While there’s something to be said about tilted photos and they definitely have their place artistically, straight and level lines can go a long way in making a really meh photo look at least somewhat interesting. It can completely make or break a photo.
I’ve been straightening out my photos for a while, however I’ve been doing it by manually guessing the amount to rotate the photo and in which direction. For my picture of Mr. Serious flipping the light switch, in Photoshop I applied grid lines via View > Show > Grid then went to Image > Rotate Canvas > Arbitrary and entered my best guess. I’d adjust a half a degree here or there until everything was lined up.
I recently read an article over at Kelly Lindsey’s photography blog called Using Photoshop to Enhance Your Picture which briefly touched on using the Ruler tool to level the horizon.
I had no idea where this tool was located and after searching around on the internet for a few minutes I discovered if you click on the Eyedropper in the Tools palette you’ll be presented with an option to select the Ruler. I have no idea what else this tool can do, however I’ve learned it is invaluable as a quick device to straighten out your images!
The first time I got a chance to try it out was for my picture of our play room the other day. It’s no spectacular photo, but it just looked like crap SOOC and since it was the only photo I’d had a chance to snap that day, I wanted something moderately presentable to place in my Project 365 album.
Using the ruler tool, all you have to do is drag it from one point in the photo to another. Here, though it is really hard to tell in the screenshot, I drew a line along the bottom of the top drawer with the ruler tool, then went to Image > Rotate Canvas > Arbitrary as usual. Instead of having to enter my best guess though, the value is pre-filled, based on leveling the line I drew with the ruler tool! How amazing is that!? Just apply the selected value, crop (or fill in the edges using Clone or sampling) and then edit as usual.
I know this simple little tip is going to save me a lot of time and is much easier and more accurate than trial and error with grid lines! Thank you so much Kelly! Please go visit her site filled with wonderful Photoshop tips!
