Learn how to easily straighten your pictures on iPhone and iPad using the stock Photos app, ensuring your memories always look perfectly aligned.
Not all photos are shot perfectly straight, and more often than not, you’ll have to manually straighten them to get them leveled to your liking.
Straightening a photo isn’t a pro tip, but the feature isn’t necessarily self-explanatory either. In this quick tutorial, we’ll show you how.
Straighten photos on your iPhone or iPad
1) Open the Photos app and select the picture you want to straighten.
2) Tap the edit icon.
3) Select the Crop tool to bring up the cropping and straightening controls.
4) Directly under the photo, place your finger on the Straighten dial and drag it left or right to adjust the leveling.
You will see the image rotate, and a grid with horizontal and vertical lines will appear on top of the photo to help you properly adjust it to your liking.
A number between minus 45 and 45 will also appear, signifying the degree of rotation. Tapping the round Straighten icon will reset the number to zero (0), and tapping it again will bring you back to the previous adjustment.
In addition to the Straighten tool, you can also use the Vertical or Horizontal sliders to further fine-tune the angle and get the perspective you want.
5) Once you’ve straightened your photo, it will crop out some parts of the image as needed to straighten it. However, if you notice your image is zoomed in too much, place two fingers over the image and pinch in to zoom out. This way, you may be able to include more of the original image in the final straightened version.
Note: You can tap the Reset button anytime during editing to remove the current straightening changes and start fresh.
6) Once the photo is straightened to your liking, simply tap the Done button to save your edits.
You can now send this straightened image via Messages or post it to Instagram, X (Twitter), etc.
If you want to get the original, unedited version of the image, go back to editing that picture in the Photos app and tap Revert > Revert to Original.
Pro tip: Enable grid lines in the Camera app to help you straighten your photos before you shoot them.
For more photo tips, make sure to check out our iPhone Photography page.
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