Crop Rotate - Nudge

[ColinMcD]

I'm doing a lot of scans of v old photos, some of them 60+ years old, so the scans are often not true rectangles, and almost every time, not straight.

Crop and straighten does a reasonable job,  but it is not accurate. The ruler tool likewise can be hard to use.

I find rotating a crop is the best way to select the image I want to keep and to straighten the edges. However, as far as I can see, there is no facility to "nudge" the rotate part of the crop. Controlling it with the mouse (I don't have a pen/tablet) is not a precise method.

Am I right in thinking there is no nudge for the rotate part of crop? If I am, is it a feature that should be submitted for future enhancement?

I have tried searching the forum, but haven't found any suitable discussions!

Colin

[JJMack]

If you rotate a crop part will be off canvas.    If you convert the background layer to a normal layer you can use free transform and rotate using your mouse. or enter precis values in the tool option bar.

Using the mouse transform shows the precise angle on your display

[Semaphoric]

If you convert the background layer to a Smart Object, and have "Delete Cropped Pixels" un-checked in the Crop tool options, you can go back and forth between Crop and Transform, without worrying about the original being degraded.

[Conrad_C]

If you follow JJMack's advice, you can precisely nudge the angle by 0.01 degrees using the keyboard. When transforming (not when cropping), click the angle field value in the options bar, and press the up arrow or down arrow key. If you want to nudge rotation by 0.1 degrees, add the Shift key to the Up Arrow or Down Arrow key.

The fastest way to do all of it is:

1. If your scan is a Background layer, in the Layers panel click that layer’s lock icon to convert it to a regular layer.
2. Choose Edit > Transform > Rotate or Edit > Free Transform.
3. In the options bar, click the value in the Angle field and press the Up Arrow or Down Arrow key (add Shift for 10x the nudge amount).

The only problem is that this means you have to precisely rotate before you crop, since the precise rotation nudge can't be done while cropping.

When you rotate the crop rectangle with the mouse, control is more precise when you drag farther from the center of the layer.

[ColinMcD]

Thanks for the input.

I'll try this out when I get a chance. Its not likely to be for a day or so, but I'll update after.

Thanks again