Looking for a way to automatically straighten and crop some images in Affinity Photo

[Olha Holovan]

I'm new to this software, so for all I know what I want to do can't be done, but I hope you'll still give me some direction if you can!

I have product photos that I would like to straighten and crop (see example before and after).

I can do this manually as I have done, but I'm hoping for some way to automate or semi-automate it.

I've seen scanning apps that "unskew" rectangular documents captured by my the phone camera. That gives me hope that this may be possible.

If you have any tips on how to proceed, I would greatly appreciate it!

[John Rostron]

Hello @Amy Golovan, and welcome to the forums.

It is fairly straightforward to straighten your image, but I am not aware that it can be automated in Photo.

Choose the Crop Tool in the toolbar to the left.

In the Context Toolbar (along the top of the image), Click on the Straighten button (towards the right).

Click on the image and drag a line along what should be horizontal (or vertical).

Press Enter and the image will be rotated.

John

[NotMyFault]

The crop tool works good for simple cases, e.g only rotated.

If you handheld the camera often it gets more complex when not held perfectly parallel to the subject 
I prefer using the Develop Persona and Lens Correction tools (rotate, horizontal and vertical) in combination with a grid. 
 

Actually i often use iPhone Apps like dropbox, PhotoScan (google), OfficeLens (Microsoft) for ebay items as these provide automatic straightening you miss in Affinity Photo. If required you can still edit in Photo.

[walt.farrell]

1 hour ago, NotMyFault said:

I prefer using the Develop Persona and Lens Correction tools (rotate, horizontal and vertical) in combination with a grid. 

Thanks. Did not realize those were there.

[NotMyFault]

6 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

Thanks. Did not realize those were there.

I really miss a live filter in Photo Persona having this functionality 

[walt.farrell]

16 minutes ago, NotMyFault said:

I really miss a live filter in Photo Persona having this functionality 

It's very similar to the Perspective Live Filter in some ways, isn't it?

[NotMyFault]

1 hour ago, walt.farrell said:

It's very similar to the Perspective Live Filter in some ways, isn't it?

The results could be identical.

The effort to achieve the result could vary by a factor of more than 10x 

Lens tools

• gives an immediate preview,
• allows an stepwise approach: first rotation, then horizontal/ vertical. No interdependence between them when done correctly 
• making it totally easy to align straight lines to a grid, with butter smooth slider moves or numeric input at ideal steps of 1/10px via ctrl-mouse wheel.
• after 1-2 minutes i get a perfect result with all edges within 1px of a perfect rectangle

In perspective filter,

• every change to one node can influence several other nodes, leading to multiple iteration cycles until everything fits.
• The tool grid is distracting and must be deactivated every time.
• The initial position of nodes is sometimes unfortunate (e.g. document edges)
• The default „destination“ mode needs to be changed to „source“ every time.
• can only be used with mouse (no numeric input possible for 1/10px position adjustments)
• usually i spent several minutes while non-stop swearing 
• Never the less, it is the more powerful tool for cases where the limited effect of lens tool becomes a constraint