BetterPhoto Q&A
Category: Software Techniques, Tips, & Tricks

Trevor Taylor		How To Fix Leaning Horizon I have taken this great shot over a lake at sunrise, but the horizon is leaning. I saw some bloke do it once but have forgotten. It was done on Photoshop 7, which I use. To love this question, log in above November 23, 2003

Bob Cammarata		Trevor, I don't have PS 7, but on the software I use (Image Expert), there is a way to fix this: Click on "Image" Click "Rotate-Exact" This will give you the option of rotating the entire image as little or as much as you want in degrees. Positive numbers rotate clockwise, negative will rotate counter clockwise. When the horizon looks strait...crop to square it back to the original format. I'm sure that PS has this capability, though the terminology may be different. Hope this helps. To love this comment, log in above November 24, 2003

doug Nelson		In PS 7, don't crop the image at all before doing this. Use the move tool to drop a line down from the ruler at the top to use as a reference. Place that line where you want to horizon to be. Then to to image/Rotate and click the choice of a non-specific amount (not 90 degrees CW or CCW). Enter a degree or two either clockwise or counterclockwise. Undo it if it's too much. Keep fooling with it until you get it right. Then crop to make the edges straight. You will lose some picture area. To love this comment, log in above November 24, 2003

BetterPhotoJim.com - Jim Miotke Contact Jim Miotke Jim Miotke's Gallery Join my online photography course - starting now		I find the easiest way is to use the Crop tool (in Photoshop or Elements) and draw a long thin crop box near the horizon. Once this crop box is created, position your cursor just outside one of the corners of this box - you should see it turn into a curved arrow. Click this curved arrow and move the cursor until your long thin crop box is aligned with the horizon. Then grab the tiny boxes in the middle of each edge to stretch out the crop box to the size you want, making sure you don't accidentally include any non-image area in the corners. To love this comment, log in above November 24, 2003

Jan Van den Bergh		In PhotoShop it is very easy to fix this kind of errors. First use the ruler tool and use it to draw a line over the horizon. When you then use the Rotate tool, the correct number of degrees will already be filled in. To love this comment, log in above November 26, 2003

Ronald Segall		There is a quicker and more accurate way of levelling horizons (or verticals) in PS7. Open and expand the eyedropper tool and you will find the measure tool. Using this tool, click on one end of the horizon and drag out to the other end. Now go to Image>Rotate Canvas>Arbitrary and the Rotate box will open. The required rotation amount will be shown in the box and all that is now necessary is to click OK and the image will be rotated by the correct amount without having to guess any angles. This works equally well for verticals. You can now crop the image to remove the light edges. To love this comment, log in above November 26, 2003

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