what I do also. Remember you don't have to use the measure tool on all of one axis .ie. part of a building will do, for instance.

T.

thebaz

CONMIKE12 wrote:

The way I do it is to choose the measure tool.Draw a line along ,say the horizon,that i want to be straight,then go to Image/rotate canvas/arbitrary .A dialog box comes up telling you in degrees ,how much the shot is off,and whether to rotate it Clockwise or counter clockwise.Click ok and you end up the image being straight along the line you selected. Works for vertical stuff too.

How do you get at the measure tool , can't see it in my toolbar or on any of the menus -- im using ps cs -- im trying to learn ps and gettin frustrated -- no more ps questions today -- i promise !

paudie

Right click on the dropper tool and it'll bring up other options beside it, you're looking for the ruler.

thebaz

Thanks Paudie -- workin now ! -- the only problem i have now is with the crop after straightening , i loose chunks of the image -- no way round this , except shoot straighter -- i assume the picasa straighten tool , would result in similar loss !