Can I straighten and crop a JPEG without shooting RAW or using Photoshop?
Asked 6/21/2011
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I shot some photos on a Canon 450D as JPEG, not RAW, and a few have a tilted horizon. I don't have Photoshop, and the Canon software I have seems focused on RAW files. Can I still straighten and crop these images, and if so, what kind of software can do it?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
15y ago
2 Answers
7
Never seen an imaging software that could not do that, so yes, you can do this.
Adobe Lightroom has a great tool to do that which is interactive. It does cost money, so I would not buy it just for that (there are excellent reasons to do so though).
Google Picasa is free and can do that. Look for the menu item that says 'Straighten'.
It does not matter which file format you used, rotating a digital image slightly is always very destructive to image quality. If you can take the photo again, just to back and be careful. If your camera does not have a digital-level built-in, you can buy a bubble-level that fits in the hot-shoe.
Originally by user1620. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user1620
15y ago
0
Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.
Yes. Straightening and cropping are not limited to RAW files, and you do not need Photoshop to do them.
Many image editors can handle this with JPEGs, including free options such as Picasa, GIMP, Paint.NET, and IrfanView. In Picasa, for example, there is a Straighten tool. More advanced editors like Lightroom can also do it, but they are not required for this task.
Keep in mind that straightening usually involves rotating the image slightly, which requires resampling and can reduce image quality a bit—especially with JPEG, which is already a lossy format. Cropping alone is less of an issue, and some tools can crop JPEGs without resampling.
If the photo is important, save your edited version as a new file so you keep the original untouched. And for future shots, try to level the camera carefully; a hot-shoe bubble level can help if your camera does not have a built-in level.
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