Meet the editing tools

Minor tweaks and major edits alike are all possible with Photos’ editing tools

Even professional photographers using top-end cameras don’t produce exactly what they want “in camera” every time, so an image-editing package is essential. For the vast majority of people, Photos’ editing tools will be sufficient.

Starting at the top of the tools column, Enhance offers a one-click solution to brighten gloomy images, boost contrast, and improve colors. It’s often worth trying it to see if it does what you want; after all, you can always revert to the original image and move on to the other tools if not.

Next is Rotate, another one-click option that lets you change image orientation from portrait to landscape and vice versa. Each click rotates the image through 90 degrees. Below that, the Crop tool enables you to isolate a particular area of the image, perhaps to improve composition or to remove distracting elements. You can also correct sloping horizons and sketchy verticals, or change aspect ratio from your camera’s default to 16:9 or square. To make a freeform crop, simply drag the edges of the box as needed; you can also select a specific aspect ratio by clicking the Aspect control.

If you need to correct a sloping horizon, click the Auto button at the bottom right. Photos analyzes the image, looking for straight lines, and attempts to make them level. It doesn’t work in all instances so it may be necessary to take control yourself: Click the control that looks like a protractor, just to the right of the image.

Dragging this up and down rotates your image; keep an eye on the grid that appears and use it as a guide to when the image is level. The crop will adjust automatically to avoid including any blank areas in your final image.