Photoshop Transforming

Basics	Enhancing Images	Blending Images	Special Effects	Drawing Tools

Interface	Color Balance	Selection Tools	Filters	Color Selection
Toolbox	Brightness/Contrast	Transform	Layer Styles	Type Tool
Palettes	Hue/Saturation		Opacity	Paint Tools
Layers	Cropping			Vector Shapes
File Types	Cloning Stamp			Gradients
Resolution/Size	Blur/Sharpen/Smudge
	Burn/Dodge/Sponge

What is transforming?

Transforming changes an object’s appearance by modifying one or more of its physical characteristics. The transform functions in Photoshop include scaling, rotating, skewing, changing perspective, distorting, and flipping.

Photoshop allows users to transform entire images, individual layers and/or specific selections.

The transforming options are located under the Edit menu in the Transform fly-out menu (shown below).

The following are descriptions and illustrations of each kind of transformation, beginning with an initial, un-tranformed bounding box:

Scale — changes the size of the image:

Rotate — rotates the bounding box clockwise (positive angle) or counter-clockwise (negative angle):

Skew — makes the image look like it is leaning. The top or bottom of the bounding box shifts to the left or right, OR the left or right side of the bounding box shifts up or down. The corner angles of the bounding box change but the opposite sides remain parallel:

Changing perspective — makes one part of the image look closer or further away. The corner angles of the bounding box change; one pair of opposite sides stays parallel while the other does not:

Distort — makes the image look oddly twisted. The corner angles of the bounding box change, and no two sides are parallel:

Flipping — reverses an image. The image can be flipped either horizontally (reversing its left and right sides) or vertically (reversing its top and bottom):

How do I transform a layer, image, or selection border?

To apply a transformation:

1) Tell Photoshop what it is you’d like to transform:

To apply a transformation to a layer, first select it in the Layers tab.
To apply a transformation to an image, select the image using the selection tools.
To apply a transformation to the selection border, make the desired selection, then pull down the Select menu and choose Transform Selection. (This lets Photoshop know you want to transform the selection border itself, not the selected image.)

2) Pull down the Edit menu and choose the desired transformation from the Transform fly-out menu. A bounding box with handles will appear around your selection.

3) Drag the handles to make the desired change and view the results. The bounding box stays visible.

4) To apply additional transformations to the same selection, you can repeat steps 2 and 3. (For example, you could select Scale and drag a handle to scale the selection, and then select Distort and drag a handle to distort the selection.)

5) To accept the transformation(s), press the Enter or Return key, or click OK () in the Options Bar. Press the Esc key, or click Cancel () in the Options Bar to cancel the transformation.

Tip: You can also use the Options Bar to enter specific numbers for the desired rotation, skewing, etc. This can give you very accurate control of transformations, if needed.

Some examples

In the original image below, we selected the birdfeeder using the selection tools, and then cut and pasted it onto a new layer. With the birdfeeder on its own layer, we can transform it without affecting the rest of the image.

Original Image