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Windows Live Photo Gallery

Straighten a Photo

SUMMARY: Did a photograph come out with the horizon line crooked? Use Windows Live Photo Gallery's straightening tool.

After taking a digital photograph, you may have noticed the horizon line is slightly crooked. Unless this was done for effect, the photo may look more pleasing if this is corrected - which can be done with Windows Live Photo Gallery.

Note that before performing any photo corrections, for safety's sake, make a backup copy of the original.

Also note that at the time this tip was written you cannot straighten .PNG images - they must be resaved as a supported photo file type.

1. Select a photo you wish to adjust.

2. Click the "Fix" menu item.

3. Click "Straighten photo".

4. A grid appears in the photograph and a slider appears below the "Straighten photo" option. Move the slider to the left to rotate and adjust the photo to the left; move the slider to the right to adjust the photo to the right. Note that Windows Live Photo Gallery does not do a simple rotation and crop to perform straightening but actually manipulates the image to keep the same resolution.

Straightening a photo with Windows Live Photo Gallery (sample photo courtesy http://www.public-domain-photos.com/)

5. If necessary, click the "Undo" button to undo your changes. You can also press Ctrl + Shift + Z to undo all changes, or Ctrl + R to revert to the original photo.

This tip was written for Windows Live Photo Gallery Version 2009 running on a netbook running Windows XP Home. Features, instructions, and screenshots for other versions / operating systems may vary.