Fix the Pix

I had two friends who are professional photographers here today interrupting my lunch, checking out the shop, looking at my work, my photos, etc. We got to talking about photography and discussing Photoshop and to my surprise neither one of them were very familiar with the 'warp' or 'distort' feature found in Photoshop. Well, actually, they'd heard of them but had never used them much. We use them ALL THE TIME to correct our digital photos both for printing and for email. I send a LOT of email pictures, mostly via this blog, to keep my clients posted on the progress of their pieces. These simple fixes can change your photos from looking like this

With everything pointing toward the floor.

To eventually looking like this

Better, but the drwers are still sagging in the middle

To finally this edition .... straightened right up.

Here's how it goes in basic photoshop, including the relatively inexpensive version, Elements.

Start with your picture ... First hit the maximize box and "View .. Fit on screen" ....

Select All

Edit .. Transform .. Distort ... Little boxes/handles appear at the corners of your photo

Drag the boxes around until you get it the way you want it and hit enter. You may have to crop and fill various parts of the results after you do this, but eventually you'll be able to use this feature in almost no time, and you'll never email a crooked picture again. "Practice makes perfect. " I'm sure other photo editing programs have this feature though I have not had experience with them .....I'll cover the cutting out of photos and the 'Warp' feature (to correct spherical distortion) found in more advanced versions of Photoshop later .... Click the photos to enlarge .... leave a comment if you want ....