Crop and straighten

Press R to crop or straighten a photograph, then press it again to view the cropped result.

On the Mac, Crop & straighten opens folded in the sidebar, and its heading shows the crop’s ratio and angle after the title, such as Original · 0° or 3:2 · −1.4°. Press R or click the crop button marked R on the heading to open the tool: the group unfolds while the tool is active and folds again on Done. Fold it by hand while the tool is active and it stays folded; open it by hand and it stays open.

Rotation and flips. Close the crop tool with Done, then use the orientation buttons in the crop section:

• Rotate Left or Rotate Right turns the cropped photograph 90° in that direction. Four turns return it to its starting orientation.
• Flip Horizontal reflects the displayed photograph from left to right.
• Flip Vertical reflects it from top to bottom. Click the same flip again to restore that axis.

The buttons are available on Mac, iPhone and iPad while the crop tool is closed. Each action has its own undo step. Crop-group Reset clears the crop, straighten, rotation and flips; bypass temporarily shows the photograph without them. Masks remain aligned, and the saved orientation appears in previews, exports and television viewing. The original file stays unchanged.

While active, the tool shows the full photograph, turned and flipped as it will come out, with the area outside the crop dimmed. Drag handles to resize the crop. The sidebar controls remain available when the tool is inactive.

Aspect ratio. Choose Original (the default), Free, Square, Classic (3:2), Standard (4:3), Portrait (4:5), 5:7 or Wide (16:9). The selected preset is inferred from the rectangle. A crop moved slightly off a preset ratio appears as Free.

Straighten. Use the angle slider, drag outside the crop, or ⌘-drag along a line that should be level. Lines within 45° of vertical align vertically. Rotation is centred on the crop, and the rectangle stays inside the photograph to exclude empty corners.

Click Auto Level to use the system horizon detector. If no horizon is found, the angle stays unchanged and the panel explains the result.

Guides. Press O to cycle Thirds, Golden sections, Golden spiral, Golden triangles and Centre & quarters. ⇧O flips guides that have an orientation. The choice persists across sessions. Rectangle adjustments show composition guides; angle adjustments use a fine alignment grid.

Preview and measurement. The histogram follows the crop. Hold / to compare with the unedited photograph through the same rectangle. Crop gestures transform the existing full-frame image without rerendering; closing the tool renders the cropped result. The working image is roughly two thirds the finished display size because the surround remains visible.