Straightening your photos and adjusting their composition can make a huge difference in the final look of your images. With Photoshop’s tools, you can fix crooked horizons, add missing details, and even enhance composition with precision and ease.
Coming to you from Aaron Nace of Phlearn, this practical video demonstrates how to use Photoshop’s crop and straighten tools to clean up your images. Nace starts with a simple scenario: a crooked horizon. Using the crop tool, he explains two methods for fixing this issue. The first involves manually rotating the image by clicking and dragging on the edges of the crop frame. While this can work, Nace notes it’s not the most accurate. The second method uses the built-in straighten tool, which allows you to draw a line along the horizon to automatically correct the angle. This precise approach ensures your image is perfectly aligned.
Nace then introduces Generative Expand, a Photoshop feature powered by AI that fills in missing areas around your photo after cropping or straightening. Traditionally, fixing a tilted photo meant cropping out parts of the image, but generative expand allows you to preserve the original frame by seamlessly creating new content. Nace demonstrates this with impressive results, showing how AI-generated edges blend naturally with the original photo. This tool is especially useful for situations where maintaining the full scene is critical.
Another key point Nace covers is how to adjust composition using the rule of thirds. He explains how the crop tool includes grid guides to help you align key elements within the frame. By placing horizons or subjects along the intersections of the grid, you can create a balanced and visually appealing image. Nace highlights how these small adjustments can transform a shot, making it more engaging while keeping it grounded in strong compositional principles.
Nace also touches on using Generative Fill to remove distractions. After selecting areas with the selection brush tool, you can have Photoshop automatically replace unwanted elements with new content. This feature provides multiple variations, giving you creative flexibility while keeping the process efficient. Check out the video above for the full rundown from Nace.
