Straightening Photos with the Straighten Tool

In Elements, there’s a simple way to straighten photos, but it’s knowing how to set the options for the tool that makes your job dramatically easier. Here’s how it’s done:

Step One:

Open the photo that needs straightening (the photo shown here looks like the horizon is sloping down to the left). Then, choose the Straighten tool from the Toolbox (or just press the P key).

SCOTT KELBY

Step Two:

Take the Straighten tool and drag it along an edge in the photo that you think should be perfectly horizontal, like a horizon line (as shown here).

Step Three:

When you release the mouse button, the image is straightened, but as you see here, the straightening created a problem of its own—the photo now has to be re-cropped because the edges are showing a white background (as the image was rotated until it was straight). That’s where the options (which I mentioned in the intro to this technique) come in. You see, the default setting does just what you see here—it rotates the image and leaves it up to you to crop away the mess. However, Elements can do the work for you (as you’ll see in the next step).