Need automated straighten (horizon) and crop

largelylivin

Got a really bad need to automate straightening the horizon and subsequent recropping to fit. I attempted using the PS CS2 script "straighten and crop", I have no idea what it did but it looked so far from an answer that I didn't persue it.

Anything???

Despirate!

pyrtek

By automated, do you mean that you want something that will process your
images without any input from you? I don't know of such a tool. If, on the other
hand, you mean something that will straighten the horizon according to input
from you and then automatically crop after the rotation, then there are many
such tools. Lightroom is one of them.

nikos

largelylivin wrote:

Got a really bad need to automate straightening the horizon and subsequent recropping to fit. I attempted using the PS CS2 script "straighten and crop", I have no idea what it did but it looked so far from an answer that I didn't persue it.

Anything???

Despirate!

If you want to straighten a photo, you must at least tell photoshop what part of the image you want to be perfectly horizontal or vertical. You do that by using the measuring tool (looks like a ruler) which is within the eyedropper tool group.

Here's what you do:
1. Select the measuring tool
2. Start at one end of your horizon then click and drag a straight line to the other side.
3. Go to Image/ Rotate Canvas/ Arbitrary and select OK
4. Crop the image to your liking.

HTH,
Nikos

HoofClix

Straightening is still something that can only be done manually to one photo at a time, can't be batched. Instructions given above, but consider that any instructions you give PS for one photo are interpreted based on the coordinates of the control points you establish. Those coordinates will not represent the horizon for pictures 2, 3, .....

Try writing a white point into an action, then take a look at the art you get when you batch the folder!

You're just going to have to do them one-by-one!

pathfinder

Why are so many shots needing correction of the horizon?? Shoot them correctly at the time, and you will save yourself all this grief later.

You can either eyeball the horizon in the viewfinder, or set the camera level with a tripod and a level on the tripod clamp, or use a beubble level in the hot shoe. Then you won't need to correct the horizon in Photoshop.

If you have horizons in multiple images that are all at different angles, you are going to have to level each one individually. There is no action to correct the horizon without input from you as the posters have already said.

phuong

you cant straighthen both horizontal and vertical lines with the measure tool

nikos wrote:

If you want to straighten a photo, you must at least tell photoshop what part of the image you want to be perfectly horizontal or vertical. You do that by using the measuring tool (looks like a ruler) which is within the eyedropper tool group.

Here's what you do:
1. Select the measuring tool
2. Start at one end of your horizon then click and drag a straight line to the other side.
3. Go to Image/ Rotate Canvas/ Arbitrary and select OK
4. Crop the image to your liking.

HTH,
Nikos

largelylivin

Thanks

phuong wrote:

you cant straighthen both horizontal and vertical lines with the measure tool

Hey all, thanks for the responses. I know that it could be done for the particular type of photos that I am doing, but I understand that the general solution would be nearly impossible, unless you could settle for some % success rate.

I DID however, learn about the method with the measure tool which is a step quicker and more "accurate".

I am going to continue this thought in a different thread concerning automating photo handling and processing.

largelylivin

pathfinder wrote:

Why are so many shots needing correction of the horizon?? Shoot them correctly at the time, and you will save yourself all this grief later.

You can either eyeball the horizon in the viewfinder, or set the camera level with a tripod and a level on the tripod clamp, or use a beubble level in the hot shoe. Then you won't need to correct the horizon in Photoshop.

If you have horizons in multiple images that are all at different angles, you are going to have to level each one individually. There is no action to correct the horizon without input from you as the posters have already said.

Uh right. Seriously, I am shooting event shots from a fairly small boat on the ocean. No kidding. Note that I am using a K10D. I shoot mostly at 150-300mm range on my zoom. On my best day I might shoot 500 pictures of which 300-400 will need straightened.

Richard

largelylivin wrote:

Uh right. Seriously, I am shooting event shots from a fairly small boat on the ocean. No kidding. Note that I am using a K10D. I shoot mostly at 150-300mm range on my zoom. On my best day I might shoot 500 pictures of which 300-400 will need straightened.

OK, so here's a thought: Automation without eyeballing is not possible, but you might be able to use a batch workflow that would save a bit of time. Since you are doing this all the time, you probably have a pretty good feel for how much rotation each photo is going to need just by looking at them. Sort the pics into separate folders: .5 cc, 1.0 cc, 1.5 cc etc, then apply the appropriate rotation for each group using an action. Not an ideal solution, but it might help.

jfriend

largelylivin wrote:

Uh right. Seriously, I am shooting event shots from a fairly small boat on the ocean. No kidding. Note that I am using a K10D. I shoot mostly at 150-300mm range on my zoom. On my best day I might shoot 500 pictures of which 300-400 will need straightened.

I know of no way to automate straightening reliably.

To manually straighten lots of pictures pretty quickly, you can use either Lightroom or Camera RAW (in CS3). The straigten tool in those apps is really quick. All you do is select the straighten tool and drag it along a line that should be either vertical or horizontal. When you let go, the image will be rotated to make that line vertical or horizontal and it will be automatically cropped the smallest amount possible and still maintain that rotation and the previous aspect ratio. Because both Lightroom and Camera RAW are built to handle lots of images, this is very quick. You don't have to open an image, make a change, then save the image. You just click on the thumb, drag the straighten tool, click on the next image, rinse lather repeat.

nikos

phuong wrote:

you cant straighthen both horizontal and vertical lines with the measure tool

Correct, just like I stated in my post that you quoted

largelylivin

Good suggestion.

rsinmadrid wrote:

OK, so here's a thought: Automation without eyeballing is not possible, but you might be able to use a batch workflow that would save a bit of time. Since you are doing this all the time, you probably have a pretty good feel for how much rotation each photo is going to need just by looking at them. Sort the pics into separate folders: .5 cc, 1.0 cc, 1.5 cc etc, then apply the appropriate rotation for each group using an action. Not an ideal solution, but it might help.

I am using a semi-automated process where it stops for me to input the arbitrary rotation angle and do the crop, but this is a bit better. I have gotten pretty good at eyeballing the slope already, butI hadn't thought of what you are suggesting.

Maybe I'll try that next Monday.

Richard

largelylivin wrote:

I am using a semi-automated process where it stops for me to input the arbitrary rotation angle and do the crop, but this is a bit better. I have gotten pretty good at eyeballing the slope already, butI hadn't thought of what you are suggesting.

Maybe I'll try that next Monday.

If you are cropping only to fix the blank space introduced by the rotation, you can include the crop in the action, assuming you are always shooting frames of the same size. Of course, anything scene-specific has to be done manually.

Let us know how it works out.

pyrtek

nikos wrote:

4. Crop the image to your liking.

This extra step is done automatically[1] in Lightroom, that is why I prefer
it for straightening horizons.


[1] Of course it doesn't do it "to your liking", but it does remove the extra bits
that result from the rotation.

pathfinder

largelylivin wrote:

Uh right. Seriously, I am shooting event shots from a fairly small boat on the ocean. No kidding. Note that I am using a K10D. I shoot mostly at 150-300mm range on my zoom. On my best day I might shoot 500 pictures of which 300-400 will need straightened.

I can understand the issue better now -- Shooting from a small pitching boat with long lenses is a lot of fun times:D and will certainly contribute to horizon lines that are askew. Don't you think the bubble level would help??:D:Dwink