Digital Photography: The Missing Manual

Rotating Photos

When you shoot with your camera turned 90 degrees, you can look at the shot even years later and see immediately which way is up. Digital cameras and computers, however, aren’t quite so smart. For example, not all cameras output photos so that Elements (or any other image- editing program, for that matter) knows the correct orientation for your picture. Fortunately, Elements has rotation commands just about everywhere in the program. If all you need to do is get Dad off his back and stand him upright again, then here are the ways you can perform a quick 90-degree rotation on any open photo:

• In the Editor. Select Image → Rotate → 90° Left (or Right).

• In the Organizer (Section 8.1.1). You can rotate a photo almost anytime in the Organizer by selecting the photo and then pressing Ctrl+ the left or right arrow key. Another way to rotate is to choose Edit → Rotate 90° Left (or Right). Finally, there’s a pair of Rotate buttons to click at the bottom of the Photo Browser window.

Those commands get you one-click, 90-degree changes. But Elements has all sorts of other rotational tricks up its sleeve, as explained in the next section.

Rotating and Flipping Options

Elements gives you several ways to change the orientation of your photo. To see what’s available, in the Editor, choose Image → Rotate. You’ll notice two groups of Rotate commands in this menu. For now, it’s the top group you want to focus on.

In the first group of commands, you’ll see:

• Rotate 90° Left or Right. Use ...