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Rotating

There are many reasons that you might want or need to rotate an image. If you have a scanned picture or a digital camera image that should be vertical but opens as a horizontally oriented picture, rotating it 90 degrees corrects the problem. This is a common occurrence when you use a scanner because it's usually quicker to scan with the picture horizontal, regardless of its normal orientation (see Figure 4.5).

Figure 4.5. Placing the short side horizontally shortens the scanning time.

They Have Been Transformed

If you have used a much older edition of Photoshop, you might be accustomed to looking for the Transform commands on the Layer menu. Since Photoshop 5, they've been moved to the Edit menu.

Rotate 180 Degrees and 90 Degrees Clockwise or Counterclockwise

To rotate the entire image, use the ImageRotate Canvas submenu shown in Figure 4.6. Choose 90 degrees clockwise (CW) or counterclockwise (CCW) to straighten up a sideways image, or 180 degrees if you somehow brought in a picture upside down.

Figure 4.6. The Rotate Canvas submenu.

Rotate by Degrees

To rotate the canvas by something other than a right angle, choose ImageRotate CanvasArbitrary to open a dialog box like the one shown in Figure 4.7. Enter the number of degrees to rotate. If you're not sure, guess. You can always undo and try again with a different number of degrees or a different direction if needed. Click the radio button to indicate the rotational direction: clockwise (CW) or counterclockwise (CCW). Then click OK to perform the rotation.

Figure 4.7. You can even rotate by fractions of a degree.

Try it Yourself

Straightening the Horizon

Using the Arbitrary Rotation dialog box is an easy way to correct a picture that needs to be straightened. The picture in Figure 4.8 was shot just as the photographer was about to be blown off the boardwalk. Fortunately, fixing tilted horizons is an easy problem for Photoshop. Find this photo at the website and work along. It's called oldorchardbeach.jpg.

Figure 4.8. Oops, the horizon's not supposed to slant downhill.

You can tell just by looking at the picture that it needs to rotate counterclockwise several degrees. To straighten the horizon, follow these steps:

Bring a guide down from the to ruler to help you judge how crooked the image is. Click the top ruler and drag a guideline to the horizon. You can see this step in Figure 4.8. Choose Image, Rotate Canvas, Arbitrary to open the Rotate Canvas dialog box. Enter the number of degrees by which you think the horizon is "off."

Click the CW (clockwise) radio button to lower the right side or the CCW (counterclockwise) radio button to lower the left side of the horizon line. Figure 4.9 shows the canvas rotated by 3 degrees counterclockwise. (The setting on the tool bar is 3.) Now the horizon is level, but the edges of the picture are no longer horizontal. Cropping will square up the corners again and improve the composition at the same time.

Figure 4.9. You can see the background color filling in the corners of the canvas.

Select the Crop tool from the toolbox or press C. Drag the Crop tool across the picture to position the cropping box. Use the handles to fine-tune your cropping. Figure 4.10 shows the cropping box in position.

Figure 4.10. Drag the cropping box until you get rid of the listing corners of the image.

If the horizon isn't completely straight, click outside the dashed line of the cropping box. When you see a double-pointed bent arrow, you can drag the cropping box at an angle until the horizon looks right.

Double-click inside the cropping box when the picture looks the way you want it. Figure 4.11 shows the corrected horizon.

Figure 4.11. The horizon is level, and the composition's better, too.

Made to Measure

If you don't want to guess the proper angle for a rotation, use the Measure tool (grouped with the Eyedropper tool in the toolbox). Click at one point on the horizon (or another edge to be straightened) and drag along that soon-to-be-level line. Immediately choose ImageRotate CanvasArbitraryand the number of degrees you need to rotate is magically inserted in the dialog box by the Measure tool. Just click OK to apply the rotation. Don't worry about the measure line showing up in your image, either. As soon as you change tools, the measure line goes away.

Rotate a Selection

Rotating a selection, as opposed to turning the whole canvas, is done in the same manner as resizing one. First, make the selection. Then use EditTransformRotate to place a bounding box around your selection. Drag on any of the corner handles to rotate the selection around its center point. You can see the center point as the target-shaped object in the middle of the selection in Figure 4.12. If you need to rotate the selection off-center, drag the center point to where you want it and then rotate the selection.

Figure 4.12. Drag any corner point to rotate the selection.

Free Transform

You can use EditFree Transform to make any of the changes described. Drag the handles as you press modifier keys to rotate, skew, scale, or distort as much as you want. You can also access the numeric transformations in the Tool Options bar. To distort relative to the center of the bounding box, press Alt/Option as you drag. To distort freely, press Control/Command instead. To skew, press Shift+Control (Windows) or Shift+Command (Mac). Or, if you change your mind, press Esc to cancel the transformation.