Quickly Straighten the Horizon
This is a Photoshop tip. Sometimes the horizon in an otherwise perfect image is a bit off kilter — by two or three degrees, maybe — just noticeable enough to be annoying. When I encountered something like this in the past, I used to do the following: drag a guide down to where the middle point of the horizon should be; enter Free Transform mode; zoom in, in order to see what I’m doing; then rotate by hand. Often, I would have to drag the center point in order to facilitate this rotation. It was always a bit hit or miss. Well, I recently discovered a much quicker approach.
Select the Measure Tool and drag out a line from one point in the horizon to another.
Figure 1 Measure Tool
Doing so notes the exact angle in the tool options bar. At this point, either perform a Free Transform and punch in that number by hand or perform a normal Transform. With a normal Transform, the rotation will be opposite to what you need, so before committing, add (or remove) the minus symbol, −, from the Rotate (angle) field of the tool options bar.
Figure 2 Tool options bar, Rotation field
May 30th, 2006 at 7:55 pm
Actually, it’s even easier than that (is that possible for this tip?). Use the measure tool, to highlight what should be the horizon (as in your figure 1), then go to the image menu, select, Rotate Canvas, and select Arbitrary. The correct angle will show up in the rotate canvas window. Press ok, and you’re done.
The same result, but slightly different and requires even less thinking.
May 30th, 2006 at 8:10 pm
Bruce, you rock. Indeed, less thinking is even better.
Thanks, bro!
June 10th, 2006 at 7:05 am
“Honestly,” I thought, “when will I ever use this, Dave has gone insane, I would love some pie….” Well I never got my pie, but I had to straighten a baptism picture of my daughter, I did a quick search because I do not have this site bookie marked at home and voila, instant Dave Stiller genius, the at home version.
Talk to you later Dave, tell the misses I said Allo!!
June 10th, 2006 at 8:43 pm
Harry - there’s a simple lesson to be learned from your experience: Bookmark this site on all computers you use regularly, and any you may borrow. Hello back atcha, and to your lovely lady as well.
December 29th, 2006 at 12:48 am
Well, I always use the cropping tool for that.
1) (if you have currently a selection active, hit Ctrl d), hit c (or choose the crop tool) and drag out a selection with the middle of the top (or in this case the bottom) side of it on the horizon.
2) move your cursor out of the selected area until it becomes a bent double arrow, then drag untill bottom side is perpendicular [parallel –Ed.] with horizon.
3) Then adjust the corners of the selection until you get the cut-out you want, (you may want to press Ctrl while dragging, as Photoshop tends to snap to the document boundaries), hit enter. done