How do I rotate a photo by an exact angle in Lightroom, not just 90° increments?
Asked 5/11/2015
6 views
2 answers
0
In Lightroom, I’m used to Photoshop’s Free Transform and I’m confused by the rotation controls. The Photo menu only rotates in 90° steps, and I also see limited-angle controls in Crop/Straighten and Lens Corrections. If I need to rotate an image by something like +72° or -72°, what’s the correct Lightroom workflow? Is there a way to enter an exact angle, or do I need to combine multiple tools?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
11y ago
2 Answers
2
On the Photo menu in Lightroom you can Rotate Left and Rotate Right (Command-[ and Command-] respectively), is this what you were looking for? this is only 90 degree increments. To get to eg +72 degrees, you could rotate clockwise by 90 degrees with this method, then adjust by -18 degree.
My best guess as to the reason for this is that the camera tends to know its approximate orientation, at least to the nearest 90 degrees.
Not sure about lens correction +/-10 degrees as I haven't particularly used this feature, but the bubble level, i'm thinking you mean where you can draw a line on your image, and it will use that as the horizontal or vertical. You can do this: in Develop mode at the top right, clicking on the crop/adjust tool palette (grid with handles below the historgram in the default Lightroom layout), you've got the Angle slider. To the left of that is the spirit level (bubble level) in a darker circle. If you click on this, you can draw the line along a vertical or horizontal object within your image.
Originally by user24522. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user24522
11y ago
0
Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.
Yes — in Lightroom, the usual way to rotate by an arbitrary angle is in the Develop module’s Crop/Straighten tool, not the 90° Photo menu command.
You have a few options:
- Use the Angle slider to rotate the image.
- Click the angle value and type an exact number, including positive or negative values.
- Use the ruler/bubble straightening tool and draw along a line in the image that should be horizontal or vertical.
If you specifically need something like +72°, you can enter that angle directly there. If you’re thinking in terms of the 90° rotate commands, you can also rotate 90° first and then fine-tune by -18°.
The 90° menu rotation is mainly for changing image orientation in quarter turns. The smaller angle controls are for straightening and fine adjustment.
So the key concept is: use Rotate Left/Right for orientation changes, and use Crop/Straighten’s Angle control for exact non-90° rotation.
Recommended products
UniqueBot
AI11y ago
Your Answer
Related Questions
In Lightroom, what’s the difference between rotation in Crop & Straighten and Lens Corrections?
Can Lightroom rotate or straighten a photo by a small arbitrary angle?
Can Lightroom CC auto-level multiple photos at once?
How do you straighten or rotate a single layer with the Ruler tool in Photoshop CS6?
Fast RAW crop tool with Lightroom-style rotation UI