Adobe® Photoshop® CS2 Studio Techniques

Step 2—Initial Rough Crop & Straighten

The first thing I do after opening an image is to crop, rotate and straighten it. If the image was captured sideways, I'll rotate it while viewing the thumbnail image in Bridge since it has Rotate Right and Rotate Left icons that make rotation a breeze. Once the image is sitting upright in Photoshop, I'll make sure that any horizontal or vertical lines are perfectly level. To accomplish that, I click and hold on the Eyedropper tool in the Tools palette and choose the Measure tool (which looks like a ruler). With that tool active, I'll click and drag across any straight edge that should be perfectly horizontal or vertical (like a horizon or the side of a building) and then choose Image > Rotate Canvas > ...