Design Oahu

This is a quick tip for Photoshop users that want to level out the horizon in a photo, most likely you shot without a tripod. This will not help to improve your blurry picture from your shaky hands, but it will quickly get the horizon perfectly horizontal. I rarely shoot with a tripod, as I just take casual photos, which means that a lot of the time my pictures are tilted. Originally I used the Image->Rotate Canvas->Arbitrary and would just keep trying new rotations until I got it as close as possible. Then I figured out that I can just Transform (Ctrl+T) and eyeball it out, however I now make use of the Lens Correction Filter which will make the horizon perfectly level. I use the highest quality setting on my camera (5.1 Mega Pixels) which gives me a 2580 x 1932 image. Do not scale it down to the size you want just yet as you will need to crop the image to compensate for the blank corners when the image is rotated. After that you can scale down your image to the size you want. Here is our original image at the top of the hill at Waimea on the North Shore of Oahu.

Now go to Filter->Distort->Lens Correction. I prefer to uncheck the default Grid that appears at the bottom so I can see the image more clearly. Select the Straighten Tool (A) on the left sidebar. You do not need to mess with any of the settings on the right. Now click right on your horizon reference point on one side and drag to the other side.

When you let go the image will be repositioned correctly with the correct amount of rotation.

Now you see what I mentioned earlier about the corners missing after the rotation. Just click on the Rectangular Marquee Tool (M) and select the portion to keep.

Select Image->Crop and you have your newly level image.

It is really easy to take any photograph and created a weathered look with some simple Photoshop adjustment layers. I took this picture on the south shore of Oahu right near Sandy’s Beach. I am going to try and make it look like a picture I would find at my Grandparents’ house. Read the rest of this entry »

I found a nice web site for information on the islands. It is hawaiiweb.com. They have info on hiking and beaches. There is a lot of “Coming Soon…” pages, but it is a great start.