How to straighten your horizons in Lightroom (2024)

A crooked scene can instantly sour a photograph. Use these methods in Adobe Lightroom and Lightroom Classic to help straighten horizons.

Many cameras and phone applications have guides and tools to help you level your image and make them straight, but sometimes you’ll still end up with a crooked horizon. Even a horizon that is slightly off-kilter can add too much-unwanted tension to a photograph. Here’s how to use Lightroom and Lightroom Classic to straighten your horizons.

Lightroom

Here’s how to straighten your horizons using Lightroom (desktop version):

1. With your photo open in Lightroom, click the Crop icon on the right.
2. Now, click the Auto button. If you have an obvious horizon in your image, Lightroom will automatically level the horizon for you.
3. If the Auto button does not work, or if it needs to be re-adjusted, you can either rotate the image to level the horizon manually or use the slider in the Crop tool panel to rotate the image. Tip: Use the Grid crop overlay to help guide your edit when manually leveling the horizon.

Here’s how to straighten your horizons using Lightroom (mobile version):

1. Open your photo into Lightroom on your phone or tablet.
2. Click the Crop icon to open the Crop tool.
3. Next, click the Straighten icon (the ruler with a dotted arch over it) to automatically straighten the photo. Or, press your finger outside of the image and swipe left or right to manually level the horizon.
4. Press the Checkmark when finished.

Lightroom Classic

Here’s how to straighten your horizons using the Lightroom Classic desktop application:

1. With your photo open in Lightroom Classic, access the Develop module.
2. Next, open the Crop tool. You can access this on the right at the top of the editing panels, or press the R button on your keyboard.
3. Now, click the Auto button. If you have an obvious horizon in your image, Lightroom will automatically level the horizon for you.

If the Auto button does not work, or if it needs to be re-adjusted, you can try one of the following:

• Draw the horizon: Click the icon to the left of the Angle text in the Crop tool. Then, draw a straight line over the horizon. When you release the cursor, the horizon will use the line you drew as a guideline and will straighten the photo to that line.
• Rotate the image: Hover over the image just outside one of the corners of the photo, then click and drag the photo. You’ll see the photo rotate, allowing you to manually adjust the horizon.

• Posted on April 28, 2022