How to Straighten “Wonky Angles” That Spoil Your Photos (VIDEO)

Converging verticals, skewed horizontal lines, distorted buildings, tilted horizons, and other such “wonky angles” will quickly spoil an otherwise nice shot. This basic Lightroom tutorial explains why these distractions occur and demonstrates a simple Lightroom technique for straightening everything out.

Instructor Scott Davenport is a very skilled outdoor photographer whose portfolio is full of inspiring landscape and seascape images. He also a post-processing expert who posts weekly tutorials that enable novices to improve their skills, like this Lightroom episode dedicated to correcting photos with unnatural angles and lines.

The solution to these common problems is a basic understanding of when and how to employ Lightroom’s Transform tools to get the job done. This task is easy to accomplish and takes less than five minutes to explain.

Weird perspectives often occur when you’re forced to shoot from an odd angle, or when it’s necessary to tilt the camera up or down (or side to side) to fit everything within the frame. You’ll see why Lightroom’s automatic Upright tool works, when it’s effective, and why is sometimes falls short.

Then Davenport demonstrates how to employ the Guided mode of Lightroom’s powerful Transform tool that give you all the necessary control for rehabilitating any photo and quickly achieving professional looking results.

Davenport’s sample image of California’s Carmel Mission illustrates what happened when he didn’t make the shot with his camera flat to the horizon—instead tilting it upward when photographing the iconic building. As a result, there are unwanted converging verticals in the shape of the prominent window and the security bars bolted to the wall.

You’ll see what happens when Davenport uses the two aforementioned tools to make the fix, and which technique is most effective for addressing this particular challenge. As you’ll see, the Auto mode works surprisingly well, but the perspective is still a bit off.

Lightroom’s Guided mode, on the other hand, clearly delivers a superior image. So pay close attention as Davenport demonstrates the straightforward steps. Then head over to his instructional YouTube channel for more shooting and post-processing techniques.

And don’t miss the tutorial we featured recently with another accomplished outdoor photographer who reveals five pro tips for capturing breathtaking sunset and sunrise photographs that jump off the screen.