How to Crop and Straighten Photos

When I travel, I tend to take many pictures of signs.  These shots help me recognize/organize the hundreds or thousands of pictures I take.  Most of the signs are for archival purposes but some of the signs find their way onto my scrapbook pages.  Since signs are not always at camera level, I tend to get some awkward angles and weird perspectives.  Today’s tutorial deals with straightening these signs with just a few clicks.  (For the tutorial, I am using Photoshop CS2.)

I took this photo at Trim Castle in Ireland, 7/2008

1.    Open your photo.

2.    Using the crop tool, drag the marquee over the sign.  This does not have to be perfect-notice that the top right hand corner of the sign is not selected.

 3.    Make sure the perspective box is checked in the Options menu.

4.    Notice that there are little handles at the four corners of the marquee.  Drag each handle to the corner of the sign.

 5.    Click enter.  TA DA!!

 Thanks for stopping by and I hope you enjoyed this little tutorial. You may download a PDF version HERE.

Happy Scrapping,

Iowan