Straighten horizon?

[My2Girls66]

I have Photoshop3 and am trying to straighten the horizon on a few pictures I took of the Boston skyline. Can anyone tell me which tool to use?My DD usually helps me but is away at college
Any hints may help! I've done it before but just can't seem to remember or find the right tool.
Thanks

 

[RBennett]

What I usually do, and I'm not sure if this is the "right" way, is I go to Image -> Rotate -> Custom and then do it in small increments, depending on how much you need to rotate it. That usually means around 0.5 - 1.0 degree for me.

 

[boBQuincy]

What I usually do, and I'm not sure if this is the "right" way, is I go to Image -> Rotate -> Custom and then do it in small increments, depending on how much you need to rotate it. That usually means around 0.5 - 1.0 degree for me.

That's how I do it. Some tutorials say to use the "measure" tool to find the exact amount to rotate it, I usually just drag a guide line down and use that as a reference.

 

[klmall]

For those of us who are a bit lazy and that certainly includes yours truly, I often straighten photos in Picasa2 which I always have open while I am using Photoshop Elements. It has the "ruler for dummies". Sometimes it's particularly efficient to be able to go through and straighten several pictures in a folder at once without opening them in Photoshop.

 

[orchjoe]

Use the free transform tool.

 

[MarkBarbieri]

My monitor stand tilts. I stick a bubble level on top of it and adjust as necessary.

 

[My2Girls66]

My monitor stand tilts. I stick a bubble level on top of it and adjust as necessary.

but I have a laptop- its kind of a pain to hold it up on one side

 

[My2Girls66]

Thanks for the tips! Thats what I was looking for. Its not all that easy to get it nice and straight tho! Guess I need some photoshop practice.

 

[jann1033]

i find the custom rotate mentioned above the easiest to get exact tiny adjustments, slider type deals i always go backandforthbackandforthbackandforthbackandforth til my hand cramps and it's usually worse than when i started. i also check the grid box so i have something to line up with otherwise it's like that picture on the wall, is it tilted or am i tilted

 

[extreme8]

The measure tool technique will get you exactly on target, and it's much easier than guessing at angles.

Choose the measure tool (hidden under the eyedropper).
Click and drag it along your horizon line
Go to image>rotate canvas>arbitrary and you'll see that the correct angle is already entered for you, accurate to within 1/100 of a degree.
click OK and recrop your image.

Quick, easy and accurate.

 

[Experiment_626]

The measure tool technique will get you exactly on target, and it's much easier than guessing at angles.

Choose the measure tool (hidden under the eyedropper).
Click and drag it along your horizon line
Go to image>rotate canvas>arbitrary and you'll see that the correct angle is already entered for you, accurate to within 1/100 of a degree.
click OK and recrop your image.

Quick, easy and accurate.

I'll second that. Easy, fast, and much more accurate if there are at least two points in the image that you know should be parallel. If there aren't, you might not be able to tell the photo is crooked anyway.

Remember that this works for vertical points as well.

SSB

 

[Pea-n-Me]

I had the simplest thing known to man on my laptop software, HP Image Zone - an older version - which I lost when my laptop died. It made it so easy to straighten pictures. I can't seem to find it on the newer versions. Following along to see what others use.

BTW, do you guys normally keep the "grid" on when you're taking pictures?