# Crop, Rotate, and Transform

> Set your composition first — crop, straighten, rotate, and correct perspective — so every tone and color decision after it lands right.

Source: https://darkroom.co/help/edit/crop-rotate-transform
Section: Edit
Updated: 2026-06-10

Composition comes first. Get the framing and geometry wrong and no amount of grading will rescue the photo — a tilted horizon or a crooked crop nags at the viewer no matter how good the color is. That's why Transform is the natural first stop in an edit, and it's the most-used tool in Darkroom for exactly that reason. Open a photo and select **Transform** toolbar.

![The Transform tool in Darkroom with crop, straighten, and grid controls](https://darkroom.co/assets/images/posts/2024-06-07-crop-header.jpg)

*Crop, straighten, rotate, flip, and perspective correction — all in one tool, applied before tone and color work.*

## Framing and aspect ratio

Decide where the photo is going before you crop — a square for the feed, a tall frame for a story, a specific ratio for print — so you're not rebuilding the composition later. Alongside a free crop, Darkroom offers aspect-ratio presets for social, analog, print, and cinema. On Mac you can set a **custom ratio** by typing or nudging the width and height with the arrow keys (hold Option for fine 0.1 steps, Shift for jumps of 10), and tap any portrait preset a second time to flip it to landscape. As you drag, the area being cropped away is shaded so your composition stays the focus.

## Straighten, rotate, and flip

The **straighten** control levels a tilted horizon or a leaning building, and even a one- or two-degree correction makes a photo feel noticeably more polished (on Mac the angle value is editable directly). Use **rotate** for 90-degree turns or free rotation, and **flip horizontally** when a composition simply reads better mirrored — no need to rotate-and-flip to fake it.

## Perspective correction

Vertical and horizontal **perspective correction** straightens converging lines — the keystoning you get shooting tall buildings or interiors. It's powerful but easy to overdo: push it too far and edges stretch unnaturally, so apply the minimum that makes the lines feel right, then reassess your crop, since correction changes what's in frame.

## A grid to compose against

Two overlay options help you judge the frame: **4×4** for composition guidance, and **None** for a clean, distraction-free view when you just want to see the image. A reliable order is to straighten first, crop to taste, apply any perspective correction, then finish with rotate or flip. Keep in mind that [Frames](/help/edit/frames) are applied *after* the crop in the render pipeline, so crop with the final framing in mind.

## Related

- [Mac Transform Improvements](/blog/2024-06-07-mac-transform) — custom ratios, grids, and editable values
- [Image Zoom and Free Crop](/blog/2015-03-darkroom-11) — where free crop began
- [Histogram](/help/edit/histogram) to check exposure once your framing is set
- [Frames](/help/edit/frames) for borders applied after the crop