Rotate

Unless your digital camera has a built-in orientation sensor, all photos arrive on your computer in landscape orientation (wider than they are tall). The program has no way of knowing if you turned the camera 90 degrees when you took your pictures. Once you've imported the photos, just select the sideways ones and rotate them into position.

You don't actually have to be in Edit mode to rotate photos. A Rotate button or two appears right there in the main thumbnails view. You can also use the keyboard shortcuts or menu commands:

  • iPhoto. Use ⌘-R to rotate selected photos counterclockwise, or Option-⌘-R to rotate them clockwise. (Those are the shortcuts for Photos → Rotate Photos Clockwise and Photos → Rotate Photos Counter Clockwise.)

  • Picasa. Use Ctrl+R to rotate selected photos clockwise, or Shift+Ctrl+R to rotate them counterclockwise. (Those are the shortcuts for Picture → Batch Edit → Rotate Clockwise and Picture → Batch Edit → Rotate Counterclockwise.)

Tip

Picasa Tip: You can also flip a photo horizontally (press Ctrl+Shift+H) or vertically (Ctrl+Shift+V). These commands do not appear in any menu, and are not sold in any store.

The Rotate commands are also in the shortcut menu that appears when you right-click a thumbnail.

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